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Last week was the deadline for bids to host various NCAA tournaments, including college hockey's Frozen Four, for the years 2015-2018. Not all of the bids have been made public, but the names of a few bidders have been in the media this past week.
The University of Wisconsin is listed as the potential host on two separate bids. One is for the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, which certainly makes sense. The Badgers would also be listed as host if the Frozen Four returned to Tampa. Tampa was interested in hosting again, and asked UW to help them with the planning and coordination aspect of hosting. It's unorthodox, but there's really no reason a school from that far away couldn't handle those duties.
When the Frozen Four was held in Tampa in 2012, it was hosted by Alabama-Huntsville. This time around, the Chargers may have been holding out hope to host a bid in nearby Nashville. The Music City gave strong consideration to putting in a bid, and would have likely made an excellent destination for the tournament, but ultimately decided against bidding, citing the fact that hosting upcoming SEC basketball tournaments, along with being host to the Nashville Predators, would make it too difficult to host the tournament.
Kansas City put in a bid for a Frozen Four at the Sprint Center, with Nebraska-Omaha serving as the host. Kansas City hosted the Icebreaker tournament last year, with the hopes that they could impress enough to earn a Frozen Four bid.
Cleveland also submitted a bid. That would be at Quicken Loans Arena, home of the AHL's Lake Erie Monsters. It's not exactly the sexiest destination, but the arena does hold just over 20,000 for hockey, which is enticing.
The city of Cincinnati, along with the University of Miami, didn't try for a Frozen Four, but did apply to host regionals in 2016 and 2018.
Certainly there were plenty of others to submit their bids, but that gives some idea of what is out there. The NCAA has leaned heavily in recent years towards hosting the event in an NHL building. It will be interesting to see if non-NHL markets such as Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Cleveland are given a shot.