Viewpoint: Changes pays off for South Carolina.

Change, a new study proves, is not just inevitable. It's lucrative.

A study by University of South Carolina professor Tom Regan found that March's NCAA regional men's basketball tournament created an economic impact of $11.3 million in Columbia, drawing 47,977 fans from 33 states to Colonial Life Arena.

Those numbers would have been impossible to achieve just a few short years ago.

After attending the first-round regional games on March 22, I strolled through the S.C. Statehouse grounds. I paused to look at two flags framed by a cerulean Carolina sky: the red, white and blue of the American flag and the darker blue of the S.C. state flag.

For a long time, a third flag flew atop the Statehouse's distinctive copper dome. The stars and bars of the Confederate flag sparked debate and division and spawned a 15-year boycott in which the NCAA, the governing body of collegiate sports, refused to allow South Carolina to hold predetermined championship events.

The flag came down in 2015, and change followed. In 2017, Greenville hosted a men's NCAA regional (the one in which South Carolina beat Duke to begin its improbable Final Four run), and the Gamecock women's team played host to first- and second-round games on its way to a national title. That same year, Columbia was awarded a 2019 regional.

That turn of events appears to have paid off handsomely for the capital city.

The study, which measured direct spending by out-of-town visitors, produced numbers which bested initial estimates predicting 25,000 fans and an economic impact of $9 million. Those numbers also bettered the tournament's showing in Greenville, which saw a reported $3.6 million impact and more than 14,000 visitors.

The numbers, while impressive, don't quite capture the moment March Madness came to town.

As the city prepared to play host to its first NCAA men's basketball regional tournament in 49 years, I vacillated about attending. Duke superstar Zion Williamson and the top-seeded Blue Devils, along with seven other teams, would be taking the court in the annual hoops frenzy, but I didn't know if that had anything to do with me.

As a sportswriter for 20-some years, I'd covered copious amounts of college basketball, including several NCAA tournaments. While I thoroughly enjoyed those experiences, I didn't initially see the point of taking in another, this time as a fan.

I began to change my mind as I interviewed experts leading up to tipoff and listened to their talk of the national...