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Intersport plans to bring back Women's College Basketball All-Star … – Sports Business Journal
Intersport was simply ahead of its time in 1998 when the Chicago-based agency launched a women’s college basketball all-star game. The event — known back then as the WBCA All-Star Challenge — didn’t make it as a commercial success 25 years ago, but now Charlie Besser, Intersport’s founder, president and CEO, is bringing the concept back. And this time, he has no doubt it’s going to succeed.
For one, he says with a laugh, Intersport has 25 years of experience producing major events under its belt. But mostly, women’s college basketball has the horsepower now to make an all-star game go. “The first time around, the marketplace wasn’t ready to support an event like this,” Besser said. “Now, women’s sports have risen to the level they should be, and it’s time to showcase all of these great players.”
The Women’s College Basketball All-Star Game, produced and operated by Intersport, will be played in Cleveland on April 6, the Saturday between the Final Four and National Championship, Besser told me today. The wave of popularity in women’s college hoops makes this the right time to launch such an event.
Cleveland will be the site because that’s where the Women’s Final Four will be held. Besser is committed to making this game an annual event in the city where the Women’s Final Four is played. “It’s our intention for this to be a forever thing,” Besser said.
The new event will be played at Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center. Participants will likely be players whose college eligibility has expired.
The Women’s College Basketball All-Star Game still has some work to do. It is in conversations with potential TV partners to broadcast the game. Intersport is also talking to brands about a title sponsorship and official partnerships.
Intersport has its sights set on an afternoon tipoff, which would lead into the men’s Final Four games that Saturday evening.
Intersport is working independently of the NCAA to operate the game, just as it’s done for more than 30 years to put on the College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships in the same city where the men’s Final Four is played.
Mark Starsiak and Mike Kline from Intersport’s basketball division have run point on organizing the event.
Intersport began working on a plan to create the women’s all-star game more than a year ago, but Besser became convinced that the time is right while watching the Women’s Final Four last year.
Record-setting women’s specialty events like the outdoor volleyball matches at Nebraska that drew 92,003 and the outdoor basketball game at Iowa in front of 55,646 fans have only created more of an appetite.
Besser: “We had been talking about this for a while, but the environment around such a game has changed. Women’s sports are so much stronger and the level of competition has continued to increase. So, in our minds, it was coming.”
SBJ I Factor presented by Allied Sports features an interview with Jon Niemuth, director of sports at Gensler. Niemuth, a longtime leader and innovator in architecture, is a member of Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class of 2006. He sat down with SBJ’s Abe Madkour to talk about his career path, what it takes to be successful, and how facilities have changed and will continue to evolve. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards, such as Forty Under 40, Game Changers and others.
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