Columbus games are Final Four ‘ dry run’

The college-basketball season has just started, but Columbus sports officials already are looking toward March.

On Sunday, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission and its partners will take a first major step toward hosting the NCAA Women’s Final Four over Easter weekend with its Countdown to Columbus event.

Sunday afternoon’s two top-tier games will serve as a sort of dry run and promotion for the Final Four, which is coming to Columbus for the first time, March 30-April 1.

“We decided this would be a great way to shine the spotlight on the upcoming Final Four and on Columbus,” said Linda Logan, executive director of the sports commission.

Top-ranked Connecticut will play Stanford at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in a game aired on ESPN. Ohio State, ranked

fifth in the Associated Press poll, will take on Louisville at 4 p.m., to be televised on ESPNU. The games will take place at Nationwide Arena.

The day will be a “dress rehearsal,” Logan said.

The Final Four is expected to bring close to $25 million in direct visitor spending to Columbus and probably will lead to 14,000 nightly stays in Columbus hotel rooms. Television and news coverage will put a spotlight on the city.

Meredith Cleaver, NCAA director of women’s basketball championships, said she’s excited to be coming to Columbus, which was selected as the host city three years ago.

“Columbus’ footprint is phenomenal for an event such as this,” Cleaver said. “The proximity of the arena, the convention center and the hotels is ideal.”

A city bidding on the Final Four has to have an NCAA Division I partner, which in this case is Ohio State University.

Ohio State took the lead in rounding up the three other Top 10-ranked teams for Sunday’s games. The NCAA requires the Final Four host city to stage a sort of test game at the planned venue well in advance, so everyone involved can ensure smooth operations come March.

“It gives an opportunity for the facility to do setup for basketball, and to do the back-of-house setup we need. It provides a runthrough for Ohio State and the others involved,” Cleaver said. “ESPN gets a chance to work with the Nationwide Arena staff.”

Like any other major event, the Final Four benefits the hospitality industry, but the NCAA also makes a point to spread the benefits by partnering with host city officials on what they call Legacy Programming.

All the details aren’t ready to be announced, Cleaver said, but she said that one component is typically a partnership with local schools to promote reading to grade-school children. The organization usually takes on resurfacing and installing new landscaping at a basketball court in the host town, Cleaver said.

“We’re working on that and hoping that will happen in Columbus,” she said.

And in partnership with the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, named for the former North Carolina State basketball coach who died from breast cancer, a donation will be made to “a local cancer hospital” during Final Four week, Cleaver said.

This weekend’s activities will feature a pre-game luncheon program at the arena titled “More Than a Game: Women, Leadership and Sports.” The luncheon is free but requires reservations.

Sunday’s program, part of an ongoing Beyond the Baseline series leading up to the Final Four, features notable women including lawyer and former Ohio Supreme Court

Justice Yvette McGee Brown; Rogue Fitness sales and distribution chief Caity Matter Henniger; and Katie Smith, a native of Logan, Ohio, who starred at Ohio State and now coaches the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

“We want this to be about empowerment,” Cleaver said. “We want to get the whole community involved.”