Philadelphia rolls out the red carpet

A variety of events are on tap around the city to complement the Final Four. This weekend, Philadelphia is expecting a few visitors. About 40,000, in fact. With the 2000 NCAA Women's Final Four taking place at the First Union Center this weekend, officials are busy preparing the City of Brotherly Love for the thousands of basketball fans anticipated to attend -- and getting ready to reap the rewards the tournament will bring to the city. "This has literally been about a six-year process," Philadelphia Sports Congress Executive Director Larry Needles said. "To bring an event of this magnitude is truly a city-wide effort." Philadelphia Women's Basketball 2000, a local organizing committee, has been working closely with the Philadelphia Sports Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau to schedule a week of activities related to the Final Four and women's basketball as a whole. The Final Four games themselves, to be played Friday and Sunday nights, are sold out, but there are a host of events over the next four days that are open to the public. Today's first public event is an open practice and autograph session at the First Union Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring all the Final Four teams -- Connecticut, Penn State, Rutgers and Tennessee. Across the street at the First Union Spectrum, the U.S. women's national team will play a Hungarian club team tonight at 7 p.m. The rest of the weekend will be filled with basketball clinics for children aged 10-18 and a variety of fan-oriented events at the Convention Center. "This is a way of creating a women's basketball week in Philadelphia," PWB spokeswoman Laura Loro said. "It's a great opportunity to showcase the city and women's basketball together." To give visitors a good impression of Philadelphia, Danielle Cohn, the spokeswoman for Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that her organization has prepared transportation, special signs and welcome booths to help visitors navigate the city. In conjunction with the Philadelphia Sports Congress, the group has developed a shuttle system to transport coaches and visitors from events to hotels, games and airports. The routes will also be used to transport the large contingent of media members expected to cover the event. Cohn said she expected that those in town for the tournament will make full use of Philadelphia's tourist and historical attractions. The Philadelphia Sports Congress estimated that the economic benefit to the city from the Final Four will be approximately $25 million. This figure includes expenditures on hotels, restaurants and transportation. "People want to see the staple items of the city just as much as they want to explore the new," she said. "It's our job to make sure people are well-informed about what's going on throughout the city." Cohn said several welcome booths -- which will be manned by employees of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau and by volunteers -- will be placed in the airport and in several hotels to help visitors get to and from the weekend's activities.

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