Fenway could host ACC tourney

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Posted 6:20PM on Thursday, June 30, 2005

BOSTON (AP) Boston College is finally getting the keys to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the league is already eyeing one of the city's jewels. BC is putting together a bid to hold the ACC baseball tournament at Fenway Park, perhaps as soon as 2007. ``It could be a great opportunity for the players,'' commissioner John Swofford said Thursday after welcoming the ACC's 12th school. ``Fenway is one of the special venues in all of sports.'' Although Boston College's first competition as a member of the ACC won't be until its Sept. 17 football game against Florida State, the Eagles sever their ties with the Big East on Friday. ACC officials visited BC's new Yawkey Center named after the former Red Sox owner on Thursday to mark the end of a sometimes acrimonious two-year struggle to grow at the Big East's expense. The ACC courted several Big East schools in 2003 in an attempt to expand to 12 teams and hold a lucrative conference championship. Miami and Virginia Tech were first invited to join the Greensboro, N.C.-based conference, with Boston College and Syracuse jilted; BC was later added to the expansion, but not before tensions with its old league were further inflamed. ``It's been a very difficult road at times,'' BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo said, ``and a day that I thought personally at times, might never come. But it's here. All's well that ends well.'' On Thursday, Boston College wasn't listed as a member on the ACC web site, which still showed a map with dots from Miami to Maryland. BC was right there on the Big East site, though, with no sign of the rancor that met its decision to defect. Much of the discussion around BC's move has centered around football and basketball, revenue sports that drive most college athletics decision-making. But the change also affects smaller sports from wrestling to rowing. BC is working to expand its facilities, including a renovation of the arena for basketball and hockey (which remains in its current conference, along with skiing, fencing and sailing). New baseball and softball fields will be built at its Brighton campus on land the school bought from the Boston Archdiocese. Those sports will be forced to travel more in a conference that, for the first time, spans the bulk of the Atlantic Coast. DeFilippo said non-revenue sports will now travel by planes, instead of buses, more often, so the athletes do not miss any more classes. Any increase in travel costs will be more than made up with the increased revenue from the superconference. DeFilippo also noted that BC and Maryland are closer than Florida State and Miami. One problem that money can't solve: the New England weather, which will keep BC players indoors months after their competition can begin playing outside. ``Spring sports are going to be disadvantaged,'' DeFilippo said. ``The ACC's going to try to schedule some of our earlier games in the South.'' Despite having schools in Atlanta, Miami and College Park, Md., the ACC has never held its baseball tournament in a major league ballpark. After years of holding the championship at campus sites, the conference has moved toward minor league stadiums; Jacksonville, Fla., has a two-year contract for 2005-06. ``Boston has a lot to offer not just Fenway Park and the Red Sox,'' said Chuck Steedman, a vice president of Fenway Sports Group, a Red Sox spinoff business formed last year. ``I think it would be great for the league to have the exposure here.'' And it wouldn't hurt BC to have a wider exposure, either. ``Along the whole seaboard we have not been able to recruit traditionally from the South,'' women's basketball coach Cathy Inglese said. ``It's hard to bring up kids from the South to come to school here to play. I'm hoping, maybe not initially but maybe after a few years, we'll be able to get down there more to recruit.'' (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)