BOSTON (AP) – The Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament is heading to the show.

The league will play its 2009 championship in Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox and down the street from the ACC’s newest member, Boston College. It will be the first league tournament to be held in Boston since BC joined the conference in 2005.

“Coming to Fenway will be a wonderful experience for those involved in the programs, as well as the fans that follow our ACC baseball teams,” commissioner John Swofford said Wednesday on a conference call. “Fenway is one of the most revered sports venues in all of America.” The baseball tournament will return to Jacksonville, Fla., in 2007 and 08 before heading to Fenway, which is expected to hold 38,000 seats by then. The Red Sox got the go-ahead from major league baseball to bid; the ACC tourney will force the team onto the road for a 10-game road trip.

“They very happily said they’d work with us,” said Chuck Steedman, the executive vice president of the team’s affiliated Fenway Sports Group.

Because of the major league schedule, the Red Sox could only commit Fenway for one year.

“We’re not sure what we’ll do after 09,” Swofford said.

Also, the conference said at the close of its spring meetings that it will keep its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments close to home. The men’s basketball tournament will return to Greensboro, N.C. – site of the league’s headquarters and this year’s tourney – in 2011 and 13-15; the women’s tournament will extend its stay through 2015. The league had already set Tampa, Fla., as host of the men’s basketball tournament in 2007, Charlotte in 2008, Atlanta in 2009 and Greensboro in 2010.

Atlanta will host the tournament again in 2012. The women’s tournament was already slated to be in Greensboro through 2009.

Swofford said tradition – the city has hosted a league-high 21 men’s basketball tournaments – and the Greensboro Coliseum’s 23,500-seat capacity was a strong selling point for bringing the tournament back.

“From a women’s standpoint, I think the tournament’s really found a home,” Swofford said. “It’s consistently grown there each and every year.”

AP-ES-05-17-06 1616EDT