RICHARD ENSOR has served as commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference since Aug. '88. Earlier this month, the MAAC, in conjunction with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, U.K. charity Sport Changes Life and Rory McIlroy's Rory Foundation, announced the inaugural Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic, to be held at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from Dec. 1-2. The early-season college basketball tournament will feature College of the Holy Cross, Manhattan College, La Salle University and Towson University. Ensor, who is known for his marketing efforts, spoke to SBD Global about the first-of-its-kind event, the relationship with partners across the Atlantic and the future of the tournament.
On the partnerships and tournament beginnings ...
Richard Ensor: We began, at the MAAC, working with the Sport Changes Life foundation about three years ago. They approached us about becoming a conference partner with them in their Victory Scholar Program. The Victory Scholar Program provides postgraduate scholarships for primarily basketball players, but then it expanded to golfers, as well. They go over for a year and get their Masters [degree], and work with the community on community relations efforts and play basketball for the teams in Ireland. ... We broadened our involvement with the foundation by suggesting perhaps ourselves, Sport Changes Life and the Basketball Hall of Fame could do something in the preseason, early-season environment for basketball in Belfast.
On the inaugural tournament ...
Ensor: This first year, we're going in with two doubleheaders ... and it's really an opportunity for us to make sure all the systems are working and we can run top quality basketball in Ireland for the locals. And then we want to expand it eventually into an MTE which is one of those multi-team exempt events that are permitted under the NCAA basketball regulations. I would expect that if things go well, that by 2018, we'll be looking at that format.
On why the chosen schools were a good fit ...
Ensor: We were looking to do mid-majors so that the schools would have the opportunity to win a couple of games if they're having a good year. ... They're natural rivals ... and it brings in four key markets for us. We'll get New York with Manhattan, we'll get the Boston area through Holy Cross, we'll get Philly with La Salle and then Towson brings in Baltimore. And those are all pretty good feeder markets to Northern Ireland and Ireland as far as fans, tourism and other relationships just because they have large Irish-American populations.
On the future of the event ...
Ensor: It'll be an eight-team MTE if we had our druthers as we move forward. The MAAC hosts one of these already, [the AdvoCare Invitational] each Thanksgiving. ... So, we have some history and understanding of how those events work and that's what we'd like to see replicated in Belfast -- to become a top-destination MTE. I think it can work. It's got all the elements that we've seen be successful in other parts of the U.S. ... We could draw teams from all the conferences along the Northeast and Midwest. It would be great if we could get Notre Dame there some year.
On team costs ...
Ensor: The teams themselves will receive a guarantee including air travel for the team travel party. There'll be no direct cost associated with travel or the hotels in Ireland. They may have some meal charges ... and they will get a stipend for that. So, the teams are covered. The funding is coming through sponsorships and also through some direct public funding. Tourism Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland are both involved. ... We're working with both those groups and they see this as a great opportunity.
On playing at the SSE Arena in Belfast ...
Ensor: We've had two meetings already with the SSE Arena and their staff is first-rate. They understand operations so it's no different than an American facility in that regard. What we need to do is introduce them to basketball systems that we use for college hoops here. The flooring has to be a certain quality -- and we'll have a regulation court either leased or purchased for this event. ... It's a lot of basketball operational issues. The rest of it is not that much different than what we do in the U.S. It's looking like 10,000 is a really decent number for us in terms of attendance and if they price it right and get the groups involved throughout Ireland, I feel like they can get the fans in there.
On broadcast opportunities ...
Ensor: [Naismith Memorial Basketball HOF Basketball Operations VP] Greg Procino ... is doing the grunt work on that. They are talking to a couple of networks and I'm fairly confident we'll have an agreement in the next few weeks. We're just trying to iron out some of the details as far as production and production costs. They are going to talk to the BBC about international feeds and that's being handled in Northern Ireland by the foundation folks.
On the relationship with Rory McIlroy’s foundation ...
Ensor: Sport Changes Life has already engaged with Rory McIlory's foundation on a number of enterprises in Northern Ireland and Ireland. ... Rory is very committed to youth, he does a number of different partnerships. ... I only met him briefly in New York when we did the Victory Scholars this past year. ... He interacted with the athletes that were there that were heading to Ireland the next day. I was very impressed with how he worked with them. I haven't worked with the foundation yet myself but I'm looking forward to it because they seem like a great group of people.
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