The University of Maine has not hosted the America East Women’s Basketball Championship tournament since 1998, when Clinton’s Cindy Blodgett was on the verge of closing out her stellar career.
In March 2017, the Black Bears and their fans will enjoy the next best thing when the tournament begins a two-year stint at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
America East, Shamrock Sports and Entertainment and the Maine Sports Commission formally announced Thursday that Portland has been awarded the tournament in 2017 and 2018. It will mark the first time the event, which will include the first round, quarterfinals and semifinals, has been held at a neutral site.
“Portland’s a great city and it’s a neutral site, which I think is a big step forward for our conference,” said UMaine women’s basketball coach Richard Barron.
“It’s a great venue. They’ve made a lot of improvements down there over the last year or two with the renovations,” he added.
UMaine athletics director Karlton Creech emphasized that the bid to hold the tournament in Portland was made by Shamrock, America East’s corporate sponsorship, marketing and sales agency, with the support of the Maine Sports Commission.
“It’s a great idea and the America East Conference was supportive of exploring a neutral-site host and thought Portland would do a great job,” Creech said.
Ideally, UMaine would be able to host the tournament on its home court at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The university submitted a bid in 2014, but the conference choose Binghamton University in New York as the host for 2015 and 2016.
“This is just a two-year deal, so if we ever get back to a campus host format, we would certainly try to bid on that,” Creech said.
Short of hosting, Barron prefers playing at a neutral site. Last winter, UMaine was the regular-season co-champion and earned the No. 1 seed for the tournament, but was not rewarded.
“We were the No. 1 seed playing a road game to start the tournament last year and we had to travel the farthest,” Barron said. “To me, that’s not fair or equitable.”
Had UMaine, which lost in the semifinals, reached the title game, it would have been played in Bangor. The highest remaining seed through the semifinals earns the right to host the championship game.
Barron and Creech view the opportunity to play in Portland as a positive development not just for UMaine, but for all America East schools. The University of New Hampshire is about an hour away and potentially will attract a good number of fans.
“It’s a great location, great venue, with lots of hotels, lots of restaurants,” Barron said. “There’s a fan base in Maine for women’s basketball and I think we’ll get some casual fans there as well, not just people with a rooting interest, who want to come see some good basketball.”