Economy to blame for canceling summer basketball tournament

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 | 11:46 a.m.

Greg Oden played in the Reebok Summer Championships. So did Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo.

In 2010, however, fewer future stars will be in the Las Vegas Valley displaying their talents in front of hundred of college coaches.

The tournament, which hosted 136 teams from 28 states last summer, won't be held this July, officials announced Thursday. The event lost Reebok as its title sponsor and didn't have the roughly $100,000 needed to rent the facilities — 24 courts at 12 area high schools — for the five-day event.

"We thought we gave a good service to a lot of student athletes," said Jim Allen, the tournament's director. "People just don't realize how expensive it is. You have to pay your referees and rent the gyms. The gate receipts would come up short."

Allen said the tournament was canceled now because this is the time of the year club teams start finalizing their summer plans. His group hired a firm to look for a national sponsor, but the poor economic climate proved to be detrimental.

The tournament was sponsored by Rebook the past three years. The same management team produced the Big Time tournament from 1995 through 2006, which for several years was the lone event in town. It was sponsored by adidas.

The departure of the Reebok event, which at its peak had 300 teams from 44 states and three countries, could end Southern Nevada's run as the nation's summer basketball destination. In addition to the Reebok event, two other smaller-sized tournaments — the adidas 64 and an event hosted by Dream Vision Sports — were held at the end of July during an evaluating period for colleges.

Ron Montoya, the executive director of the adidas 64, said his tournament would be played this summer. Known for its quality of competition, it could expand from the 96 teams it hosted last year to accommodate teams affected by Reebok event folding. He's already received interest from teams looking to play.

"It's sad that Reebok won't be around," Montoya said. "That's a couple of hundred of kids who won't have a place to play."

Losing the tournament will also hurt the Las Vegas hotel industry, which typically is slow during the summer months. In addition to the estimated 5,000 players and their families, the summer basketball circuit brings coaches from every level of college looking to fill their rosters.

"The cost is driving tournaments out of Las Vegas," Montoya said.

Allen, one of the longtime faces of summer basketball locally, knows this summer won't have the same excitement to it.

"I will probably be in some kind of withdraw," Allen said. "I know I will miss meeting with some of the college coaches I've gotten to know over the years."