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The Pavilion at Pan Am Plaza will be one of the few downtown venues hosting ancillary events tied to this year’s NCAA Tournament, with a three-on-three basketball competition slated to take over the facility on Final Four weekend.
The Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship, scheduled for April 2 to 4, is one of three tournament-related events planned by Chicago-based firm Intersport. It will not be open to the public this year because of the pandemic.
Additionally, Butler University is expected to host at least two events on Final Four weekend, after hosting at least 16 games—including the Sweet 16—in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Butler University Athletic Director Barry Collier told IBJ on Wednesday the State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships will be held at Hinkle Fieldhouse, along with a historic black colleges and universities all-star game.
Both events will be held on Final Four weekend, but contracts for the events have not yet been finalized. It’s also uncertain how many fans will be allowed at the events; Butler is permitted by the Marion County Public Health Department to have up to 25% capacity for its NCAA tournament games.
Like the three-on-three tournament, the slam dunk and three-point contests are Intersport events.
At the Pavilion, the half-court, three-on-three tournament will be sanctioned by international governing body FIBA.
The event will feature 16 teams comprised of 64 senior student athletes from the NCAA’s 32 Division I basketball conferences. This is the third year for the tournament, which was called off in 2020 along with the NCAA Tournament because of safety concerns.
The teams will compete for a share of the $150,000 prize pool. Winners of each game in pool play—32 games on Friday and 24 on Saturday—will get $1,000. Teams that win in the first and second knockout rounds will get $1,000, while a quarterfinal win is worth $5,000. Finalists will get $10,000 and the champion wins $50,000.
Drew Russell, executive vice president of properties and media assets for Intersport, said the Pavilion was chosen because its size will allow for social distancing and adherence to other national and local health and safety protocols.
The facility also allows Intersport to create a made-for-TV event with some select VIP spaces for corporate partners and other dignitaries, he said.
Pool play will be broadcast on Twitter, while ESPN2 will carry the semi-final and championship matchups. The games will be called by Kyle Montgomery, known as “the voice of FIBA 3-on-three basketball,” and former Purdue University star and All-American Robbie Hummel. Tate Frazier and former Ohio State guard Mark Titus—a Brownsburg native—will provide commentary and postgame interviews throughout the tournament.
“You don’t need necessarily a traditional gym to be able to play this event, and it offers us some unique opportunities to be able to to host the tournament” at the Pavilion, Russell said. “We will have some limited VIP hospitality. It’s a smaller venue and based on the fact that we’ll have 64 players, and a full production crew, it’ll be a very limited capacity this year.”
Russell said most of its sponsors are locked into multi-year contracts, including Dos Equis. So, while most corporate groups have opted not to invest new marketing dollars during this year’s NCAA tournament because of limited fan capacity at games—25%, maximum—the sponsors for this year’s event were already on board.
Sponsors for the event include Rocket Mortgage, IHOP, Libman, Jimmy John’s, Discount Tire and Spalding. Genius Sports Group, a firm that specializes in sports data, has signed on as a partner to supplement the tournament broadcast.
“Obviously [the sponsors] wanted to make sure that we were buttoned up and we were doing things the right way—taking the athletes’ and participants’ health and safety into consideration,” he said. “And in this instance, because there’s limited capacity or no capacity at all, understanding how we present the best possible broadcast or streaming product for fans.”
The Pavilion, directly across from the Indiana Convention Center, is expected to be one of only a few downtown facilities to have events related to the tournament this year. Most others have seen little interest from corporate groups that in years past have flocked to the city.
Cebronica Luft, a partner in the Pavilion, said she is pleased the tournament will utilize the space with “a pretty cool activation” when few other users are showing interest. The tournament will rent out the building for three full days, she said.
“My inclination is that corporations are not wanting to invest in events where they can’t maximize the attendance or have the fan-facing [activities] that they’ve been privy to in the past,” she said. “So, given that, we haven’t received many inquiries.”
Aside from the tournament and college slam dunk and three-point contest, Intersport also plans to host high school slam dunk and three point contests in late March and early April. Those festivities will occur March 30 at Franklin Central High School, with a broadcast April 4 on CBS.
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So hypocritical of professor’s and teachers. Until every kid in this country can return to classroom learning. Sports should be put on a hold. I bet that would get the kids in classroom’s so they could play their sports then.
JL – not sure what that has to do with the article? Most/all colleges are back in some form. Besides, students nationally shouldn’t be prohibited from playing in a tournament as you suggest, because of some professors in RI or CA or wherever… it are exactly this kinds of events that put indirect pressure on leaders that are preventing other people from participating in life, to loosen the reigns.