By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
Canton will soon be a college championship city again.
The NCAA has selected the community to host Division III championships in football and volleyball.
The Stagg Bowl will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in 2020 and 2021, and the men’s volleyball championship will be played at a fieldhouse being constructed at the new Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village in 2022.
“We’re ecstatic,” Visit Canton Vice President of Marketing Tonja Marshall said Wednesday. “It’s something that we’ve been eyeing and hoping to bring to the area for a while now. To finally see this to come to fruition is extremely exciting.”
Visit Canton and the Ohio Athletic Conference will serve as hosts.
The NCAA news comes on the heels of the Ohio High School Athletic Association announcing earlier this year that football state championship games will return to Canton in 2017 and 2018.
The community is well acquainted with handling large events. It hosts the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies and the Hall of Fame Game that kicks off the NFL’s preseason.
“This area loves football,” Mayor Thomas Bernabei said.
He added that “there always has been and always will be community support and warmth” for such sporting events.
Marshall credited the Hall of Fame Experience, along with the $600 million Hall of Fame Village — a complex around the Pro Football Hall of Fame that will include hotels, shopping and a conference center — for helping to nab the college events.
“We’ll start to see the impact that the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village can have on our entire area,” Marshall said.
Marshall said it’s unclear right now what the economic impact will be for hosting the events. She said officials are especially excited about the national exposure through television. The Stagg Bowl is broadcast on ESPN.
The football championship, which traditionally has been held in Salem, Va., is well known to local residents. The University of Mount Union in Alliance has appeared in the game 19 times since 1993.
Canton last hosted NCAA championships in 2010 when it was the site of swimming and diving events. It also hosted swimming and diving championships in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
The NCAA said it received more than 3,000 bids to host events through 2021-22 and selected 613 sites. Visit Canton and the Ohio Athletic Conference had bid on 17 events.
Canton won’t be the only Northeast Ohio community hosting upcoming NCAA championships:
• Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball championship in 2020.
• The Spire Institute in Geneva will be the site for several events. It will host Division III men’s and women’s track and field championships in 2020; Division III men’s and women’s outdoor track and field championships in 2019 and 2021; and Division II men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships in 2020.
• The Wolstein Center in Cleveland will host the Division II men’s wrestling championships in 2019.
To view all the locations, go to: http://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2017-04-18/future-ncaa-championships-site-selections-released.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .
