By the Numbers: NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

It’s March Madness and that means making brackets (and watching them get busted), making time in your schedule to watch games, and screaming hard enough to dislocate a lung. If that’s even a thing. This year might look different from previous iterations, but we can all agree it’s a big improvement over 2020.

The 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tips off March 18 with the First Four games – and a lot of changes.

For the first time ever, all 67 games will be played in one state (Indiana) at six venues: Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse and Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, as well as Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. Teams will practice at the Indiana Convention Center, where multiple courts will be set up.

According to the NCAA, “all teams will be housed on dedicated hotel floors, with physically distanced meeting and dining rooms, as well as secure transportation to and from competition venues.”

Here are 30 numbers to keep in mind as you fill out your bracket (remember those?) and settle in to watch March Madness unfold like never before. (Our thanks to NCAA.com, WalletHub.com, The Wall Street Journaland IndyStar.com.)

• 10: Percentage of regular-season games canceled because of COVID-19

• 10: Percentage of regular-season postponed and played later. 

• 100: Projected economic impact, in millions of dollars, for Indianapolis during the tournament

• 20,000: Number of fans expected to visit the Indianapolis area during the tournament

• 2,000: Number of volunteers expected to work at the Final Four

• 75: Maximum percent of seating capacity at which Indianapolis restaurants will operate

• 50: Maximum percent of seating capacity at which Indianapolis bars will operate

• 25: Maximum percent of seating capacity that will be available to fans at venue

• 17,500: Number of fans permitted at 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium, site of the Elite Eight and Final Four

• 1,550: Number of fans permitted at 14,222-seat Mackey Arena

• 500: Number of fans permitted at 17,222-seat Assembly Hall

• 688,753: Number of fans who attended the 36 sessions of the 2019 NCAA Tournament

• 2: Number of courts set up inside Lucas Oil Stadium

• 1: Number of games that will be played at one time inside Lucas Oil Stadium

• 110: Starting retail price, in dollars, of a ticket to Game 1 of the 2021 First Four

• 1,506: Starting retail price, in dollars, of a ticket to 2021 Championship Game

• 200: Number of contract tracers on call in the event of a tournament-linked COVID-19 outbreak

• 600: Revenue, in millions of dollars, the NCAA lost in 2020 due to COVID-19

• 13.3: Corporate losses, in billions of dollars, due to unproductive workers during March Madness 

• 56: Percent of millennials willing to miss a work deadline to watch an NCAA tournament game

• 8.5: Amount, in billions of dollars, wagered on the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

• 3.9: Amount, in billions of dollars, estimated to have been wagered illegally

• 4: Estimated loss, in billions of dollars, suffered by the sports betting industry after March Madness was canceled in 2020

• 30: Average amount, in dollars, bet on the NCAA tournament

• 47: Number, in millions, of people who participate in NCAA tournament bracket pools

• 38: Percentage of those who say they’re not sure bracket pools are legal

• 149: Number of brackets filled out, in millions, for the 2019 tournament

• 158: Number of ballots cast, in millions, for the 2020 presidential election

• 1: Number of times in the tournament’s 82-year history that all No. 1 seeds have made the Final Four (2008)

• 1: Number of times a No. 16 seed has upset a No. 1 seed (University of Maryland, Baltimore County over Virginia in 2018)