The Big Ten Conference has announced that the 2017 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament will be held at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
The tournament has been held in either Indianapolis or Chicago for the past 17 years. It will return to Chicago's United Center for the ninth time next year. Indianapolis will host the tournament for the 10th time in 2016. Each of the last two tournaments have been sold out, including a conference record of more than 124,000 fans at the United Center in 2013 and more than 111,000 fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse earlier this year, the largest attendance in Indianapolis.
The announcement is the latest in a series of moves that has increased the Big Ten’s presence on the East Coast. The University of Maryland and Rutgers University will officially join the conference in July. And last month, conference officials announced the addition of a second office in New York City and satellite office space in Washington, D.C.
