DETROIT -- The city's bid to host one of four NCAA basketball Final Four tournaments in 2008-2011 has received a boost from General Motors Corp. chief executive Rick Wagoner.

The NCAA site-selection committee was in Detroit on Thursday to inspect the city as a potential site. Wagoner hosted the site-selection committee at GM's headquarters at the Renaissance Center as part of a 30-minute presentation on the city, its hotels and other amenities.

Detroit is one of six cities vying to host the Final Four in that four-year period. The others are Houston; Indianapolis; San Antonio; St. Louis; and New Orleans, where this year's Final Four was held.

The nine-person selection committee also toured Ford Field, where the games would be played; Cobo Center; and hotels, a person at the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Detroit Free Press.

The committee also visited Detroit Metropolitan Airport and other transportation sites, the source said.

Wagoner chairs the 10-member Detroit Local Organizing Committee that is lobbying for the tournament. The University of Detroit Mercy would serve as the host institution.

The 6-foot-4 Wagoner, 50, played forward on Duke's basketball team in 1971-72. He graduated in 1975 with an economics degree and sits on the university's board of trustees.