Multimillion-Dollar Event Flouts Status Quo But Embraces NCAA

The Players Era Festival seeks to “bring the Madness to November,” according to its working mantra, but it’s been generating plenty of intrigue and anxiety before even this month.

First announced in May, the festival, which consists of two men’s basketball multi-team events (MTEs) playing out concurrently at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, has appeared to challenge the NCAA’s rules on athlete compensation and the logic of the marketplace.

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Players Era has committed to spending $50 million on NIL money for athletes that play in its games, agreeing to pay each of its participating teams’ affiliated NIL collectives $1 million per year. With eight teams set to kick off the inaugural festival in November, that means organizers are on the hook for $8 million in NIL commitments alone—significantly more money than almost every other MTE earns in total revenue.

On Tuesday, Players Era officially announced a three-year distribution deal with TNT Sports, while unveiling a partnership with Publicis Sports, the American sports marketing division of the French international PR agency. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

In a phone interview this week, Players Era’s co-founders—former AND1 CEO Seth Berger and EverWonder Studios president Ian Orefice—sought to explain why their vision makes sense, even if it flies in the face of industry convention. The key to understanding Players Era, according to its leaders, is to not see it as another tournament, but rather the seed of a college basketball media brand with untold activation possibilities.

While keeping vague about its financial picture, Orefice did offer that Players Era has already generated “eight figures” in revenue commitments for 2024 and would “not lose a lot of money in year one of the event.”

That alone might come as a shock to others in the basketball event space, who have been furiously scratching their heads over—and occasionally rolling their eyes…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/multimillion-dollar-event-flouts-status-140000936.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-09-10 14:00:00

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