Arena board eyes NCAA tournament

WILKES-BARRE TWP. - While scouting one event it’s considering hosting, Mohegan Sun Arena General Manager Rebecca Bonnevier said she heard good things about its chances of landing an NCAA women’s basketball tournament next year.

The arena submitted a bid on the 2014 Eastern Regional Women’s Div. 1 Championship and should hear before the next meeting of the Luzerne County Convention Center Authority board, Bonnevier said.

She told board members Wednesday she and another arena official went to Springfield, Mass., for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship last weekend in order to get a grasp of what’s required to host that tournament. The arena is thinking about submitting a bid to host it for three years starting in 2015.

“It went really well,” she said, adding the people they met with indicated “that there’s a very good possibility that we may be selected as a site to host (the women’s) tournament. That’s not confirmed, but things are going very well with that.”

Bonnevier also provided an update on the progress of the feasibility study being done by Restaurant Advisory Services of Paoli. Last month the board approved paying RAS $20,000 to conduct the study to help determine the use of the planned 20,000-square-foot expansion at the arena. She said she provided information on sales history of the concessions and, among other things, a list of businesses in the market that the consultant Ron Gorodesky should be checking.