Menu
Media

Year-old basketball event coming to ESPN

This summer, ESPN will carry The Basketball Tournament — a single-elimination tournament of 96 teams that carries a $1 million winner-take-all prize and lists sports industry veterans Tony Ponturo, Andy Dolich and Len DeLuca among its advisers.

ESPN will carry the 1-year-old event’s semifinals (Aug. 1) and finals (Aug. 2) from New York. ESPNU will carry many of the games from the rounds of eight and 16; and ESPN3 will stream all of the games from the round of 16.

A team of Notre Dame alumni celebrated victory at The Basketball Tournament last year. This year’s final will be on ESPN.
Photo by: MATT THOMAN
The one-year revenue-sharing deal will see TBT sell the title sponsorship around the event; TBT and ESPN will combine to sell presenting and in-game sponsorships. ESPN holds options to keep the tournament in 2016.

“This property came in through some folks that we know very well over the years,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming acquisition.

ESPN got to know the event last year, when it streamed some of the tournament’s games via its ESPN3 service. Magnus said ESPN executives were impressed by the level of play, which included ex-NBA players and ex-college players mixed in with regular Joes.

“From a storytelling perspective, when there’s high stakes, there’s bigger interest — like the World Series of Poker,” Magnus said. “It’s a big money game with people that you’ve heard of. At the same time, there’s this everyman appeal to it as well.”

Last year’s tournament was won by a group of Notre Dame alums. Cornell’s 2010 team that made the Sweet 16 entered the tournament last year, as did a team with former first-round NBA pick Hakim Warrick.

“It was like a ‘Field of Dreams’ moment where all these different teams were reuniting,” said TBT founder Jonathan Mugar. “It was really special to see.”

This year’s opening rounds begin July 10-12 at regional sites in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and play will continue July 17-19 in Chicago and Philadelphia. The round of 16 will take place in Chicago starting July 24, with the winners going on to New York. The tournament is still finalizing deals with gyms to house the various games.

The games will fit nicely with ESPN’s schedule, filling its summer schedule with live programming, Magnus said.

“We get hundreds upon hundreds of pitches a year from things all over the spectrum in terms of their viability and their approach,” Magnus said. “This stood out last year. We trusted the people that were involved in it and they delivered in the first year. There’s a path to great growth here in terms of how it applies to potentially other sports. We’re excited about it.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/02/Media/The-Basketball-Tournament.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/02/Media/The-Basketball-Tournament.aspx

CLOSE