I wish these guys good luck in their quest.

A delegation from Houston left Tuesday night for Indianapolis with hopes of securing future NCAA men's and women's Final Four basketball championships.

Delegations from both Reliant Stadium and Toyota Center will meet with NCAA officials this morning to begin discussions for dates 2012 to 2016.

Reliant Stadium is attempting to lure another men's Final Four date, while the Toyota Center is hoping to lock down a women's Final Four during that four-year period.

Reliant Stadium already is set to host the men's Final Four in 2011 and has a NCAA regional final coming in March.

[...]

Houston joins San Antonio and Dallas and seven other cities in bidding to host both men's and women's Final Fours.

Each city must submit a formal bid by the middle of June, and the host cities will be announced in August.

Seriously, I hope the delegation is successful. If we manage to land a women's Final Four, I want to take Olivia to it. She'd be at an age to really appreciate it by then. Audrey too, if it's closer to 2016.

On a side note, does anyone have any clue how far along Metro rail construction will likely be by March of 2011? Obviously, the Main Street line is in place, but given how the 2004 Super Bowl was essentially its shakedown cruise (and how shaky it was), I'm hoping that the coming extensions are either fully finished and operational by then, or not close enough to done to try to squeeze their completion in before then. As long as we can avoid the first week, we-have-no-idea-what-we're-doing impression that we gave back then, it's fine by me.