Officials with USA Basketball today will announce they are "relocating their headquarters" from Colorado Springs to Tempe as "part of an Arizona State University development project that includes a conference center and hotel," according to a front-page piece by Ryman & Metcalfe of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. The $350M project called USA Place is "expected to break ground later this year and to be largely complete by the end" of '15. It will be "developed on 10.5 acres at Mill Avenue and University Drive, land owned" by ASU. The project will be "built with private money." Developers said that the complex "could draw more than 300,000 people to Tempe annually." USA Basketball Chair Jerry Colangelo said that the men's and women's national senior teams, made up of NBA and WNBA players, will "use the Tempe facilities at times." The men's team has an "ongoing training arrangement in Las Vegas." The basketball facility will "include five full courts and two-half courts for national team tryouts and training camps." The courts can be "configured to seat 4,500 for public scrimmages and for Arizona Interscholastic Association playoffs in a variety of sports." This is the "second time USA Basketball has chosen to relocate to the Valley." A plan to move to Glendale in '08, with a private developer building a $53.8M training campus "as part of a larger development near Camelback Ranch, fell through because the developer could not complete financing during the economic downturn." USA Basketball "has been based" in Colorado Springs since '93 (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/31). USA Basketball's relationship with Nike was also examined by NBA.com (THE DAILY).
