Sponsors Activating Around USA Hoops Camp In Vegas

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large

USA Basketball (USAB) sponsors are activating around the Senior National Team’s mini training camp this weekend in Las Vegas, which culminates with the intrasquad USA Basketball Challenge game Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center, being broadcast on FSN. State Farm, title sponsor of the game, will run an on-air and in-arena spot with coach Mike Krzyzewski that is tagged to indicate its USAB sponsorship. Other USAB sponsors advertising on the broadcast: Coca-Cola (Sprite), Gatorade, GM (Chevrolet), McDonald's, Nike and EA Sports.

ON-SITE: State Farm is giving more than 200 tickets to servicemen and women from Nellis Air Force Base. On-site, it will sponsor a "Hot/Cold" game, in which a fan is helped by the crowd to locate a cardboard cutout of a State Farm-branded car.  A State Farm prize pack will be given to the participant and T-shirts will be thrown into the crowd.  GM has been giving away tickets in the local market as test drive incentive. On-site, a "Shoot for a Chevy" contest challenges one randomly selected attendee to make a lay-up, foul shot, three-pointer, and half-court shot in 45 seconds to win a GM vehicle.  McDonald's will activate against its iced coffee offerings with a "Cool as Ice" shooting contest at the game; the winner earns free iced coffees for his or her entire section. McDs will also give away coupons good for free iced coffee. The July mini-camp will determine finalists for the U.S. squad that will compete August 22-September 2 in the FIBA Americas Championship 2007, also in Las Vegas.