MILWAUKEE — March Madness is taking over downtown Milwaukee! The Marquette men’s Golden Eagles will serve as one of the host schools for both the first and second rounds. Games tip off Friday afternoon and you can still score tickets.

Davidson Park is hosting the ultimate NCAA watch party on Saturday. The free family-friendly event is open to all fans, you’ll find a big screen, food, drinks, and merch giveaways. It starts at Noon.

The Pink Pony Club has arrived in Milwaukee! The Cooperage is throwing a Chappell Roan dance party on Saturday night. This party is 21+ and tickets start at $17.

If an older sound is more your style you can relive the rock and roll magic of Fleetwood Mac with ‘Rumors’ — a tribute band. They’re playing at the Marcus Center!

Wisconsin’s largest chili cook-off takes place Sunday at the Kern Center. Thousands of people show up to sample and vote on 40 different chili recipes. If you bring two non-perishable food items for the Hunger Task Force you’ll get two free sampling tickets.

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MILWAUKEE — Downtown Milwaukee will be extra busy as an estimated 19,000 people arrive for the first round of March Madness.

“We just love basketball so we bought tickets this year not knowing Iowa State would be here, but was very excited when we learned that they did,” Rich Renner told TMJ4 News.

Related content: Wisconsin back in March Madness win column with 85-66 over Montana

“If you grew up in Iowa it’s all college sports all the time,” Kelly Farris-Renner added.

The couple joined fans at open practice at Fiserv Forum on Thursday.

Visit Milwaukee estimates the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will spark a $3.4 million economic impact.

Watch: 19,000 people expected to fill Milwaukee for March Madness weekend

NCAA brings excitement to Milwaukee

“Eight years ago, we opened to the NCAA Tournament in town so that’s kind of especially nice for us to see them back in again,” said Jimmy Hall, general manager at DOC’s Commerce Smokehouse.

The restaurant is stocked up on extra food and help in the kitchen. It will open early at 10 a.m. through this weekend.

“It just does wonders for us. This can be a sleepy part of downtown at times, but we’re expecting huge crowds,” Hall stated.

It is not just basketball taking over Milwaukee. Hall is also bracing for the Badger Region Volleyball Championships which is drawing 420 teams and approximately 16,000 athletes and spectators to the city, according to Visit Milwaukee.

As the Renners also cheer for Wisconsin and Marquette to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament they believe Milwaukee is a clear winner.

“We’ve been here like I said 37 years, and we love it. We’re excited that people are going to be here,” Renner said.

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Franck Tayou doesn’t want to dwell on the circumstances that led to him joining the Milwaukee Wave.

His new teammates don’t particularly care.

All that matters is that the MASL’s all-time leading scorer is happier in his new indoor soccer home and one of the most storied franchises in the sport is happy to have a player who could make all the difference in a run toward an eighth title.

“I’m a student of the game,” Tayou said Wednesday after practice at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. “Every time I play against a team, I make it a point to watch a few of their games, see what their patterns are, see what the style of play is.

“I think this team has a lot of talented players, a good mix of veteran and young players. And for me, coming in, it almost felt like I was a missing piece. I came in to complete the puzzle. That’s why it looks so seamless.”

The Wave obtained Tayou from the St. Louis Ambush in a trade in February, a month after the four-time league MVP announced he was leaving the team.

The powerful, 34-year-old forward from Cameroon, nicknamed “The King” has scored nine goals with four assists in three games, matching about half the production he had in 14 games with his former team. Even with the time off, Tayou was tied for third in the league for goals (26) and tied for sixth in points (39) heading into the weekend.

Wave coach Giuliano Oliviero has Tayou on a line with Ian Bennett, who has historically been one of the league’s top scorers. Bennett, whose scoring has dropped off the past two seasons, has had a goal in each game since Tayou came on board.

The two have long respected each other’s talents and now get a chance to see the other work up close.

“We always had to watch him when we were playing,” Bennett said. “We always had to make sure we marked him honestly all the time; we doubled him sometimes.

“So now I feel like all the other teams are gonna have to do that, and then obviously with our other guys coming through, I think it’s just gonna be a good thing.”

With games against the Baltimore Blast at 6:35 p.m. Friday and the Texas Outlaws at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, the Wave sits at 11-7-2, tied for sixth in the standings in the 12-team league. Then there’s one more week in the regular season – a home-and-home Friday-Sunday series with St. Louis – and fourth place is within reach.

“Obviously, everything happens for a reason, and I believe in divine timing and I think the timing couldn’t have been better,” Tayou said. “We’re off to a good start; just a matter of building that chemistry closer to the playoffs, which is what we’re doing right now.”

With a decade of experience in the MASL, Tayou has played with or against most of his new teammates, and he’s not the sort of player who has ruffled opponents’ feathers. As chemistry experiments go, this one has yielded only positive reactions.

“We’re doing our best to play to his strengths, and he’s doing his best to understand the way we go about things,” Oliviero said. “Maybe he’s got to work a little bit harder defensively in Milwaukee, but offensively, we want him to be Franck.”