Oklahoma City to host Big 12 baseball, basketball tournaments

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma City will host the Big 12 men's and women's basketball tournaments in 2007 and the conference's baseball tournament in 2006 and 2007, the Big 12's commissioner

Tuesday, June 8th 2004, 2:36 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma City will host the Big 12 men's and women's basketball tournaments in 2007 and the conference's baseball tournament in 2006 and 2007, the Big 12's commissioner said Tuesday.

It will be Oklahoma City's first time hosting the Big 12 basketball tournaments, which were held in Kansas City, Mo., from 1997 to 2002, then moved to Dallas, where the conference is headquartered, the past two seasons.

The basketball tournaments will be held in Kansas City next year and will be held in Dallas in 2006, with men's games at the American Airlines Arena and women's games at Reunion Arena.

In 2007, men's games will be played in Oklahoma City at the Ford Center and women's games will be played at the Myriad Convention Center

``We're excited about the prospect of being in Oklahoma City for our basketball tournament in the spring of 2007,'' Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said.

The conference's football championship will be held in Houston in 2006 and in Kansas City in 2007.

Weiberg said the conference decided to award the championships only for the next two years so it could revisit the process a little sooner once possibilities of new basketball arenas in Kansas City and Tulsa and a new football stadium in Dallas develop further or end up eliminated from the picture.

Weiberg said the championships were decided with considerations for geography, ease of travel for fan base, quality of facilities, potential to generate revenue for the conference.

In the past, the conference has expressed reservations about whether there were enough hotel rooms in Oklahoma City to host a basketball tournament.

``We believe it is not a concern,'' Weiberg said. ``I know there has been growth in the hotel community and Oklahoma City has met our specifications for the number of required hotel rooms.

``When you're hosting an event in a city for the first time, you've always got some trepidation about how these kinds of things will play out. I think by going into the 2007 basketball tournament in Oklahoma City, we have some time here to work with the city leadership to make that the hotel/motel situation is as good as it can possibly be.''

Weiberg said the fact that the Big 12 has hosted NCAA Tournament games in Oklahoma City _ and will do so again next year _ also allayed concerns about hosting its basketball tournaments at the sites.

The baseball tournament will return to SBC Bricktown Ballpark, which hosted it from 1998 to 2001 and again in 2003. Oklahoma City also hosted the tournament in 1997 at the All Sports Stadium.

The tournament was held at Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, in 2002 and drew a record 150,196 fans. It was also held in Arlington this year.