By LARRY GUEST The Orlando Sentinel
Among its exhaustive and creative efforts to lure the Final Four back for a return appearance, the Seattle NCAA Host Committee dispatched a limousine equipped with a bar and hostess to collect VIPs arriving last March for the 1984 tournament in the King-dome.
The glorified welcome wagon was particularly prompt in pulling up to the Seattle airport each time a member of the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Committee (which awards Final Four sites) was due to arrive. Thus, it was right there, gleaming and waiting, when the plane landed carrying committeeman Dick Schultz, the Virginia athletic director.
The hostess greeted Schultz with a wide smile and gracious welcome, then paraded him through the terminal with the fanfare of a foreign head of state. He was ushered into the limo, handed a glass of bubbly and whisked off to his chosen hotel. But when the hostess expressed surprise that Schultz was not headquartered in the same hotel as the Virginia basketball team, a shocking fact came to light: She had fetched Mr. Peter Schultz. of Lufthansa Airlines, not Mr. Dick Schultz of UVA.
"1 couldn't imagine why they had sent a limo for me," said the flabbergasted, but wrong Mr. Schultz. "I was beginning to think this must be the friendliest city in the world." The right Mr. Schultz caught a bus to his hotel where he discovered a nice consolation. Like every other member of the committee, Schultz found a brand-new Mercedes at his disposal during his stay.
Complimentary limos and luxury sedans are not a part of the required guidelines for cities seeking the Final Four  and. indeed, committeemen insist such perks have little bearing in their ultimate decision  but the enthusiastic Seattle Host Committee was determined to exceed all standards in extending unabashed hospitality to the Final Four teams, fans, media and, particularly, the VIPs empowered to send the lucrative tournament back to Seattle.
For whatever reasons, the efforts were a success, as the Basketball Committee awarded Seattle the 1989 Final Four  one of the quickest return appearances in the tournament's history.
Currently chaired by Sun Belt Conference
Arenas like the Kingdome (far right), the Superdome (tight) and cities like Dallas (below) all attract events like the Final Four.
Commissioner Vic Bubas, the Basketball Committee typically meets each December to review written bids from prospective host cities for a Final Four some five years hence. The list is reduced to a handful, which are invited to make a formal presentation, in person, at a summer meeting of the committee. Although one future site is typically awarded
each year, the committee chose to make a double selection last summer  1989 Seattle, 1990 Denver  as had been the case on at least two other occasions.
Any city may apply as long as it meets the facility guidelines: an arena with seating capacity of at least 16,000 and a minimum of 3,000 first-class hotel rooms to accommo-
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