March Madness Is a Suite Deal For Corporate Clients

The location of the Final Four factors in as well. New Orleans is an admittedly fun blend of food, culture, booze and pre-existing revelry. That still doesn't give the Final Four the cachet of the Super Bowl, but a client may require less convincing to go there than to a cold, cuisine-devoid and outwardly conservative town with a larger event.

"A lot of our customers are customers who come to the Masters or the Super Bowl, but we've seen that the city has a lot to do with it," says Outtrim, who also spent six years doing corporate hospitality for the NFL. "We've got corporations that have done the Super Bowl, but because Indianapolis had a shortage of rooms and it wasn't exactly what they were looking for, this year they moved their program and said they weren't going to do the Super Bowl and wanted to do the Final Four instead."

It generates a lot of return business. Outtrim says that not only are customers who've bought into the Final Four before more likely to come back, but that it has the highest positive RSVP return rate for any event among clients who use PrimeSport for various events. There's also the small matter of passion, a word that comes up incessantly when hospitality professionals and ticket brokers discuss March Madness. School pride runs deep and gives the tournament a fervent undercurrent not found among the other events these folks are selling.

"At the Kentucky Derby, there's a lot of passion but there's also a lot of rich people who own horses," Turnage says. "The Super Bowl doesn't have a lot of fans there who are with the team in the event, but with the Final Four it's difficult to sell on my end because I have to remember someone and store the information of where a client went to college and where his client went to college."

While the Final Four doesn't always provide the quiet, business-friendly backdrop of the golf course and can involve a labyrinth of social itineraries, multiple hospitality entrances and parking facilities to rival the Super Bowl, its strong emotional and visceral draw for some clients helps its suites, tents and toys earn their big-ticket prices. It looks like just a game from afar, but when multimillion partnerships are at stake it may be worth worth getting a ticket, putting on a foam finger and stuffing your face with limitless appetizers to keep those relationships intact.