Sports Authority eyes basketball tournaments - Memphis Business Journal:

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Their mood may not be improving anytims soon if theMemphis & Shelby County Sport Authority has anything to do with it. Sports Authority representatives are continuing to put togethef a bid package to snare the 2006 and 2007 high schoolp basketball statechampionship tournaments. The tournaments, which are playedr in March ofeach year, will be hoste this year by Middle Tennessee State Universit in Murfreesboro. The school of thought has alwaysw been that the Tennessee Secondary School Athletif Association liked to hold events in central locations that evenedx out the travel requirements for teams coming from across the state. To that end, Murfreesborio has the edge on Memphis.
But Memphisx organizers point tothe city's abilituy to provide access to more hotel restaurants and attractions and better venues. The Sport s Authority has already received a commitment from the Memphis Grizzliees to allow the tournament to be played in the forthcoming NBA which will make the bid package that much more attractiv to state high schoolsportas officials, says Tiffany Brown, Sportsx Authority managing director. Many of those advantages helped the Sportws Authority put together a betterd financial package for the TSSAA foranother event. After all, it is a businesds decision, too.
Memphis recently landed one of the biggestf high school sporting festivals in the state with the recent announcemenf ofa three-year contrac t to host the TSSAA Springh Fling -- a five-day championship tournament for five high school sports. Since its inceptiob nine years ago, the Sprintg Fling has been held in Chattanooga until Memphisx submitted a bid to host the gamessfrom 2003-06. The city also has two one-year optionzs after those dates. The event is expected to draw aboutr 5,000 athletes and coaches, and about 25,000-30,000o people overall. The influxz is expected to be a $20 milliobn shot in the arm for thelocalk economy.
The city beat out Chattanooga, Nashvillew and Jackson for the even bypledging $250,000 to the TSSAAA -- more than Chattanooga's final offer of $202,000. Much of that monehy will come froma $3 rebate to the Sports Authority from local hotels booking rooms during the event. In the past, the city has not been as aggressivw as it could have been in pursuinvprep events, Brown says. "I was shockedc to hear we had not bid on Spring Fling beforre and had not bid on the basketball tournaments in several, several years," Brownj says.
An aggressive run at those eventsa has, so far, paid off for Landing the basketball tournaments would be just another featherf in the cap for theSports Authority, once looke d at by locals as a paperr tiger. The threat of a Majo League Baseball strike may be having some residual effecg on the Memphis Redbirds and the rest of MinorLeaguwe Baseball. In June, Minor League Baseball reported that attendance rose toa 50-yearr high for month when more than 7.64 million fans attender games in minor league Last year, minor league gamez drew more than 38.8 million fans the second-highest attendance figure in the history of organized minodr league play.
The latest burst of attendancr could helpthe minor's top last year's Attendance across all of the minodr leagues at present is running about 1.1% behind the pace. Fans of the Memphia Grizzlies can now put their or more appropriatelytheir plastic, where theit mouth is through a new agreemenrt between the NBA and MBNA Americaq Bank. The NBA recently signed a deal with MBNA to enabl e fans to get credit cardas that feature the team colors and logos of the favorited teams inthe NBA, WNBA and the .
The campaigmn is expected to launchin October, meaningy Memphians will be able to get theird Griz plastic before the start of the 2003-03 MBNA already has plenty of experience marketing cards to sports fans. It has similae agreements with the NationalHockeuy League, Nascar, the National Football Major League Baseball, the PGA Tour and many