ST. PAUL — When it comes to big-time sporting events, modest Minnesota is doing its best to be an attention hog.

Business leaders and a pair of well-known local athletes appeared Tuesday with Gov. Mark Dayton to highlight a push to host NCAA men’s basketball Final Four in 2019 or 2020. It would come on the heels of a 2018 Super Bowl that Minnesota was recently awarded and baseball’s All-Star Game in downtown Minneapolis next month.

“When you talk about major league events, Minneapolis to me is a major league city,” said Trent Tucker, a former professional basketball player and standout at the University of Minnesota. He and the WNBA’s Lindsey Whalen were named honorary co-chairs of the bid campaign.

Boosters pushing for the marquee college basketball event think the gleaming new $1 billion stadium being built for the Minnesota Vikings is the perfect setting for the Final Four. It is being built to accommodate 70,000 basketball fans with better site lines than the Metrodome, where Duke’s squad won championships in 1992 and 2001. The new stadium is going up where the Metrodome once stood and is scheduled to open in summer 2016.

Last month, the NFL chose Minneapolis to host the Super Bowl four years from now.