The NCAA Hall of Champions will reopen to the public March 12 with expanded meeting and hospitality space, interactive displays and sport-specific exhibits. The facility closed after a November 14, 2007, fire that provided the opportunity for a complete renovation.

The Hall of Champions will focus on reaching five key audiences: member schools, civic and business leaders, visiting groups and conventions, Indianapolis and Indiana youth and national office staff. A special area dedicated to highlighting the accomplishments of student-athletes and administrators on and off the field of play will rotate its focus on different colleges and universities in the NCAA membership, beginning with Indiana colleges and universities.

“Before, the Hall of Champions was designed to explain,” said Dennis Cryder, NCAA senior vice president for branding and communications, in a recent edition of Champion magazine. “Now we’re hoping to inspire.”

Cryder was part of the original project team that oversaw the Hall’s design when it was built adjacent to the NCAA national headquarters in 1999.

“We were so focused on explaining the NCAA through the Hall of Champions and on using facts and figures,” he recalled. “But that was before the NCAA brand evolved to what it has become today.”

The refurbished Hall of Champions offers new meeting space for up to 175 people, including the 2,000-square foot Champion Hall, featuring the NCAA magazine of the same name and The 1,400-square foot meeting room called The Gallery.

“If you book a room at any of the surrounding hotels, you get a ballroom,” said Jo Jo Rinebold, the NCAA’s managing director of brand strategies and events. “With the Hall of Champions, groups will get a room and messaging around it that communicates who we are as the NCAA, which could reinforce the visiting group’s own missions and values. That will differentiate us.”

Also included are an interactive gallery called Play and an area called Arena that focuses on each of the NCAA’s 23 championship sports. A theater, media room, retail and cafe area and the Hall of Honor all round out the refreshed look of the Hall.

The Hall will reopen with a special media day March 3.