DETROIT – It’s hard to believe that we’re already looking ahead to next April, but the countdown is officially on for next year’s Final Four, which is coming back to the Motor City.
Now that the 2026 Final Four is in the rearview, it’s on to 2027, when college basketball’s biggest event comes back to Detroit.
“People can expect a lot,” Dave Beachnau, the CEO of the Detroit Local Organizing Committee, said on Thursday. “The Final Four is much more than the games themselves.”
The 2027 Final Four will be held at Ford Field on April 3 and April 5, 2027.
It will be the first time the city has hosted it since 2009.
It’s a collaboration between the NCAA, the city of Detroit, and Michigan State University, which will serve as host for the event.
Mayor Mary Sheffield, along with police chief Todd Bettison, led a kickoff “Fan Jam” event out in front of the City-County Building on Thursday (April 9).
It included a mobile basketball court and lots of kids shooting hoops.
“I’ve never experienced something like this,” 10-year-old Keon Marks said. A student at Detroit’s Bates Academy and a huge fan of Pistons’ superstar Cade Cunningham, he’s been playing basketball since he was three.
“Getting to play on a court where the mayor is here, this is really cool,” Marks said.
Thursday’s event marks a year of events on the road to next year’s Final Four, during which Beachnau will take the “fan jams” to all 83 counties in the state of Michigan.
The Detroit hosting it this time is very different from the one 17 years ago, with more restaurants, hotels, and entertainment options for visitors.
The Final Four’s return to the city is thanks due in large part to the success of the 2024 NFL Draft.
The three-day event drew nearly 800,000 people to Campus Martius and downtown Detroit.
“The NFL awarded its best event to Detroit,” and I think the collaboration within the city now has taken us a long way,” Beachnau said. “We’re going to reinforce that over the next several months to make sure that we’re rolling out the red carpet, not only for the four teams, but every single person that comes to Detroit.”