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GREENSBORO — Greensboro appears to have hooked the YMCA 2012 Short Course Swimming and Diving Championships for its new aquatics center.

The event attracts about 1,600 top swimmers from across the country and will move from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a location the YMCA expected to name this week.

A YMCA official said he’ll attend a noon news conference today announcing a national event for the Greensboro Aquatic Center. But Jim Weaton , national director of events for YMCA of the USA, wouldn’t say Greensboro has been selected.

“I cannot confirm that,” he said Wednesday , “but I will be at the press conference.”

The YMCA nationals, scheduled for April 10-13, 2012, needed a new home after Fort Lauderdale’s elected officials chose not to install temporary seating at the pool.

Old stands at the pool were condemned by engineers, and after the April meet the YMCA announced it would leave.

Bruce Wigo, CEO of the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, said the event was the venue’s busiest week each year.

He added that the city had hosted it every year but three since 1971, but the city-owned pool couldn’t afford more than $700,000 for temporary seats .

“The city wanted to do everything that was possible,” Wigo said. “For 10 years they’ve been talking about redoing the aquatic complex.”

A news release from the national office of the YMCA said the event needed at least 1,500 seats. The Greensboro Aquatic Center will hold up to 2,500 when construction is finished in late August .

In past years, Wigo said, the event has brought about 1,600 swimmers along with their families to town. Top finishers are often recruited for college swimming programs , and scouts also attend the meet.

The term “short course” refers to the distance being measured in yards, instead of the internationally used meters. The Greensboro Aquatic Center is being built to support both types of racing.

It appears the news conference isn’t to announce a USA Swimming event. Vice President of Program Operations, Jim Sheehan , said Wednesday that he didn’t know of any announcements from there planned for Greensboro.

“I would probably have heard about it,” he said.

Kim Strable , president of the Greensboro Sports Commission, would not give specifics of the announcement.

“I know a lot, but I don’t have the authority to make any kind of tips or announcement,” Strable said.

And Greensboro Aquatic Center director Susan Braman wouldn’t name an event, either.

“You’ve gotten as far on this as you can go at the moment,” she told a reporter Wednesday. “Much like the masters national swimming meet, we’re excited to have this meet before we open.”

Usually, she said, a governing body for a sport won’t commit to a location before it’s completed.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com