Fort Wayne Feels Sting From NCAA Tournament Cancellation

Fort Wayne Feels Sting From NCAA Tournament Cancellation

To 6 pm.

Well this weekend thousands of women's basketball fans were expected to flock to fort wayne for the n-c-a-a tournament..the coliseum was scheduled to host regional semifinal and final games before the tournament was ultimately canceled due to coronavirus.

Petar hood has more on how that cancellation is impacting both event organizers and fans alike.

Narr: doug weaver had been looking forward to this weekend for a while..doug weaver: "super excited to go.

Bought eight tickets right off the bat.

We actually had second row, right behind the bench side."narr: great tickets for what would have been great women's basketball games, featuring some of the best college teams in the county..weaver: "you're not even talking about the first and second rounds.

The winner would have went to the final four.

Would have been huge for the city as well, and obviously for all of northeast indiana.

We go to a lot of things at the coliseum.

Would have been great for the coliseum to show itself off on the national stage."narr: instead, as the coronavirus pandemic looms, the doors to the coliseum are closed.

The parking lot, empty... and basketball fans like weaver are sitting at home..weaver: "it's the right decision, but it's still disappointing overall."standup: "the coliseum had already sold over 2,500 tickets for the event.

They were expecting to sell several thousand more.

And event organizers like ashley malone have seen hundreds of hours of hard work go down the drain."ashley malone: "kneejerk reaction is of course to be disappointed.

We had all worked so hard and so long, and we were so confident that we were going to do a great job and produce an amazing tournament."narr: although there is disappointment, that confidence is still there.

And purdue fort wayne athletic director kelley hartley hutton is hopeful her staff will get another shot at some point..

Kelley hartley hutton: "in terms of future bids, we're aggressive, and we're working together.

The process demonstrated to us that visit fort wayne, purdue fort wayne and the coliseum are really strong colleagues.

So, just very confident that there are going to be other opportunites in the very near future."narr: in fort wayne, petar hood, fox 55 sports... and all of the fans we spoke to today via social media have already received refunds for the