Other than a few coaches fortunate to get there for the first time, the Baltimore Arena will be the oldest rookie in this year's NCAA basketball tournament.
In 23 days, the tournament that spurs an annual miniseries on CBS and as much office betting as the Super Bowl will make its initial stop in Baltimore. UMBC's desire to spread its name, the city's quest for big events and the NCAA's interest in sending March Madness to new locales conspired to make the Arena one of the eight subregional sites.
Baltimore will learn which eight teams from the East Region are coming on the night of March 12, when the 64-team field is announced. Telephone lines and fax machines will be busy at UMBC, the Arena and every downtown hotel for the rest of that week, but the planning began in 1991.
That's when Marty Schwartz, the tournament manager and UMBC's director of athletic development, began a process that will come to fruition March 16, when four first-round games -- and probably the opening game of the tournament -- will be played at the Arena.
UMBC doesn't have a legacy in big-time college athletics, and its men's basketball team never has appeared in the tournament it is about to serve as host. A banner sporting its name will spread across the scorers' table and be in the camera's view on every trip up the floor during six NCAA games, so the Retrievers figure to get more national exposure than any Cinderella.
With the approval of his bosses and the management of the Arena, Schwartz went ahead with a long shot four years ago, when UMBC and 31 other colleges or conferences applied for the right to serve as host at one of the two East subregional sites in 1995. The Retrievers made the cut to nine, and that's when things started hopping.
"I got a call on a Wednesday informing me that the NCAA would be coming to town in six days to check out our ability to host the tournament," Schwartz said. "I thought we were going to have more time to prepare than that. To be frank, the city went nuts."
There's a fierce competition among cities for events that draw national exposure. The last such plum to come to the Arena was the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials in 1992, and Baltimore was mobilized for the arrival of Bill Hancock, director of the NCAA tournament.
Hancock was ferried from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to the Arena in a limousine. He met with Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Arena officials and just about anyone involved with tourism and economic development in Baltimore. They were able to convince Hancock that Baltimore is not the same market as Washington, which got a subregional last year at USAir Arena.
Hancock was wined and dined, but a $200 suite and a couple of crab-cake dinners don't get the NCAA tournament to town. The NCAA has a manual several inches thick detailing tournament procedures and what's required for a college or conference to get the tourney.
"There are pluses and minuses to every bid," said Hancock, one of three NCAA employees who works full-time on the men's basketball tournament. "The airport, hotel situation and the dedication to the event shown by the Arena staff and the UMBC people were on the plus side."
And the minuses?
"The age of the building," Hancock said. "That was it."
The 12,959-seat Arena isn't the smallest in the NCAA tournament this year -- the Boise (Idaho) State Pavilion holds 12,375 -- but it is the oldest. The Arena was known as the Civic Center when it was constructed in 1962. A few years later, the NHL decided it wasn't adequate for one of its expansion franchises. The Bullets fled to Landover in 1973.
The shortcomings of the Arena, which was renovated in 1986, weren't entirely to blame for the absence of the NCAA tournament. Baltimore didn't even have a Division I basketball team until 1978, and it wasn't until 1990, when Coppin State and Towson State qualified, that it had a presence in the NCAA tournament.
That breakthrough coincided with a change in philosophy among members of the NCAA men's basketball committee, which, besides selecting and seeding the participants, approves sites.
"The committee's thinking has changed in the last five or six years," Hancock said. "It's a national tournament, and it shouldn't keep going to the same old sites. It should go to every building that qualifies. Baltimore fits that philosophy."
As do Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, N.Y., Leon County Civic Center in Tallahassee, Fla., and Boise State Pavilion, three other sites being used by the NCAA for the first time.
Hancock said the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that a host city doesn't have to raise funds to stage it. UMBC's only cost for the courtside publicity is several dozen volunteers. The Arena gets three sessions of parking and concession revenue in return for the use of its building and employees.
And the teams and officials are reimbursed by the NCAA for their transportation, lodging and meals. In effect, corporate sponsorship is supplied by CBS, in the form of its seven-year, $1.7 billion TV contract.
If minimal cost is a beauty, NCAA procedures can be a beast.
Before each game, the band of the higher seed will play the national anthem. The higher-seeded team in the second first-round game will practice from 3 to 4 p.m. on March 15. The public address announcer will be in the fifth seat from the left at the scorers' table. No beer will be sold at the Arena on March 16 and 18.
If Hancock or, heaven forbid, Billy Packer, shows up without his official NCAA-issued identification badge, he just can hustle back to his hotel and get it. You don't get in the Arena without badges or tickets, which are sold out.
Is there anything that isn't covered?
"If there is, I can't think of it," Hancock said. "We want players in Boise to have the same quality of experience as the ones in Baltimore, and we strive for consistency from site to site. Anything less than that is unfair to the players. When you boil this all down, take away the fans and the press, this is for the players."
Needless to say, every Maryland fan in the area is hoping the Terps come to the Arena, whether it's as a first, second or third seed.
Regardless of who's coming, Schwartz said he doesn't care. The positive feedback he has received from the city and the Arena are among the reasons that, come summer, UMBC will apply to bring the tournament back to Baltimore in 1999.
TONIGHT'S GAMES
ST. PETER'S (15-9) at LOYOLA (8-15)
Site: Reitz Arena
Time: 7:30
Radio: WCAO (600 AM)
Outlook: The Greyhounds (4-7 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) have won two straight and can move past Iona into fifth place in the conference with a victory. The Greyhounds are led by senior F B. J. Pendleton (14.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg). St. Peter's (9-3, second place in the MAAC) has lost two straight.
No. 12 NORTH CAROLINA (23-4) at MARYLAND WOMEN (10-15)
Site: Cole Field House, College Park
Time: 7:30
Outlook: The Terps are struggling, having lost six straight and eight of their past nine. Maryland's 2-12 Atlantic Coast Conference record is its worst mark in school history. The Tar Heels have gone 5-4 in their past nine games after beginning the season with 18 consecutive victories.