Manchester And NBA Strike Multi-year Deal
Manchester City Council and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and USA Basketball have announced a multi-year partnership that will see the city host the first WNBA game in Europe, 2012 USA Basketball friendlies and the first NBA pre-season game in the UK outside of London.
Basketball fans in and around the city of Manchester will have the opportunity to watch premier basketball games from the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and USA Basketball men’s and women’s national team.
The partnership’s scheduled events will begin with ‘WNBA Live – Manchester 2011’ – featuring the Atlanta Dream – on 29th May, at the 18,000-seater Manchester Evening News Arena (MEN),
The USA Basketball men’s and women’s national teams will play a Global Community Cup tour game in July 2012 ahead of the Olympic Games – in the 2008 Beijing Olympics both teams were gold medal winners.
Finally, the first ever NBA game in the UK outside of London will take place towards the end of 2013, the NBA has held games at The O2 in London for four consecutive seasons as part of NBA Europe Live presented by EA Sports, and are now branching out to the north.
Each game in London has sold out, with last years friendly between the LA Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves selling out in record time.
NBA Europe senior vice president Sophie Goldschmidt said: ‘We are delighted to bring NBA, WNBA, and USA Basketball games to the internationally renowned sports city of Manchester. This comprehensive schedule of premier basketball events will help grow the sport for years to come’.
NBA holds it’s first ever, competitive, regular-season games in Europe at the The O2 this weekend, featuring the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors.
