DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997              TAG: 9703270638

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   37 lines

LADY MONARCHS SNAPSHOT

A look at the site of the 1997 NCAA women's Final Four, with the

No. 2 ranked Old Dominion women's basketball team:

Where it's at

They'll play where? At Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where

ODU will meet Stanford at 7 p.m. Friday followed by Notre Dame and

Tennessee at approximately 9:30.

Are tickets left? Nope, all 16,000 seats are sold out. But all

the action will be on ESPN.

Is that where the Reds and the Bengals play? Wrong again. That's

next door in what used to be Riverfront Stadium. It's now called

Cinergy Field.

Is this the biggest event that's ever been there? Depends on who

you ask. The Coliseum has hosted last year's Division I Ice Hockey

Championship, the 1976 U.S. Boxing Trials, the 1981 Davis Cup

Finals, two figure skating championships and a half-dozen NCAA men's

basketball tournament events.

Equal access: In anticipation of an audience that will be 70

percent female, three of the six men's restrooms were converted to

women's facilities. That gives the women nine restrooms, the men

three. In stall count, the women win 51-9.

Were there other changes? Tons. The building was a mess, used

mainly for concerts, tractor pulls and circus visits. Because the

old lockers were stolen, new ones were built. Seats had to be

repaired, and TV lights, which were 10 years old, replaced.

Is that all? Just the beginning, really. In May, the Coliseum

will be closed for a $14 million renovation. It will reopen in

October under the new name, The Crown.

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