“We have been working with the Expo Center on this for quite a while and are so excited to make this announcement,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in a news release.
“We are also excited to announce that girls basketball will now play tournament games at the Coliseum in addition to boys, which wasn’t done before. Reaching the Fairgrounds Coliseum was the goal for so many schools in Central Ohio for decades, and we are thrilled that the Coliseum will be that destination once again.”
The Coliseum, which is known locally as “The Barn,” holds 5,000 fans and was renamed after former Ohio governor Bob Taft in 2010.
Opened in 1918, it was a main hub for tournament games in Central Ohio until 2014 when other venues became utilized instead.
The state tournament was played there at times from 1923-1958 when it moved to St. John Arena on the Ohio State campus. UD Arena is the current host of the state tournament after years of declining attendance at Value City Arena, the successor to St. John Arena at Ohio State.
In the news release, the OHSAA said the venue could also host state semifinal games, which will no longer be held in tandem with the state championship games at UD Arena because of the expansion of divisions from four to seven.
Those games are expected to be held at a neutral site, as football games are now, somewhat equidistant from the two schools.
The girls state finals will be at UD Arena on March 14-15 with Divisions II, III, and IV on day one and Divisions I, V, VI and VII on the second day.
The boys state finals will follow one week later.
The Coliseum’s storied history also includes being the home of Ohio State basketball, the Columbus Horizon of the CBA and multiple minor-league hockey teams.
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