The University of Dayton announced Friday it has sold out the 2013 NCAA First Four. That’s about 12,700 tickets for the two-day event.

Now it turns its attention to making sure the the opening night of the men’s basketball tournament stays at UD Arena for years to come. The NCAA has always requested a two-year bid, and UD submitted that, hoping to at least secure the the First Four for 2014 and 2015. A month ago, it also delivered a 10-year proposal.

UD Vice President and Director of Athletics Tim Wabler said he has heard other schools are interested in hosting the First Four, so there’s no guarantee UD will continue to host the event. For now, Dayton is only assured of hosting the four games March 19-20, 2013.

“I don’t know if anybody can put their foot forward like this,” Wabler said. “I would be surprised. We’re not taking anything for granted. Because the NCAA tournament has become such a big deal, we know we just have to keep earning it every year, year in and year out. We certainly do that operationally. When teams come here, when communities come here, they feel great about how welcome they are. We also feel part of the deal is selling out the arena, and the community came through.”

J.P. Nauseef, chairman of the First Four Local Organizing Committee, spearheaded the effort to sell out the games. The first goal was to sell the 3,200 seats in the upper level. There was a discount for those tickets. The price dropped from $40 to $20 if you bought 25 or more tickets.

“That’s a heck of a deal. That’s $5 per game,” said UD Arena director Tim O’Connell. “Those things went like wildfire. J.P., who has been a tremendous chairman, said, ‘Let’s keep on going. Let’s see how far we can get. Let’s hopefully sell out.’”

In 10 days, from Oct. 8-17, they got it done.

“Our season-ticket holders covered the lower arena,” Wabler said. “They've been great as far as coming out to events here at the university. The local organizing committee took care of the rest.”

The games drew just over 10,000 in 2011, the first year the event became known as the First Four. Last year, with President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron in attendance, the first night of games drew 8,510. The attendance on the second night was 7,219.