The buzz that surrounded Des Moines as four of the nation’s most storied men’s basketball programs competed at Wells Fargo Arena during the first two rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March most likely lifted the city’s already solid rating as a spot for major sports events and conventions, city leaders say.

However, the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, the parent organization of the Des Moines Area Sports Commission, isn’t spending their time rereading the Twitter accolades for an event that brought a $3.1 million boost to the local economy. That’s because the NCAA in June is accepting bids for all its championships in 2019-2021 — and Greater Des Moines will ask to host some of those events. 

Then there is the future to think about. CVB chief Greg Edwards said the Super Bowl and the Final Four may be beyond the community’s capacity to build facilities. But those who have helped lure big events here — including Principal Financial Group exec Dan Houston — are willing to aim for events that aren’t that far below that tier.

Houston, Principal’s president and CEO and a big player in landing the first two rounds of March Madness for Des Moines this year, plans lofty goals for the future. Perhaps even higher than those of Edwards, arguably the city’s top cheerleader. 

Houston looks at the coming Solheim Cup women’s professional golf tourney, the prospects of another national wrestling tournament, the coming convention hotel, and he barely pauses when a reporter asks if Des Moines would consider bidding for the Sweet Sixteen games for March Madness.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Houston asked. He sees Wells Fargo Arena temporarily adding an above-ground swimming pool for the NCAA swimming championships, which also could use the downtown YMCA’s planned Olympic-sized pool. Drake Stadium has held major amateur track and field events; Houston looks forward to more.

“We never settle,” he said. “We have to grow.”

“Des Moines is in a perfect position to host sporting events,” Houston said. “It goes beyond seed corn and insurance and finance. That’s why the ACCE is coming,” Houston said, referring to the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives’ 2018 convention, which is expected to draw 1,000 to the Community Choice Convention Center and the Hilton Convention Center Hotel, expected to be open by then. Polk County Supervisor Angela Connolly said the convention hotel was the “linchpin” of Des Moines’ bid to host ACCE.

How’s this for growing? The 330-room Hilton — which tested leadership and finances across downtown — might not be enough eventually, in Houston’s view. “I have no doubt we could support another (convention) hotel, eventually,” he said. 

Des Moines will go after the first two rounds of the men’s tournament again, multiple leaders said. There is strong talk of bidding for the NCAA wrestling championships, which drew 90,000 in Des Moines in 2013, the same year the outdoor track and field championships drew 40,000. The Junior Olympics drew another 40,000 the next year.

“We will rebid for more NCAA events,” said Angela Connolly, a key player on Des Moines’ convention scene. “What we need to concentrate on is infrastructure around the arena for an entertainment district.”

Some who attended the NCAA men’s tournament game said it might have been nice to see a few more restaurants and bars next to the Iowa Events Center, but many took advantage of Court Avenue and the East Village.

But the praise was far and wide, lighting up Twitter with some of the best buzz Des Moines has seen in a long time.

“It was just wonderful,” Connolly said. “This really put us on the map. This is a great economic engine for us when we can pull something off this big.“

Edwards takes a realistic view on future events, but he won’t shut the door on a possible bid for the men’s Sweet Sixteen. Could we get it?

“You never know,” Edwards said. “We’re large enough to host a regional. Selfishly, we like rounds one and two because you have eight teams coming to your city. A regional only brings you four teams. That’s not to say we won’t bid on the regionals, too. Regionals will be in Omaha next year, and their arena is just a little bigger than ours.”

“We will go in in June and we will bid on multiple NCAA events, including men’s Division I basketball, for 2019-21,” Edwards said. “We’ll bid on volleyball again, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, wrestling. There is a good chance we will bid on a lot of smaller NCAA-type events. Like Division III track (championships), potentially. The track and field championships with Drake.”

“The NCAA wants to see the communities not just going for the money grab, not just going for the big events,” Edwards said. “They all have an impact. If we were able to get D-III track, it would be at Simpson College, it would impact Indianola. All that stuff impacts the entire communities, and it really helps.”

Des Moines already hosted the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight of the NCAA women’s basketball in 2012, the national wrestling championship and the outdoor track and field championships in 2013, and the first two rounds of the men’s basketball championships this year.

Chris Connolly, general manager of the Iowa Events Center, said Des Moines asked for three years of NCAA men’s basketball games, and got one — which was not a surprise.“There are hundreds of cities that apply. We were just hopeful to get in there for one. I doubt there was a site that got more than one year.”

Next year, 120,000 are expected to be involved with the Solheim Cup, a women’s professional golf event that pits the USA against Europe. Much as Houston helped land the NCAA men’s tourney, Bankers Trust CEO Suku Radia worked to arrange the Solheim and is serving as tournament chairman. 

Radia flew to Daytona Beach to meet with LPGA officials to discuss bringing the event to Des Moines — a market Radia says is the perfect blend of strong attendance, great corporate support and the red-carpet treatment that comes in a city that stages just the right number of big events.

He hears the 17 communities vying for the event produced three finalists: Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, The Concession Golf Club in the Sarasota, Florida, area and Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C. 

Radia collected 20 letters of corporate support — instead of the 10 requested by the LPGA. “They asked me how many companies I called to get the 20 letters of support. I said ‘20.’ I then asked if they would like 50.”

Radia eventually negotiated two unusual wrinkles to the Des Moines contract: He persuaded NBC to provide live TV coverage, and Des Moines Golf and Country Club agreed to donate half its proceeds to women’s and children’s charities. 

The successes discussed above are in addition to a large array of local and regional soccer tournaments at James W. Cownie Soccer Park, which bears the name of Des Moines businessman Jim Cownie. Another businessman, Kyle Krause of Kum & Go, established the Des Moines Menace professional soccer team. And the Drake Relays became one of Des Moines’ earliest and steadiest claims to sports fame. 

The Principal Charity Classic is coming around again on May 31-June 5 at Wakonda Club. The senior men’s golf event is expected to draw 80,000. That is another event that built on momentum that traced back to the U.S. Senior Open at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in 1999, an event that drew a record record 252,800 spectators.

So there will be a mix of the events in the future. But the NCAA competitions will be seen as key prizes.

“Moving down the line, basketball will always be there, and we’ll want to bid,” Chris Connolly said. “We think we were successful as a first-time host, and the NCAA was very pleased. Wrestling? Absolutely. A lot of the people who were here in 2013 would argue that this was the best atmosphere of any of the wrestling championships. It sold out in minutes. NCAA men’s basketball sold out months in advance.”

“We hosted women’s volleyball regionals this past December, and as far as attendance goes, we were the strongest of the four regionals,” Connolly added. “We probably wouldn’t put in another bid for the regionals again — we would go for the nationals.”

The two volleyball sessions averaged 5,000, which was a strong showing, Connolly said. If Des Moines could land the national tournament, Wells Fargo Arena could sell out, based on other cities’ success, he added.

Connolly is still basking in the glow — and maybe glistening with perspiration — from a seven-week stretch in which the area had only seven nights without an event, between Iowa Wild hockey, Iowa Energy basketball games, the high school sports championships, the NCAA men’s basketball games and concerts. 

Connolly is maybe little less optimistic than Houston about getting regional men’s basketball games. 

“I think it would be tough for us to get a regional,” Connolly said. “Omaha would be just about the smallest venue that has been selected for a regional. They have about 1,800 more seats than we have.”

But Des Moines has increased its sports-event street cred, as anyone who uses Twitter found out during March Madness, Connolly said. 

“People who haven’t been here, or haven’t been here for a long time, come in with very modest expectations,” Connolly said. “Then they come to town, and from the airport to downtown to West Des Moines, the options in terms of entertainment and restaurants and just cool places and events to partake in, it leaves them with a wholly different perception of Des Moines.” 

“We have been progressive,” Connolly said. “When folks come in to visit us, they get swarmed on, in a positive way. You have the Iowa Events Center, you have the Convention and Visitors Bureau.You have Polk County, you have the city of Des Moines, you have the Greater Des Moines Partnership.” 

“I’ve been in a lot of different cities for work; you don’t get that in a lot of places,” Connolly said. “From what I’ve seen, the city has progressed, and the leaders work together. The facilities are top-notch. Drake has a new basketball practice facility. You have the Cownie soccer complex. The airport is much improved, even since 2013.”

Radia said Des Moines will continue building momentum on amateur and professional sports events, limited by the availability and size of the facilities — but not much else. He just hopes we don’t go overboard. 

“We have to be careful that we don’t saturate the market by having too many events,” said Radia, who noticed that the 2013 Solheim Cup stop in the Denver area appeared to have little to no promotion at the airport as people arrived, a mistake Greater Des Moines won’t make. “You want each event to be special and memorable.” 

---

The Story Behind the Story

Iowa Events Center General Manager Chris Connolly said a key to Des Moines’ success is convention and visitors bureau chief Greg Edwards’ ability to push the community to succeed – from encouraging new facilities to strategizing on what events are within reach, even with a stretch.  “It’s hard to say ‘no’ to Greg, on anything. Greg was the one who facilitated the visit to the NCAA at its headquarters (in Indianapolis).”

That trip, related to the NCAA March Madness bid, turned out to be a rare audience with NCAA brass who aren’t used to letting communities pitch at the headquarters. “We got to Indianapolis and we had some serious discussion,” Connolly said. “At the end of the day we said, ‘Hey, are we even still a viable candidate to get the NCAA (men’s) basketball?’ Because we had been turned down several times. They told us we were.”

The work began at home. “There were some things we needed to do. We made a lot of enhancements between the last failed bid and the time we got this one. A new scoreboard, new lights. One of the biggest things is Polk County owns this facility, and they really get it. Over the past seven or eight months, we’ve been given $2.3 million for capital projects. We added a center-hung HD scoreboard. We totally retrofitted the control system.We put flat screens in. We have the ability to pick up an interview anywhere in the arena and put it on the scoreboard. We put in new LED sport lights in the arena, and brand-new digital marquee boards.”

---

Des Moines Rocks

Principal Financial Group Inc. President and CEO Dan Houston said Des Moines stands out among the many progressive cities he’s visited.

“I travel around the world on my job,” Houston said. There is something special about Des Moines. It’s clean. It’s safe. And it’s great for business. Our DNA always has been around looking to put our best face on for visitors, so when they go back to LA or Denver they will talk about how nice Des Moines is, and that it is not just that it has nice people.”