March Madness Comes to Xfinity Mobile Arena
This year, the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament comes to Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love is hosting First and Second Round March Madness games on March 20 and 22…
This year, the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament comes to Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love is hosting First and Second Round March Madness games on March 20 and 22 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
If you want to catch the action yourself, tickets are available through Ticketmaster. According to the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau website, the tickets are divided into sessions: two two-game sessions (afternoon and evening) on March 20 and a final two-game session featuring the winning teams on March 22. Fans can also purchase upgraded NCAA Fan Experience passes and rent luxury suites for the games.
The exact times of games and which teams will appear in Philly won't be revealed until Selection Sunday on March 15.
Some Philadelphia hotels have basketball-focused amenities, making them ideal places to stay for die-hard hoops fans. For example, The Bellevue Hotel offers an NBA-regulation court within its Sporting Club. Rivers Casino's Riversuites also offers access to a fully equipped basketball court.
Several city sports bars, including Stateside Live!, Chickie's and Pete's, Cavanaugh's Rittenhouse, City Tap House, Founding Fathers, Misconduct Tavern, and McGillin's Olde Ale House, will broadcast March Madness games. You can enjoy great eats without missing a moment of the action.
Did You Know?
Philadelphia's NCAA legacy runs deep. Here are some memorable moments from the city's history with NCAA competition:
- On March 28, 1992, coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino were at the center of the legendary Kentucky-Duke rivalry in Philly. The Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau website describes what happened: "The star-packed lineups exchanged leads in overtime, then Coach K called a timeout, trailing 103-102 with 2.1 seconds left. What happened next is widely considered one of the greatest college basketball moments ever — Grant Hill chucks the ball three-quarters of the way down the court, Christian Laettner catches it, fakes right, dribbles once, turns, and shoots. The moment — simply called “The Shot” — is etched in March Madness lore, and it happened at the now-defunct Spectrum, which sat across the parking lot from the current Xfinity Mobile Arena."
- Philadelphia last hosted NCAA men's tourney games in 2022. During that year, North Carolina sent No. 15-seeded St. Peter's packing at what was then the Wells Fargo Center.
- Philadelphia's Big 5 teams include national NCAA champions, like Villanova and La Salle, and Final Four participants like Saint Joe's, Penn, and Temple.
