While Division II has its National Championships Festivals, at least one Division II conference has a festival of its own – and this one lasts weeks rather than days.

The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association is in the middle of its first “TitleFest” in the Kansas City metropolitan area this year, incorporating eight postseason championships in five sports over a 10-week span from March through May.

The MIAA’s men’s and women’s basketball championships in downtown Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium tipped off the festivities March 5-8. Next up are the MIAA men’s and women’s golf championships April 19-21 at Shoal Creek Golf Club, followed by men’s and women’s tennis April 25-26 at the Kansas City Plaza’s Tennis Center. The MIAA softball championship is April 30-May 2 at the Blue Valley Recreation Complex in nearby Overland Park, and the baseball championship is May 8-10 at Community-America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas, home of the independent Northern League Kansas City T-Bones.

“With Kansas City as the hub of our conference, we feel it is important to increase our presence in the city,” said MIAA Commissioner Jim Johnson. “And rather than just promote basketball, the concept was to get more return on investment from multiple events and market the conference over a 10-week period rather than just a four-day basketball event.”

Johnson said the MIAA also wanted to do more in Kansas City to attract interest from corporate partners who could benefit from exposure over multiple events. In that regard, TitleFest has been particularly attractive for businesses with some history in the area and that do not rely on a national audience to generate sales.

What makes TitleFest so attractive, Johnson said, is that it represents 15 days in which thousands of visitors flock to the city, most of whom live within three hours of downtown Kansas City. “Every one of them is a potential return customer for the rest of the year who might come for a long weekend or stay in a hotel and eat at a restaurant. Other events here can’t offer that. We’ve gained a little traction with that,” he said.

As of now, TitleFest doesn’t have a title sponsor, but Johnson said the league is seeking one for the entire run rather than a separate corporate sponsor for each of the five sports. “The selling points are that it’s affordable, it’s local and the exposure is spread out over five events and 10 weeks rather than one event over four days, as would be the case in basketball,” said Johnson. “We believe that’s an attractive package for a corporate entity.”

TitleFest is an event that made sense for the MIAA, which moved its office to downtown Kansas City in 2007. The league’s basketball and softball tournaments were already being played in the area, so Johnson said it was prudent for the league to move some of its other events to KC as well.

“In a way we borrowed the festival approach Division II has been so successful with for its national championships, but we took the concept and spread it over the semester with multiple events. TitleFest will showcase our student-athletes at some of the finest venues in the Kansas City area,” he said.