On Wednesday afternoon, Suzy Mason had a little down time.
It was a rarity for Arizona’s senior associate athletic director in charge of event management and facilities. Mason says she won’t have another real break until June, and it’s easy to see why. She’s the athletic department’s point person as the Wildcats women’s basketball team attempts to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Mason worked to put together the Wildcats’ bid to host, and — should they be selected on Sunday — will be in charge of planning and executing the games in McKale Center.
“This needs to be an all-hands-on deck and support this team, this program with the ability to move forward and have a chance to win a championship,” Mason said. “… We do what we do to help our teams thrive at the most critical part of their season. It might not be about the time we have to eat or the minutes we have to sleep, but we have to find a way to get it done.
“It’s a sprint,” she added, “but it’s highly rewarding.”
The Star talked to Mason about the bid process and what goes into hosting the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament this year. The conversation has been lightly edited.
When did you start the bid process and what did those discussions look like?
A: “We started discussing it in mid-December and started putting it all together in early January. We knew we would be in a pretty solid hosting position, especially as we climbed in the polls. And we felt pretty confident that we had the right fan base, the right support, the right venue, and all the things that make the pomp and circumstance associated with March Madness in place and to do a really good job. We didn’t really discuss it … It was one of those things that similar to softball, baseball … we’re in a position to host we want to host that’s the right thing to do for our fan base, especially after having missed out on the last two years. And if you have the opportunity to host at home as part of your championship run in your season, we will always try to accommodate and do that for any of our sports. So that’s been our prevailing philosophy. It was just a matter of getting all the bid documentation together and submitting to the NCAA.”
You bid two years ago before COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Tournament. Did that help you this time around?
A: “It did help us. It certainly helped us with our relationship with Visit Tucson’s Nick Pazzi and his team with securing hotels because, as you know, lodging and food is a huge part of that making sure the teams have that solid experience. … For our fans, there this is the place that they want to be when our women’s team is playing. I think from the WNIT Championship, when we had eight, seven, 10 (thousand fans) — whatever, (UA coach) Adia (Barnes) threw out there on Twitter, and we met the number — I think that spirited diehard Arizona-centric fan base helped fuel a lot of that. Because then we knew we could handle big crowds, but we also knew that regardless of whether you’re Arizona playing in McKale Center (or) the other three teams that are going to be here, (you’ll) have that opportunity to play in front of a loud fanbase that supports women’s sports.”
What type of information does the NCAA ask for in the bid?
A: “There are about 20 tabs that you fill out and, in each tab, there are probably eight to 10 subsections. You put in everything, what signage needs to be covered, what signage is digital, what the specs on the signage is, what our audio system is, what our video system is, what our WiFi capacity is. All those things that happen behind the scenes that the fan base doesn’t know about but has to be seamless. Then accommodate the bigger media groups and four teams in here: With locker rooms that we use for our other teams. With hotels that have to understand the nature of lose-and-go-home. It’s not like they can book it for five days. You’re in, you lose, you go home. So that’s a hedge on some of those properties. We understand that. Making sure that we have all the certificates of insurance, the hosting information and the rental cars. The Teamworks app, so the teams can register when they’re going to land, what bus they are on, all the things associated with campus. Parking, facilities management, police security, all of those details get placed somewhere in this bid document. There’s a lot of detail for site planning that goes into just the bid alone. And then it’s no different than a coach; you have your game plan and then it’s our job to execute the plan.”
Suzy Mason is the UA's senior associate athletic director for event management and facilities.
What changed from the last time you bid?
A: “Obviously we haven’t hosted in a very long time for basketball. There were points of clarification, who could be in what role, updating COVID policies, updating testing policies should they be necessary and somebody becomes positive. There were some nuanced changes, but not anything insurmountable. Now, I really think it comes down to what our seed is going to be. And if we’ve done enough to serve as one of those 16 host institutions.
“The First Four is different. … I’m not going to go through how that First Four lays out, but 68 (teams this season) versus 64. The fact that that’s different for the men. The men have those games in Dayton. The women’s, being the first year that it’s 68 — those first four games will be at the site of some of those hosts institutions. So that was a little bit of a change or difference. … For us, just be ready to host, have the proper setup and decorations ready to go. And then make sure you have the additional hotel for that team if you need it.”
So there’s a possibility that McKale Center could host a First Four game on Wednesday or Thursday?
A: “Hosting an opening-round game, then we’d be in the mix. And that’s why we had to add the additional fifth hotel, as our women — if we’re lucky enough to host — will also stay in a hotel for the core traveling party, players and coaches, to stay hunkered down, (like) a typical road trip but be at home.”
Will Arizona still require fans to wear N95s or medical masks for this event?
A: “We are deferring to the (UA) president’s decision on that. I believe in his last campus communication was (that) they were going to review and assess on Monday, March 14, which is after spring break for us here on this campus. Historically, we’ve followed Pima County guidelines, but we work in conjunction with what Dr. (Robert C.) Robbins and his team of experts and COVID response team shares with us. We will follow whatever the campus tells us at that time.”
With all the seats reserved for other teams, the NCAA and more, many season ticket holders may not be sitting in the same seats they do during the regular season. What does this look like for Arizona fans?
A: “We have an entire list of that our ticket office has handling most of those allocations. They have what we call … the band and cheerleader sections. non-playing participant section. (For) Night 1, the team allocations, the ESPN allocations, the NCAA allocations, so that whole list of who goes where and on what number that that the NCAA specifies is listed. We turned in an arena diagram with a seat map and show that and share that obviously the biggest impact to us here at Arizona would be the lack of court-level or scholarship row seating. The fact that we have to push back a little bit on the east and west (sides) to allow for the media seating. We have a team block. I think it’s 150 per team is held with their ability to reserve more. ESPN and Wilson have their seats. Turner and the NCAA have their seats. We have some seats for official observers and then obviously band cheerleaders non-playing guests and then some seats set aside for ZonaZoo students. And then the rest will be defined by those teams and then our season-ticket holders.
“I can pretty much guarantee that you could have some similar sections, but you won’t have your exact same seat, especially if you’ve been on scholarship row, or the first couple rows along east or west side. …
“I think McKale is going to be a great host site though. It makes me feel better even as an older arena. If that helps with the ability to kind of really showcase this campus and I really feel that it’s an awesome venue with a great atmosphere and environment now for women’s basketball. … I think the vibrancy of this arena on game day is a huge draw and could be an awesome experience for an NCAA event.”
