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5-HOUR ENERGY PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 1, 2011Dan ShoemakerTIM SIMMONS: Right now we have Don Shoemaker in Charlotte with ESPN Events. You've been in the Puerto Rico event in organizing it since 2007. How has the tournament grown over the years? DON SHOEMAKER: I think it's grown exceptionally well. Last year we come off of a great field with Minnesota, West Virginia, North Carolina. This year we have a great field. When you look at the fact that every team in this event last year, with the exception of Maryland, we just heard from their coach, with the exception of Maryland every team finished above 20 wins, and Maryland was at 19. Every team went to post-season play with the exception of Maryland. You know Mark is going to get it done there. We're really excited about having this tournament. It's grown. I was actually in Puerto Rico when Maryland played there the last time. This tournament and the tournaments before it I think have a great history, great tradition there. We expect this year to be equal to any of the tournaments we've had in the past. TIM SIMMONS: Obviously from day one this tournament has grown. How have the Puerto Rican people accepted the tournament? DON SHOEMAKER: I think there's been a couple of things. If you look at NCAA basketball today, for example, you see more and more Puerto Rican players. There have been some outstanding high school players come out of Puerto Rico in recent years and play very well in the NCAA. More and more coaches I think are seeing San Juan and Puerto Rico in general as fertile recruiting grounds. We've worked hard to bring players back to Puerto Rico in this tournament. In fact in our field next year we'll have one team that have two or three Puerto Rican players. We're excited about the growth of this event. Our attendance has grown every year, particularly in terms of local sales. I think it's exciting. It's a tremendous building, a tremendous venue. We've been able to get outstanding fields. TIM SIMMONS: How are the travel packages going this year? DON SHOEMAKER: Very well. We know Wichita State is going to travel exceptionally well. As Mark said, we expect good things out of Maryland. Purdue is going to have a terrific crowd for us. Tickets over there are moving pretty well. Travel packages from the States are moving well. TIM SIMMONS: We added a game with the NBA lockout, added one to ESPN-2. The television coverage is very good with a good announce crew. DON SHOEMAKER: Always excited about the television we get from Puerto Rico. It's a big part of this tournament. I think it's an attractive event. It's very early in the season. Actually the first week of college basketball season. I think that makes it a little bit unique as well. We've been very fortunate to have great talent in this tournament and on TV as it relates to this tournament. So we're excited about this event. TIM SIMMONS: Any problems staging a tournament there as compared to the mainland? Going to Puerto Rico, getting all eight teams might be a problem sometimes. DON SHOEMAKER: You know, not really. It's a great opportunity I think for the student-athlete in that there is the culture of a different country. It's almost a foreign trip for the players, the coaches, the fans, the families. But at the same time you don't need a passport. It's a country that operates under American laws, American Commonwealth. I think you get the best of both worlds in there. You can spend your American dollars. You don't have to convert cash. You feel at home. It's a very friendly city, a very friendly country. You feel very much at home. Yet you get to experience a very different culture as well. I think from a travel standpoint, from a staging standpoint, from a fan standpoint, it's a terrific situation. TIM SIMMONS: ESPN events have kind of grown these tournaments starting with the Old Spice in 2006, adding Puerto Rico and Anaheim, now you have Charleston and Diamond Head. DON SHOEMAKER: We actually started with a tournament here in Charlotte. Our first event tournament was here in Charlotte. That was a precursor to the event we launched in Orlando, now the Old Spice. We constantly look at new opportunities. We've tried to put basketball tournaments and football games in what we think are great destination cities. Charleston just named the No. 1 destination in North America. We have an event that runs concurrent with the event in Puerto Rico. We have seven bowl games in some great locations. We'll launch an international soccer event in Hawaii this year. From a staffing standpoint, we have a tough time keeping them here in Charlotte with some of the venues we play. TIM SIMMONS: How are the teams picked? DON SHOEMAKER: It's really across the board. Some of them are relationship driven. For instance, Coach Grant who we're waiting on, I've known Anthony since he got into college basketball. He's been a great friend. Know most of the guys on his staff. Gregg Marshall and I have a relationship that goes back. We target the schools that we think will really make these events work for us and work for the college basketball fan. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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