Transgender ban could cost Wichita two NCAA tournaments and $7.5 million, mayor says
A bill passed by the Legislature last week to ban transgender athletes from high school and college sports could end up costing Wichita both of its scheduled NCAA basketball tournaments, representing $7.5 million in lost local commerce, the mayor said late Monday.
“Discrimination is a bad reason for Wichita to lose both the NCAA tournaments for Women in 2022 & Men in 2025,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said in a Facebook post. “The $7.5m economic impact is something our small businesses badly need.”
In an interview, Whipple said members of his Small Business Advisory Council had expressed concerns about the potential loss of the NCAA tournament stands. He said he asked Visit Wichita, the city’s convention and tourism bureau, to analyze the effect of losing another two tournaments and they came up with the $7.5 million loss figure.
Then, on Monday, the NCAA issued a statement signaling it will pull its tournaments out of states with laws that prohibit transgender athletes from competing as females.
Whipple’s post touched off a heated debate on his mayoral Facebook page, drawing more than 300 comments, many of them profane, in its first three hours online.
Supporters of SB 55 argued that allowing transgender women and girls to compete as female athletes would give them an unfair advantage.
“There is nothing fair for a transgender male change to play with women, will overpower the woman player,” wrote one commenter. “I disagree Mayor. I have a daughter now adult, if she was into sports as a young girl, she would not want that nor would I as her parent.”
Others defended transgender athletes and called the ban unnecessary and discriminatory.
“Why would a man compete in men’s sports, when he can put on a dress and go play women’s sports for zero benefits, no locker room, and 1/40th the pay? Oh, wait...” a commenter opposed to SB 55 wrote.
Wichita has already lost one NCAA tournament stop, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city was supposed to host first and second round games in the men’s March Madness tournament this year. But that was derailed when the NCAA decided to hold all its games in the Indianapolis area in an effort to reduce travel and minimize the effects of COVID-19 on the competition.
In the wake of the pandemic, the loss of NCAA competition — and possibly four other college and amateur tournaments likely to follow the NCAA’s lead — would heap further hurt on Wichita businesses, especially restaurants, bars and hotels, Whipple said.
“They have had one of the worst years you could have,” Whipple said. “They’re really looking toward some of these (sports tournament) opportunities to economically build back what they lost.”
Whipple based his analysis on a statement issued by the NCAA Monday that signaled the organization is prepared to pull tournaments from jurisdictions with laws banning transgender athletes from competing.
“The NCAA Board of Governors firmly and unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports,” the organization’s statement read. “This commitment is grounded in our values of inclusion and fair competition.”
The NCAA statement went on to say that transgender athletes are required to undergo testosterone-supression treatments to compete in women’s athletics, which “embraces the evolving science on this issue.”
“When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected,” the statement said.
Whipple called on Gov. Laura Kelly to veto the legislation, Senate Bill 55, which she is expected to do.
The ban on transgender athletes passed the Senate by 26-11 and the House 76-43, less than the two-thirds majority in both chambers that would be necessary to override a Kelly veto.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 8:40 AM.
