NIT moves 2021 event to Texas, interrupting N.Y. run
Promotion seen as ‘fun, safe way’ to fill some seats during pandemic.
The NIT is moving the entire 2021 event to Texas, taking the semifinals and championship game out of New York’s Madison Square Garden for the first time in the 83-year history of college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament.
The pandemic is also reducing the field to 16 teams from the usual 32, and all games are set for the Dallas area. The two venues are the University of North Texas in Denton and an arena in Frisco that is home to a G League team affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks.
First-round games will be played March 17-20, with the quarterfinals March 25. The semifinals are set for March 27, followed by the championship game the next day. Specific arenas for each round weren’t announced.
It’s a promotion that could be straight out of the “Mad Men” Don Draper playbook.
Brooklyn’s famed Peter Luger Steak House has teamed with Madame Tussauds to have celebrity wax figures mingle with patrons, promoting the easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions on indoor dining in New York City.
A wax Jon Hamm — known for his portrayal of ad executive Draper in the hit TV series — could be found at the restaurant’s bar last week with a cocktail in hand. Other figures on loan from Madame Tussauds include Michael Strahan, Jimmy Fallon, Al Roker and Audrey Hepburn in Holly Golightly of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” mode.
Peter Luger “thought this would be a fun, safe way to fill some of the seats that need to remain empty as we continue to fight the pandemic,” said restaurant vice president Daniel Turtel.
As of last Friday, restaurants in the city were allowed to fill 35% of their indoor seats, up from 25% previously.
Peter Luger, in business for more than 130 years, will keep the mannequins until this week. After that, they’ll return to the recently reopened Madame Tussauds in midtown Manhattan.