When word arrived June 25 that the University of Illinois would host
the 2013 NCAA men's and women's tennis championships, Michelle Dasso could barely wait to share the news.

"About 10 minutes later I started e-mailing my top recruits," the Illinois women's coach said.

Brad Dancer, who had sweated out the NCAA's decision for months and fought a running battle to remain positive, finally could relax.

"It's an incredibly proud moment for us," the Illini men's coach said. "There were a lot of moments and days and times when I wondered."

Little wonder Dasso, Dancer and other UI athletic department personnel greeted the NCAA's announcement with glee. For the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, this was the culmination of a pursuit first envisioned not long after the Atkins Tennis Center opened in 1991. A pursuit that fell short three previous times - in 2003, 2004 and 2008 - when the NCAA selected other bids for future hosting rights over the UI's. A pursuit in competition with a select group of schools - Georgia, Stanford, Texas A&M and Tulsa - with proven resumes in hosting college tennis' premier event.

"Historically, it doesn't move around a lot," said Vince Ille, UI associate athletic director and one of two DIA  officials - along with assistant director of event management Holly Stalcup - who did the heavy lifting on the school's latest bid. "I don't think it's because those (other) schools are the favorite schools. I think it's because they have the facilities."

Now, with the 2009 arrival of the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex and its 12 courts to complement Atkins, so does Illinois. Whatever other amenities the UI might have pointed out in its latest bid and during a follow-up conference call with the NCAA Tennis Committee, school officials agree that its total of 20 lighted outdoor courts and six indoor courts were the key to landing the 2013 national tournament.

"We bid for the NCAA tournament without the Khan expansion and didn't get it," Ille said. "I think without those (additional) 12 courts, we're probably sitting here just like we were in 2003 - not hosting."

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If any school knows what it takes to host the NCAA tennis championships, it is Georgia. Since 1977, the Bulldogs have welcomed the tournament to their campus 25 times. All the same, Matt Brachowski welcomes the time he still has to prepare for the event's next stop in Athens, Ga., in 2012.

"Even though that may seem like a long time (away), we're doing things now," said Brachowski, who has served as tournament director each of six times Georgia has hosted since 1999. "It takes a lot of work and a lot of people to put it together."

One of the unique challenges to hosting the NCAA tennis championships is its length. Along with the College World Series, it is one of the two longest championship events in college sports. The tennis competition - including team, singles and doubles championships - takes place without scheduling interruption over 12 days. Add in two practice dates immediately prior and the calendar spans a full two weeks.

"That's a long time," said Texas A&M's Steve Miller, who has served as tournament director or co-director three times since 2002 when the event visited the College Station, Texas, school's campus. "There's not another event, other than the College World Series, that a school's going to host that's going to be 14 days long."

Brachowski and Miller say the support and involvement of the host community is critical to the success of the tournament. Given the length of the event, maintaining attendance at a respectable level can be a challenge - particularly if the host school is eliminated early or did not advance to nationals. Total attendance of 10,000 is regarded as a benchmark figure.

"If the community doesn't support the event, there's no reason ... for the University of Illinois to spend its resources or the NCAA to spend its resources to put this event on," Miller said. "To have the community behind it is what makes it a success."

Host schools also rely heavily on volunteers to fulfill the multitude of duties associated with running the event, such as parking attendants, merchandise sales, hospitality for athletes and coaches, ball runners and scoreboard operators. In its information packet for schools bidding to host, the NCAA notes that about 100 volunteers per day will be needed.

Although Illinois has ample experience at hosting two- or three-day NCAA tennis regionals, it will be far more reliant on volunteers for a 14-day national tournament.

"For a school that hasn't had that opportunity (to host nationals) before, you're trying to get a lot of different people in place who have not worked on something like this in the past," Miller said. "You need a good group of people on site that have the time and make the effort. We've had people here at 2 (o'clock) in the morning. It's a big time commitment."

It's typical, too, for host schools to line up host families for each of the 32 teams (16 men's and 16 women's) in the championships. The families primarily serve as an informational resource for a particular team, advising members on things like laundry options and restaurants that can accommodate large groups. In some cases, a host family might open its home to the team for a meal or arrange a team picnic in a local park.
Stalcup, who will serve as the 2013 tournament director, is confident the Champaign-Urbana community will rise to the need for volunteers.

"I think we already have a lot of those individuals at Atkins who take lessons, who come to the events, who are members of the tennis (booster group)," she said. "I think we have a great start on those numbers. We'll just be looking over the next few years to build on that."

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As Stalcup notes, Illinois won't enter 2013 from the proverbial square one. The school not only has hosted NCAA first and second rounds 12 times since 1997 - including men's and women's regionals in the same year (2009) - but also has experience in putting on national events. The UI has hosted the ITA National Indoor Championships three times since 2005 in Chicago.

"I think we've proven that, one, we can run a championship," Stalcup said. "And we also have the facilities capable of hosting these events. I think we've proven that through prior experience."

Several outsiders familiar with the UI's background as a tennis host expect the school to be up to the challenge in 2013.

"They've been involved in this at a very high level," Miller said. "They're familiar with the expectations of being a host. I think they'll do a great job."
Michael Hunt, a former Parkland College tennis coach, has served as an NCAA liaison at each of the last two NCAA regionals hosted by Illinois. In that role, he is charged with ensuring neutrality in the operation of the tournament.

Hunt, recently named head coach at Texas Lutheran after five seasons at Western Illinois, also has seen the UI run several of the national indoor championships. Whether the event is in Urbana or in Chicago, Hunt says he's come away impressed with how smoothly tournaments have operated under the UI's direction.

"It's a big jump from hosting a regional to hosting the final 16 (teams) and the individuals (singles and doubles championships)," he said. "There's a lot more to it. But just what I've seen, I can't imagine they wouldn't do a superb job. They're very well prepared. Every single contingency, every single problem is anticipated. Every single coach's concern is thought about in advance.

"I don't see how it's not going to be a great success."

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Trevor Gambrell can attest that the NCAA tennis tournament is good for business.

Gambrell is the sports sales manager for the Hilton College Station and Conference Center in College Station, Texas. In that role he books rooms for groups - particularly participating teams - coming to town for sporting  events. Business was especially good in 2009, when nearby Texas A&M hosted four NCAA national championships, including tennis.

"We love getting them," Gambrell said. "For the most part, (rooms are) going to be sold out."

The NCAA tennis tournament is a particularly attractive event for hotels, Gambrell says, for a couple of reasons. First, it guarantees plenty of guests over a two-week period.

About 600 players/coaches/travel-party members will need lodging. The NCAA requires that the host school reserve nine rooms for each of the 32 qualifying teams as well as a sufficient number of rooms for remaining players in the individual singles and doubles tournaments. Hotel reservations also extend to NCAA staff (14 rooms), match officials (30 rooms) and media (30 rooms).

Second, the tournament is scheduled at a traditionally slow time for college communities. In most cases, the regular school year is over and college graduation ceremonies already have taken place.

"In 2009, a couple of days (of the tennis tournament) fell into graduation," Gambrell said, "but otherwise, it's a slower time for us."

For hotels that don't have contracts to host teams, out-of-town fans can go a long way toward filling rooms. But the degree to which that occurs, Brachowski says, usually depends on the proximity of the teams advancing to nationals and their fans' expectation of success.

Of course, hotels aren't the only businesses that should expect to benefit. Restaurants, car rental firms, gas stations and retail shopping outlets can anticipate an increase in sales.

"It's a major boost to the economy," said Jayne DeLuce, executive director of the Champaign County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

How major? A preliminary study by DeLuce of the event's local economic impact puts the figure at an estimated $5.9 million. In comparison, the 2010 Illinois Marathon, which drew over 14,000 entrants, generated an estimated $7.8 million.

DeLuce observed that Champaign-Urbana's location could attract visitors to the 2013 tournament that otherwise wouldn't travel to an NCAA tennis championships. The tournament has rarely been held outside of the South, Southwest or West. Since 1974, only one men's tournament took place in a Northern location - at South Bend, Ind., in 1994. Before the NCAA went to a common site for both genders in 2006, the women's tournament was held in the North once, also at South Bend in 1998.

"The exciting part is we don't know who will come because it hasn't been in this part of the country before and there's a whole potentially untapped market," DeLuce said. "We're centrally located and near some major
cities and airports. That leaves you to think, 'Wow, there could be a lot of people who might not have made the trip when it was in Texas or other places who would come here.' That's the exciting part, but it's a bit hard to predict."

Awarding the tournament to the UI so far in advance, DeLuce says, offers C-U the opportunity to plan events that tap into the visiting tennis crowd.
"Potentially, you could schedule a concert at the Assembly Hall or at Krannert (Center for the Performing Arts) that might attract those visitors," she said.

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While Stalcup & Co. prepare for the tournament's arrival in three years, Dancer and Dasso face their own sort of deadline - building 2013 tennis teams good enough to reach the NCAA round of 16.

Of course, that's always a goal of these Illini coaches, but each says there will be a special urgency to do so the year the tournament comes to town.

"I think it jacks up the pressure a lot," said Dancer, who has guided four of his five Illini teams to the NCAA Championships. "To me, it's increased pressure on us in terms of not only making it there but you also want to feel like you're putting a team together that's maybe in contention to win the whole thing."
Dasso agrees the pressure will be greater in 2013, but so will the incentive.

"To be in the final 16 is going to be a motivating factor for us, for sure," she said.

Dasso, whose last three Illini teams have made the postseason field, can speak from experience about hosting an NCAA Championships but not qualifying as a team. A four-time All-American at Notre Dame, she was a freshman when the host Irish fell one win short of reaching nationals in 1998 in South Bend.

"It was a miserable experience," said Dasso, who intends to re-tell that story to her Illini when the time comes. "We certainly will be striving always, every year, to make the Sweet 16. But particularly if you're hosting, because you certainly don't want to disappoint the community.

"I think everyone wants to see us play."

What the Illini athletic department doesn't want to see is a one-and-done appearance as a host school. For that reason there's a lot riding on the impression the UI makes when the NCAA Championships come calling in  2013.

"We know there's a certain standard the championships have had," said Dancer, a former member of the NCAA Tennis Committee. "And we want to not only meet that standard but we want to improve upon that standard.
"Can we pull that off in one year, in our first year, to make people want to have that sentiment so strongly to keep wanting to come back?"

The answer, Stalcup hopes, will be as forceful and convincing as a 130 mph serve.

"This was the whole goal and vision of building this facility," she said. "Now that we've reached this point, our goal is to keep it here and keep improving on it. And then people are going to be competing against us to get it from us."