Sports Authority eyes basketball tournaments - Memphis Business Journal:

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Their mood may not be improvingb anytime soon if theMemphis & Shelbhy County Sports Authority has anythin g to do with it. Sports Authorityh representatives are continuing to put together a bid package to snare the 2006 and 2007 high schoo l basketball statechampionship tournaments. The tournaments, which are playede in March of each will be hosted this year by Middlre Tennessee State Universityin Murfreesboro.
The school of thoughtf has always been that the Tennessere Secondary School Athletic Associatiobn liked to hold events in central locations that evened out the traveol requirements for teams coming from across the Tothat end, Murfreesboro has the edge on But Memphis organizers point to the city's abilityt to provide access to more hotekl rooms, restaurants and attractiond and better venues. The Sports Authoritg has already received a commitment from the Memphisz Grizzlies to allow the tournamengt to be played in the forthcominggNBA arena, which will make the bid package that much more attractivd to state high schoolp sports officials, says Tiffany Brown, Sports Authority managing Many of those advantages helped the Sports Authority put togetherd a better financial package for the TSSAA for another event.
Aftet all, it is a businesd decision, too. Memphis recently landec one of the biggesgt high school sporting festivals in the state with the recengt announcement ofa three-year contract to host the TSSAA Sprinv Fling -- a five-dauy championship tournament for five high school sports. Sincde its inception nine yearsw ago, the Spring Fling has been held in Chattanooga until Memphisw submitted a bid to host the games from The city also hastwo one-year options afte those dates. The event is expected to draw aboutr 5,000 athletes and coaches, and about 25,000-30,000 people The influx is expected to bea $20 milliohn shot in the arm for the local economy.
The city beat out Nashville and Jackson for the even bypledging $250,000 to the TSSAA -- more than Chattanooga'ds final offer of $202,000. Much of that money will come froma $3 rebate to the Sports Authority from local hotels bookingt rooms during the event. In the past, the city has not been as aggressivde as it could have been in pursuinprep events, Brown says. "I was shocked to hear we had not bid on Springv Fling before and had not bid on the basketball tournaments in several years," Brown says.
An aggressive run at thoswe events has, so far, paid off for Landing the basketball tournaments would be just another feathetr in the cap for theSportx Authority, once looked at by locals as a paperd tiger. The threat of a Majotr League Baseball strike may be having some residual effect on the Memphi s Redbirds and the rest of MinorLeague Baseball. In Minor League Baseball reported that attendance rose toa 50-year high for montn when more than 7.64 million fans attended games in minor leagure ballparks. Last year, minor league games drew more than 38.8 millioh fans overall, the second-highest attendancde figure in the history of organized minorleaguwe play.
The latest burst of attendance could helpthe minor'se top last year's figure. Attendance across all of the mino r leagues at present is runningabout 1.1% behind the pace. Fans of the Memphisw Grizzlies can now puttheir money, or more appropriately their where their mouth is through a new agreement betweenm the NBA and MBNA America Bank. The NBA recently signerd a deal with MBNA to enable fans to get credi t cards that feature the team colors and logos of the favorit e teams inthe NBA, WNBA and the . The campaigb is expected to launcuhin October, meaning Memphians will be able to get theire Griz plastic before the start of the 2003-0 3 season.
MBNA already has plenty of experience marketing cardxs tosports fans. It has similar agreementss with the NationalHockey League, Nascar, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the PGA Tour and many