Detroit lands a spot among seven cities bidding for the Women's Final Four

Detroit has never hosted a Women's Final Four. That could change by the next decade.

The NCAA announced on October 27, 2026, that Detroit is one of seven finalist cities to host the Women's Final Four during the 2032 to 2036 cycle. The other finalists are Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Phoenix, and San Antonio.

Each city will send representatives to present to the Division I Women's Basketball Committee during the committee's summer meetings in Naples, Florida, in July 2027. Host cities will be named after those meetings.

Detroit and Las Vegas would both be first-time hosts of the event.

"The strong interest in hosting the Women's Final Four reflects the championship's stature as one of the premier events in sports, and the committee is grateful to every city that participated in the bid process," said Liz Darger, the Division I Women's Basketball Committee chair and senior associate athletics director at Brigham Young University.

The timing is good. Detroit will host its second men's Final Four this spring, after first staging one in 2009. Landing the women's event would give the city the other half of college basketball's showcase weekend.

Detroit markets itself for games like these through the Detroit Sports Commission, a not-for-profit charitable organization (IRS 501(c)(3)) and a subsidiary of Visit Detroit. Its stated job is to sell metro Detroit as a destination for regional, national, and international amateur sporting events.

Detroit's biggest recent sports event was the 2024 NFL Draft, which drew 775,000 people downtown and generated $213.6 million in economic impact for the City of Detroit and region. Visit Detroit and the commission reported those figures in July 2024.

For now, Detroit's name is on a short list, and the decision won't come until the committee meets in July 2027.