The Atlantic 10 Conference will be taking its talents from Atlantic City to New York City, commissioner Bernadette McGlade has announced. The league has formed a five-year partnership with the Barclays Center to bring the A-10 men’s basketball tournament to Brooklyn and the new arena, beginning in 2013.
“The opportunity to partner with the Barclays Center and bring the Atlantic 10 Basketball Championship to New York has unlimited possibilities,” McGlade said in a press conference at the center. “Our teams will compete in the newest, state-of-the-art facility within the Atlantic 10 footprint and the number-one media market in the country.”
The partnership marks the first time the A-10 Championship will be held in metropolitan New York City. Currently under construction, the Barclays Center will be a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venue and the future home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. It will hold over 18,000 fans.
“Brooklyn and the surrounding metropolitan New York area is home to over 100,000 Atlantic 10 alumni; this, combined with the eight-million plus population, will give the Atlantic 10 an opportunity to grow the Championship to new heights,” McGlade said.
The move was welcomed by Saint Louis University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Majerus, who had previously knocked the league for moving its offices to Virginia and holding its main event, the men’s basketball tournament, in a relatively un-friendly environment for fans.
“I think this is an environment that will be more highlighted for fans and more appealing to everybody,” Majerus said. “I think it’s a great move, and it will really help promote the tournament and the league.
ESPN’s senior basketball writer Andy Katz characterized the move as “great” for the league. “The A-10 has been searching for an identity with its tournament for years. A campus site could work, but only if it were at Xavier or Dayton, but then it’s too much of a home court advantage. So the A-10 jumped at the chance of getting into the new digs in Brooklyn,” Katz said.
