Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To the NCAA, having people in the seats for its sporting events is just as important as the event.
That's one reason officials are looking forward to having Salem and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference as hosts for the Division III men's basketball championships for at least the next two years.
``The big thing is attendance,'' said Chris Pohl, an NCAA assistant director of championships who was in the Roanoke Valley on Wednesday and Thursday. ``It looks bad when you have a championship and there's nobody there to see it.''
Consecutive sellouts for the Division III football championship at Salem Stadium led NCAA officials to believe the city would be a good host for their basketball championships as well. The men's Final Four was held in Buffalo, N.Y., at SUNY-Buffalo the past three years. It drew decent, but not great crowds. The title game drew 2,120 in 1993, 2,419 in 1994 and peaked at 3,000 last March.
The Salem Civic Center will have a capacity of 4,000 for the Final Four of March 15-16, 1996. Salem officials believe they can do better than Buffalo in a much smaller market that doesn't have as many competitors for entertainment dollars.
``We're going to do full-bore advertising,'' civic center director Carey Harveycutter said. ``In a market the size of this one, it's a lot easier to do.''
The building's seating capacity will be reduced to keep the crowds together and to offer the best sightlines. There will be nine rows of seats behind each baseline, but seats in the corners of the floor beyond the sidelines will be covered up. Harveycutter said that will add to the intimacy of the arena.
Pohl and Mike Turner, men's basketball coach at Albion (Mich.) College and chairman of the NCAA Division III basketball committee arrived in Roanoke on Wednesday afternoon. They visited the Sheraton Hotel, which will house the teams, and the Marriott, where the press and other officials will be housed. They toured the civic center on Thursday.
Turner said he was impressed, particularly with the hospitality. He had expected that to be good. He heard all about it from Albion's football team which won the Stagg Bowl last December.
``When our football team came back, [after a 38-15 Albion victory over Washington and Jefferson],'' said Turner, ``they talked more about the hospitality than the game.''
Meanwhile, it has been determined that Salem will alternate as the host of the NCAA Division II and III softball championships for the next three years. Division III comes to Salem in 1996 and 1998, while Division II returns in 1997. The host of the 1998 Division II championship is the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Fla., while the host of the 1996 championship will be decided next week.
by CNB