The man who runs the resort that stages the Battle 4 Atlantis is ready to make his tournament the best of the preseason college events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the richest preseason tournament. Period,\u201d said George Markantonis, President and Managing Director of the Atlantis megaresort. \u201cMost tournaments don\u2019t pay the schools anything. Nothing. Nada. All they do is give them a hotel room and their 22 seats of airfare. We knew there was no way we would be able to convince teams that it\u2019s just better in the Bahamas, even if we got that NCAA exemption. There was no way we could just convert a ballroom into a basketball court and say: Trust us. So what you really need is a bit more firepower.<\/p>\n
Markantonis went all out.<\/p>\n
He is correct about the other eight-team preseason tournaments, the most prominent of which is the EA Sports Maui Invitational, and what they pay participating schools. Airfare and hotel for a traveling party is quite an enticement, but Markantonis has added quite a bit to that.<\/p>\n
He said the resort dishes out almost $2 million in prize money. All eight teams get $150,000 just for taking the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two winners get $200,000 each, on top of the $150,000. That goes to (athletic) scholarships. Most tournaments are zero, and along comes Battle4Atlantis, and the winners get $350,000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tournament director Lea Miller said the payout continues so that the third- and fourth-place teams get another $50,000 each and the fifth- and sixth-place teams get another $25,000. All the money goes to the school\u2019s athletic scholarship funds.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s final saw Duke beat Louisville and the field included two other ranked teams \u2014 Missouri and Memphis.<\/p>\n
The schools sign a confidentiality agreement about how much they receive from the Battle 4 Atlantis and other tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to go meet with these coaches and teams. We had to win the vote. It was no slam dunk as a nation we\u2019d get exemption status. You don\u2019t get that, nobody gets here,\u201d Markantonis said. \u201cAnd not every team wants to come where it\u2019s the top eight seeds in the nation. You have to get some sleepers and Cinderella teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The games are played in a ballroom turned basketball court. To meet NCAA requirements for ceiling limit, chandeliers had to be removed, something you don\u2019t hear at most events.<\/p>\n
One thing that makes Atlantis different as a site is the cost. Sodas are $4 and burgers run $6. And there is a casino which sits in the middle of the resort and has to be passed through by almost all guests.<\/p>\n
The 4,000-room resort was sold out for the weekend, Markantonis said. NCAA-brand T-shirts sold out in the first five hours and the demand was so heavy that the resort took orders and paid for the shipping to have them sent to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have another monster (field) to finalize for next year,\u201d Markantonis said.<\/p>\n
On the night of the Duke-Louisville championship game seven of the eight teams in the 2013 field were announced.<\/p>\n
Kansas, Villanova, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Southern California, UTEP and Xavier were revealed with the eighth team to be announced at a later date.
\nMiller says she has the fields for the next four tournaments practically set, mostly waiting for the conference realignment to settle.<\/p>\n