The NCAA is keeping the First Four, it’s opening games for the annual men’s basketball tournament, in Dayton through at least 2015, the University of Dayton announced Monday.

UD Arena is hosting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s four opening games on March 19-20, 2013. The 2014 games will take place March 18-19, and in 2015, the dates are March 17-18.

The event has been sought by the local convention and visitor’s bureaus. Jackie Powell, of the Dayton Convention and Visitors Bureau, estimates the event will have an even greater economic impact in the coming years than it did in 2011 and 2012, the first years the First Four games were played in Dayton.

“We conservatively estimated this event brought $4 to $4.5 million to the area this past year,” Powell said. “This event is sold out now, so ticket sales alone have caused the numbers to climb. While we don’t have a firm idea of how far north that went, we certainly know it’s greater than $4.5 million.”

The 2013 First Four had sold out 12,700 tickets in just 10 days — a result of a big push by the First Four Local Organizing Committee. That’s a good sign for the events to come and a big reason the NCAA awarded Dayton with another two-year commitment.

“When the University of Dayton informed us last month that the primary criteria of a long-term relationship for the games with the NCAA would be focused almost completely on the ability to sell tickets, the people behind me on the committee and others in the community stepped up and sold the place out,” said J.P. Nauseef, chair of the organizing committee. “That’s something that hadn’t been done since the new format was developed. The community wants the games on a permanent level.”

A proposal by UD to host the First Four for 10 additional years after 2015 remains on the table.

“We anticipate hearing something after the first of the year,” said UD Arena director Tim O’Connell. “The 10-year proposal is in their hands. They came back to us with some requests for additional information, and they asked for that no earlier than the middle of December, just because they’ve got so much other stuff going on and they don’t want it to sit on their desk.”

In previous years (2001-10), Dayton hosted one play-in game on the Tuesday before the first-round games began. In all, UD Arena has hosted 91 NCAA men’s tournament games, more than any other arena in the country.

Next March, UD Arena will also host games in the second and third rounds of the tournament.

“I want to congratulate the local organizing committee,” UD athletic director Tim Wabler said. “Without their help, we couldn’t keep this going. I also want to thank the NCAA. It’s one thing for us to do a great job. It’s another thing for the NCAA to stop and recognize that since 2001 we should be the location for the opening games.”