Players Era Festival organizers betting big NIL is the future of college basketball tournaments

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Players Era Festival organizers have done what so many other have tried — bet their fortunes in this city that a big payoff is coming.

Such bet are usually bad ones, which is why so many massive casino-resorts have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard.

But it doesn’t mean the organizers are wrong. They’re counting on the minimum of $1 million in guaranteed name, image and likeness money that will go to each of the eight teams competing in the neutral-site tournament that begins Tuesday will create a precedent for other such events.

EverWonder Studios CEO Ian Orefice, who co-founded Players with former AND1 CEO Seth Berger, compared this event to last year’s inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament that played its semifinals and final in Las Vegas by saying it “did really well to reinvigorate the fan base at the beginning of the year.”

“We’re excited that we’re able to really change the paradigm in college basketball on the economics,” Orefice said. “But for us, it’s about the long term. How do we use the momentum that is launching with the 2024 Players Era Festival and be the catalyst not to change one event, but to change college basketball for the future.”

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Orefice and Berger didn’t disclose financial details, but said the event will come close to breaking even this year and that revenue is in eight figures. Orefice said the bulk of the revenue will come from relationships with MGM, TNT Sports and Publicis Sport & Entertainment as well as sponsors that will be announced later.

Both organizers said they are so bullish on the tournament’s prospects that they already are planning ahead. Money made from this year’s event, Orefice said, goes right back into the company.

“We’re really in this for the long haul,” Orefice said. “So we’re not looking at it on a one-year basis.”

Rick Giles is president of the Gazelle Group, which also operates several similar events, including the College Basketball Invitational. He was skeptical the financial numbers would work.

Giles said in addition to more than $8 million going to the players, there were other expenses such as the guarantees to the teams. He said he didn’t know if the tournament would make up the difference with ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorship money. The top bowl of the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be curtained off.

“The math is highly challenging,” Giles said. “Attendance and ticket revenues are not going to come anywhere close to covering that. They haven’t announced any sponsors that I’m aware of. So it all sort of rests with their media deal with Turner and how much capital they want to commit to it to get these players paid.”

David Carter, a University of Southern California adjunct professor who also runs the Sports Business Group consultancy, said even if the Players isn’t a financial success this year, the question is whether there will be enough interest to move forward.

“If there is bandwidth for another tournament and if the TV or the streaming ratings are going to be there and people are going to want to attend and companies are going to want to sponsor, then, yeah, it’s probably going to work,” Carter said. “But it may take them time to gain that traction.”

Both founders said they initially were met with skepticism about putting together such an event, especially from teams they were interested in inviting.

Houston was the first school to commit, first offering an oral pledge early in the year and then signing a contract in April. That created momentum for others to join, and including the No. 6 Cougars, half the field is ranked.

“We have the relationships to operate a great event,” Berger said. “We had to get coaches over those hurdles, and once they knew that we were real, schools got on board really quickly.”

The founders worked with the NCAA to make sure the tournament abided by that organization’s rules, so players must appear at ancillary events in order to receive NIL money. Strict pay for play is not allowed, though there are incentives for performance.

The champion, for example, will receive $1.5 million in NIL money.

Now the pressure is on to pull off the event and not create the kind of headlines that can dog it for years to come.

“I think everybody in the marketplace is watching what’s going to happen (this) week and, more importantly, what happens afterwards,” Giles said. “Do the players get paid on a timely basis? And if they do, that means that Turner or somebody has paid way more than the market dictates? And the question will be: Can that continue?”

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