Smallish Arena Means Spokane’s Not In The Arena

Maybe the worst thing you can say about the Spokane Arena is that there isn’t enough of it.

Easy, now. Nobody’s bashing the new building. It’s up, it’s functional, it’s comfortable - it’s us. The glass is definitely half-full.

That half-empty part, however, is where the NCAA Basketball Tournament should be.

Where it won’t be until at least the year 2000, if at all.

The NCAA has now booked its tournament into arenas through the spring of 1999. Spokane recently extended an invitation to have first- and second-round games that year played in the new Arena, and the NCAA RSVP’d its regrets.

With an irksome P.S.: while saying no to Spokane for the first time, the NCAA said yes to Seattle for the umpteenth.

That’s right. The same Seattle which hosted three Final Fours in the space of 12 years gets one of the 1999 West sub-regionals, making it the leader in the embarrassment-of-riches clubhouse.

As director of Division I basketball championships, it’s Bill Hancock’s job to be messenger-with-a-death-wish - though he comes across as the most decent and frank functionary in NCAA history.

“Two things,” he said, explaining why Seattle’s in and Spokane’s out. “One, the transportation to Seattle is much better. Two, Seattle was coming off a Final Four in which it had done a fabulous job and the committee felt some obligation to reward them.”

That’s either Catch-22 or a new definition of March Madness.

Oh, and there was one other thing. Seattle’s Key Arena has 17,000 seats, Spokane’s Arena barely 12,000.

And at that size, Spokane will always be a long shot.

“The building is wonderful,” said Hancock, “but it’s a tad on the small side.”

You wouldn’t think a building big enough for Reba would be too small for Bobby Knight, but there you have it. In meting out its tournament games, the NCAA demands a minimum of 12,000 seats for its first-round sites. An exception, apparently, has been made this year in the case of the Richmond Coliseum (10,178), but the other 31 arenas in the mix through 1999 are all 14,000-plus except Boise’s Pavilion (12,300), Providence’s Civic Center (13,106), Oklahoma City’s Myriad (13,356) and Tucson’s McKale Center (13,800).

And when you talk about accommodating the press (400 showed up last year at Salt Lake City, for instance) and television (the Arena’s camera platforms are inadequate for CBS’ needs), Spokane’s capacity shrinks, uh, accordingly.

When Hancock made his visit to Spokane, he couldn’t help but notice the undeveloped upper west deck and how well it could accommodate more fannies.

“It would have more appeal to us if the upper level seats were there,” he admitted. “Obviously, there’s room to expand in the future.

“But as (arena director) Kevin Twohig said, for a large percentage of their events, they don’t need those seats. We would - but we might only be there every four or five years.”

Of course, without those extra seats, the NCAA may never come at all.

This troubles Gonzaga athletic director and basketball coach Dan Fitzgerald, whose school submitted the bid along with the Greater Spokane Sports Association.

“The one thing in our bid we can’t fix is the size of the arena,” he said. “But if it’s too small, I’d have to say, ‘Show me why.’ If all eight first-round sites are consistently selling out over that capacity, OK.”

Well, six of last year’s eight were virtual sellouts - the exceptions being Salt Lake and Tallahassee, where only 8,740 showed up for the second round.

“I think the NCAA has to be a little careful not to make everything bottom-line,” Fitzgerald said. “If it’s going to truly be a national tournament, you have to spread it around - and our community is a logical site to do that.”

It’s just that 2,000 more seats would make it even more logical.

“If I’d been building it and had the checkbook, I would have built it at 14,000-15,000 right off the bat,” said Eric Sawyer of the GSSA. “But right now, there isn’t the demand for that size of a facility. It’s a marketing issue.”

Not exactly. With the NCAA involved, it’s also a political and competition issue.

For instance, Hancock encouraged Spokane to keep bidding because “it never happens for a first-time bidder.”

But with Boise, Ogden and Salt Lake having hosted several sub-regionals and the refurbished Key Arena giving Seattle another building to bid with, Spokane has a lot of rivals for a very few events - and the smallest building, to boot. Portland’s new Rose Garden would be another important player in the game except that “we don’t take the tournament to places with open-book gambling, and Oregon’s lottery counts as that,” Hancock said.

“It’s clear Spokane can run this tournament,” he said. “They crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I.’ I would just say to hang in there.”

And think big. The NCAA does.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE BIG HOUSES NCAA Basketball Tournament West Regional first- and second-route sites, with arena capacities compared to the new Spokane Arena (12,000) 1995 Boise: BSU Pavilion 12,375 Salt Lake City: Huntsman Center 14,910 1996 Albuquerque: University Arena 17,126 Tempe: University Activity Center 14,287 1997 Salt Lake City: Huntsman Center 14,910 Tucson: McHale Center 13,800 1998 Sacramento: Arco Arena 17,317 Boise: BSU Pavilion 12,375 1999 Seattle: Key Arena 17,100 Denver: McNichols Arena 16,264

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review