National Collegiate Athletics Association Division 1 basketball is among the most popular sports in North America.

For a week in Vancouver in November 2017, its regular season will be played under the five sails of the convention centre's eastern wing. 

Tourism Vancouver announced today that the exhibition space will be converted into a 3,000-plus seat venue. It will include video boards, bleachers, and a portable floor.

Men's and women's tournaments will both take place at that time.

“Vancouver has proven itself as a world-class destination for major sporting events, so we are very excited to bring the first regular-season NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments ever played in Canada to this extraordinary city,” Brooks Downing, president and CEO of bd Global, said in a news release. “Given the destination, combined with our unique site at the Vancouver Convention Centre, this annual event will be very successful for years to come.”

Tournament directors will be former Vancouver Grizzlies official David Munro and former basketball star Howard Kelsey, who once played for Team Canada.

“This is likely Vancouver’s biggest elite basketball-related news since the NBA announced that the Grizzlies franchise was awarded to Vancouver,” Kelsey said in the news release.

The competing teams have not been announced.