The NCAA yesterday “reversed its ban” on New Jersey hosting tournament and championship games, but the move “comes too late to save a number of premier events,” according to Craig Wolff of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. The move comes “a week after a federal judge ruled against Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign to legalize sports betting” in the state. But this “won’t undo” the NCAA’s decision to “bypass the Prudential Center in Newark as the stage" for either the ‘14 or ‘15 Men’s East Regional Basketball Championships. That “missed opportunity” by some estimates will cost Newark "more than” $6M. Newark Regional Business Partnership President & CEO Chip Hallock said, “In the short term, the immediate damage has been done.” Devils Owner & Prudential Center Chair Jeff Vanderbeek said that he was “pleased” with the decision. Wolff notes the NCAA’s move “comes with no guarantees from the NCAA that it will stick,” as last week’s court ruling “will almost certainly be appealed and perhaps overturned" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 3/7). The AP's Tom Canavan wrote the Prudential Center may have been the “biggest victim of the NCAA ban" as many believed the arena "would have been the site" of the East Regional in ’15 (AP, 3/6).
