UConn basketball teams set for unique Bahamas experience
For the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams to take part in the Battle 4 Atlantis, which presents an early opportunity to find out how good they really are, a major structure at the Caribbean’s largest resort must undergo a complete transformation.
A 200,000-square foot convention center at Atlantis Paradise Island becomes a 4,000-seat basketball arena with the installation of a court, seating, scoreboards and all else that goes into hosting high-level college basketball and its elaborate television production.
After year-long planning, the final heavy lifting creates a venue that the nationally-ranked teams and brand name programs in each bracket are accustomed to for November MTE’s (multi-team events) — a loud, fans-on-top-ofthe-court “arena” for business-as-usual basketball.
“Look, people say, ‘Oh, my god, you play in ball room, the lights are dim,” said Lea Miller-Tooley, founder and CEO of Complete Sports Management, the marketing agency that developed the event in 2011. “When you get in there and you see it and you see the fan camaraderie and you have that kind of access to a team you have followed for years — you don’t get that in Storrs. It’s such a unique atmosphere and that, to me, is the coolest part.”
Geno Auriemma and the Huskies’ second-ranked women open Saturday against Minnesota and would be in line to face No. 1 South Carolina in Monday’s championship game, marking the conclusion of the women’s debut tournament at Atlantis. Dan Hurley and his 23rd-ranked Huskies open Atlantis’ 10th men’s tournament Wednesday
against No. 21 Auburn in a field that includes last season’s national champion, Baylor, and Arizona State, coached by Bobby Hurley, Dan’s brother.
Want to see a more interesting stack of teams? Wait for latter half of the NCAA Tournament in March. Playing the competition on hand at this November neutral site, one surrounded by pools and palm trees, can only help each team make it that far. This is important basketball taking place at the heart of a playland otherwise designed to distract visitors from the rigors of everyday life back home.
It’s an expensive trip. Per UConn’s contracts with the event, the men’s team will take in $110,000 for its appearance — a $75,000 appearance fee (paid in three increments of $25,000), a $25,000 travel stipend and up to $10,000 in meals. But the women’s team must actually pay $1,857 per person in the travel party. Both teams will charter flights to the Bahamas — which, given that it’s an international flight around Thanksgiving, costs about $100,000 per team, round trip.
Atlantis is massive, with 3,400 rooms spread across five hotel towers, a 140-acre marine water park, water slides, lazy rivers, restaurants, entertainment venues, a spa, and miles of white sand. Want to swim with dolphins and sip pina coladas under the sun? This is the spot.
Holding a basketball tournament there was a brainchild of Miller-Tooley, who learned that Atlantis would end its partnership with Michael Jordan’s annual golf event in 2011 and went about trying to fill that tourism void. She set out to make UConn the event’s first marquee participant, even while waiting a change in NCAA legislation that allowed for exempt tournaments, those whose combined games count as just one toward the allowable amount on the schedule, to take place in the Bahamas.
“So I started stalking Jim Calhoun,” said MillerTooley. “I went to 15 games in the 2010-11 season. Little did I know they were going to win the national championship. But I sold this idea to Coach before it was even legal for it to happen. We won the legislation in January 2011, and from there it was off to the races. I went to Istanbul, Turkey, to recruit Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) and Duke I did Louisville’s foreign tour to recruit Rick Pitino (and Louisville) for 2012.
“It’s become explosive. We’ve been the best tournament for the past 10 years. Maui was the perennial powerhouse. But if you look at the fields, sponsorships, television — soup to nuts we’re hands down the best event and I’m really proud of that.”
Games have been on ESPN since 2017. The women’s championship game and third-place game will be on ESPN, Miller-Tooley said, with the rest available on Flohoops.com.
UConn will participate for the third time. The event was canceled last season due to the pandemic. Atlantis itself shut down, too, and reopened at reduced capacity in December.
“And what we saw as we got to July and August is we had very strong occupancy as the U.S. residents started to travel as vaccination rates went up,” Vaughn Roberts, senior vice president for government affairs at Atlantis. “We were able to slowly get up to speed and then catch our ability to execute large crowds, a large number of guests, and managing protocols. We’re very confident now.”
“I would argue that we have the safest tournament in college basketball,” Miller-Tooley said.
Roberts said fans in attendance in games must be vaccinated. Anyone traveling to the Bahamas must pass a COVID-19 test. Roberts said the resort currently has about 5,500 employees, down from a peak of about 7,000. He said the vaccination rate among manager-level employees is 80-90 percent, and 50 percent at levels below. The resort has on-site COVID testing, which is required weekly of employees.
The basketball games will operate at 75 percent capacity to allow for additional spacing. Miller-Tooley said she expects most men’s games to be sold out, and women’s games to be at about 50 percent (with UConn games higher than that). Ticket sales are ongoing, and locals attend games.
The event is a moneymaker for the resort and the marketing agency, as well as the local economy.
“It’s definitely exciting coming out of the pandemic,” Roberts said. “We make a significant investment in the tournament, as does the ministry of tourism, which is a government agency responsible for tourism. Not only does it bring guests to the resort for the tournament, but it gives the resort and the destination exposure on broadcast media channels and through the participation of the teams. Sports tourism is a natural opportunity here for the Bahamas.”
The UConn women’s team departed Connecticut and arrived in the Bahamas Thursday. The Huskies will practice Friday morning and take part in a tournament press conference that afternoon. Then it’s on to facing Minnesota and coach Lindsay Whalen, who played six years with the Connecticut Sun and played for Geno Auriemma as part of the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic teams.
UConn will face No. 23 South Florida or Syracuse in the second round. South Carolina opens against Buffalo and would advance to face No. 9 Oregon or Oklahoma. Should both teams advance, Sunday’s championship would mark the collision of the nation’s top two teams, which will meet again Jan. 27 in Columbia, S.C.
The UConn men arrive in the Bahamas Monday night. After playing Auburn Wednesday, they will face either Loyola or Michigan State Thursday. Friday’s final game will be against Syracuse, Virginia Commonwealth, No. 9 Baylor or Arizona State.
Atlantis hosts many events, from concerts, to conventions to poker and slots tournaments. Complete Sports Management runs the nearby Bahamas Bowl, the only college football bowl played outside the United States. The playoffs for Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league were held at Atlantis this year, with Complete Sports Management a partner.
“But, by far, the Battle 4 Atlantis, has been around the longest and it’s been pioneering in the space for us,” Roberts said.
Complete Sports Management runs everything from negotiations with sponsors, TV contracts (details of which MillerTooley would not disclose), the tournament fields and more. Atlantis is responsible for the box office, site reconstruction, halftime shows, concessions and more.