The NCAA News - News and Features

July 20, 1998

Committee recommends predetermined sites for preliminary-round games

The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee will recommend to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet that first- and second-round championship sites be predetermined beginning in 2000.

The recommendation was formulated at the committee's meeting in Carlsbad, California, June 22-26.

Under the current format, first- and second-round games are played on the campus of one of the participating teams.

The recommendation will be presented to the cabinet in February 1999. If the recommendation is approved, the committee will choose the host sites in October 1999. If a host school makes the championship, it would play at home, so the sites would not be completely neutral. A school could not host a regional and a first- or second-round game the same year. Another stipulation is that a school could not be selected to host a first- and second-round session in consecutive years.

In other action, the committee recommended host regional sites for the 2000 and 2001 championships.

The recommendations for 2000 include Virginia Commonwealth University as host for the East Regional at the Stuart Siegel Center in Richmond, Virginia; the University of Memphis as host for the Mideast Regional at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee; the University of Kansas as host for the Midwest Regional at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri; and Portland State University as host for the West Regional in the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.

In 2001, Duquesne University would host the East Regional at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh; the Southeastern Conference would host the Mideast Regional at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum in Birmingham, Alabama; and the University of Colorado, Boulder, would host the Midwest Regional in either McNichols Arena or The Pepsi Center. The committee has not yet determined which facility would be used. Washington State University would host the West Regional in the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington.

The committee also recommended that beginning in 2002, hosts be required to guarantee a minimum of 6,000 ticket packages sold. Currently there is no guaranteed ticket sale; to be eligible to host, a facility must have a minimum seating capacity of 4,000.

In other business, the committee:

* Noted that all 30 conferences will continue to receive automatic bids to the championship.

* Met with the Taylor Group and the Division I Men's Basketball Committee to review the marketing research data the Taylor Group had collected on the championship.

* Met with representatives of the Kansas City Organizing Committee and ESPN to review last year's Women's Final Four.