MGM Resorts Welcomes NIL Basketball Tournament to Las Vegas

MGM Resorts International’s three arenas in Las Vegas — T-Mobile Arena, Michelob Ultra Arena and MGM Grand Garden Arena — have hosted everything from basketball, boxing and hockey to bull riding and professional wrestling.

But even for an entity as big as MGM, there is opportunity to break new ground in the sports world. And that’s what will happen this November with the inaugural Players Era Festival college basketball tournament.

In many ways, the Players Era will be like other early-season college basketball events, bringing together elite teams from different conferences. But there’s more on the line than bragging rights — an NIL component will pay a prize pool of $9 million with the winning team earning $500,000.

“Historically, early season collegiate basketball games have taken place in a variety of markets and Vegas always has a few games,” said Lance Evans, senior vice president of global sports, corporate partnerships and sponsorships at MGM Resorts International. “At least to my knowledge, this is the first of its kind that has a significant amount of NIL funds associated with it.”

Games will be played at MGM Grand Garden Arena, showcasing eight teams competing in two groups, playing a partial round-robin format for the first two days of competition. The Impact Group will feature Alabama, Houston, Notre Dame and Rutgers. The Power Group includes Creighton, Oregon, San Diego State and Texas A&M.

Each team will receive $1 million in NIL opportunities for participating in ancillary events separate from the tournament. Championship day on November 30 will include additional NIL opportunities for teams following the games, including NCAA compliant on-call NIL opportunities.

“The 2024 Players Era Festival, with the high caliber of teams and the $9 million of NIL compensation for the players was already going to be special,” said Seth Berger, chief executive officer of Players Era. “Becoming one tournament with a Championship Day, this has gone to the next level.”

When Players Era was looking for a city and a host venue, MGM Resorts was a fit.

“Because Las Vegas has become kind of the epicenter of sports, these events are more often coming to us,” Evans said. “So the promoter of the event came to us with the idea and the concept and what their long-term plan and strategy was to grow the sport of collegiate basketball. And we couldn’t think of a better place to host it than Las Vegas and the MGM Grand Garden Arena.”

The tournament also falls into a set of dates that are a sweet spot for Las Vegas and MGM. The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is taking over the city the week before. The week after Thanksgiving marks the start of the National Finals Rodeo, a 10-day extravaganza that sells out most of Las Vegas’ hotel rooms.

“Because it’s taking place during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend every year, that’s historically a time where we have some availability, so it’s going to have a positive impact on not only MGM Resorts, but Las Vegas as a whole,” Evans said. “Ultimately, the plan is for us to find great events like this that drive visitation to the city and our resorts.”

The inaugural Players Era Festival, which will be broadcast across Turner Sports’ array of channels, is the beginning. The event organizers already have plans to expand the field to 18 teams in 2025. Evans says MGM welcomes the expansion of the field and envisions the Players Era event becoming a household name like the Maui Invitational.

“The beauty is we have three arenas in town, so we can definitely accommodate the growth,” he said. “We have Michelob Ultra Arena, which is home of the Las Vegas Aces. We have T-Mobile Arena, which was built to host an NBA franchise, so there’s plenty of locker room space there. And then, obviously, the Grand Garden Arena. So, as this thing grows, we have the arenas to accommodate it.”