HOUSTON — March Madness is all about the numbers.
There's the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight and the Final Four.
Those are familiar to most by now, but zero in on some off-the-court number crunching and it’s clear why Houston is in seventh heaven and on cloud nine to host the big games.
For starters, an estimated 75,000 out-of-towners are heading this way. That means hotels are filling up and restaurants are eyeing blockbuster sales. The NCAA alone has blocked off 35,000 rooms. Add it all up and the projected local economic boost is $150 million, according to city officials.
The Final Four teams are coming from coast to coast, which is a total of 4,757 travel miles to H-Town.
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The pre-game festivities will be jam-packed. There are expected to be up to 22,000 people at each March Madness Music Festival concert at Discovery Green over the weekend.
Next door at Final Four Fan Fest, workers have laid 535 rolls of blue carpet, totaling 40,760 square yards, in the George R. Brown Convention Center.
On Sunday, kids will dribble 3,200 basketballs from City Hall to the GRB. That is 5.6 miles from NRG Stadium.
As for the Final Four games, 74,000 is the total number of tickets for each game. But if you can’t make it in person, nearly 60 television cameras, from every conceivable angle, will catch the action for you.
And the magic number to watch it all is 11. KHOU 11!