Bowling Green and Northwest Ohio are sprucing things up and making sure everything is
in place for an infusion of women’s basketball fans.
The Stroh Center is the site for NCAA women’s basketball tournament first-round games
on March 18 and 20. The four teams coming to BGSU will be announced Monday
during the NCAA selection show on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. The selection show is
the kickoff event for the tournament in Bowling Green and fans can watch the
show at the Stroh Center. Doors open at 6:30.
“We want to show the NCAA that we are very excited to be hosting this and would like
to host it again,” said Wendy Stram, executive director of the Bowling Green
Convention & Visitors Bureau. The bureau is Bowling Green’s liaison with
BGSU for the tournament. “We want to show everybody a good time, and we want
them to have a good experience in Bowling Green.”
Stram said the tournament is an excellent opportunity for Bowling Green to be in the
national spotlight.
“Hosting the games is huge for Bowling Green. We want people to be familiar with
Bowling Green, Ohio as well as Bowling Green State University,” Stram said. “We
really want to roll out the red carpet.”
If Bowling Green’s women win the Mid-American Conference tournament this weekend, the
Falcons will be one of the four teams playing at the Stroh Center.
If the Falcons are an NCAA tournament team, they will be in attendance on Monday at
the selection show.
Bowling Green hosted NCAA tournament games in Anderson Arena in 1989, 1993 and 1994.

“There are a million reasons we want the Bowling Green women’s team to win,” said
Lesley Irvine, associate athletics director of sports administration and senior
woman administrator at BGSU. Irvine is BGSU’s point-person for the NCAA
tournament.
“The anxiety level for me is the uncontrollable and the uncontrollable are the teams
that are going to be sent here,” Irvine continued. “We will welcome whatever
teams are sent here with open arms, but the tournament will very much be shaped
by who we get and how that team travels.”
The staff at BGSU has been working for 10 months to get things ready for the NCAA
tournament. The NCAA will basically take over the Stroh Center on March 15,
starting setup for the event.
“We are confident that we have prepared extremely well,” Irvine said. “It’s become
fun to see the staff become more and more focused in on what they have to do.

“We feel confident we are going to put on a great event,” she added.
Approximately 1,150 all-session tickets have been sold for the tournament. The four
participating teams are required to purchase 100 tickets each. Irvine said
single game tickets would go on sale next week.
The seating capacity for the Stroh Center is 4,347.
“The NCAA wants us to sell as many tickets as possible and they provided us with some
market research.” Irvine said. “What we took from that was to go out and pitch
the marketing plan to fans of the women’s game and not just Bowling Green.
“We are lucky to have a community here who are very supportive of our women’s
basketball team.”
A total of 250 volunteers have signed up to help with the event.
“We are using our volunteers in everything from game management to a hotel
hospitality program, which is something we have created ourselves. We wanted to
create a community presence in each of the team hotels,” Irvine said. “We have
just been overwhelmed with the support for the event. We truly feel like this is
a community effort.”
Teams will be using hotels in Perrysburg, Rossford and Bowling Green. The NCAA and
the media will be using a hotel in Bowling Green.
Stram said there would be an ambassador at each team hotel, passing out information
on Bowling Green, including a visitor’s guide, BG perks cards, and a flyer
listing the top 10 things to do in Bowling Green.
There is also a show your (game) ticket discount at various Bowling Green businesses,
Stram said.
In Bowling Green, there will be restaurants/bars designated for each of the four
teams involved, giving fans a place to congregate starting March 17.
“Those establishments will be home base for those fans,” Stram said.
A good showing by Bowling Green for the NCAA tournament could lead to future
tournaments at the Stroh Center.
“There has been a lot of interest in the Stroh for post-season events,” Irvine said.
“We will bid for the WNIT and potentially some post-season events for men’s
basketball.
“It is such a fantastic facility; it’s going to open up some doors for us to really
be aggressive in hosting events … It will be great exposure for the
department, the university and the town.”