NFL
By: Julio Olmo
Unlike many other professional leagues, the BIG3’s teams aren’t bound to cities, which allows the league to host games throughout the entire nation.
Saturday, it made a stop in Birmingham.
Fans in the Magic City, poured by the hundreds.
The league’s rosters featuring a heavy dose of NBA veterans and seasoned players is a must see show.
“A big part of what we do is not just go to the same old NBA cities. We make sure that we go to other cities that have (none) and given our ratings the last two years, Birmingham consistently came up as one of the top 10 markets in market share, TV ratings,” he said. “So it was clear that we had a lot of fans in Birmingham, per captia. So we want to get to places where people are watching the game.”, Jeff Kwatinetz.
The league itself has expanded this year from eight teams to twelve, from ten to eighteen cities and regularly draws more than 10,000 fans.
The demand has made their return obligatory to cities such as Dallas and Brooklyn for a third year due to the support and sellout crowds.
“…70 percent, our ticket sales are, in the last week,” Jeff Kwatinetz continued, “More and more, we have a young following. We’re even younger and more diverse than the (average) NBA viewer. So, (kids) tend to make decisions closer to the event as they engage in social media.”
Also the talent in the BIG3’s 3-on-3 basketball format currently is at an all time high.
“Why not, this is a great place and a great event. Our teams aren’t connected to any cities so you can root for whoever you want, so when you have a league like that you can take it anywhere,” Ice Cube said.
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The opening game at the Legacy Arena featured two teams searching for their first win of the season, so it was not surprisingly when it turned into a very physical contest.
Tri-State finally imposed their will and defeated 3’s Company 50 – 44.
Tri State improves to 1 -2 and 3’s Company falls to 0 – 3.
The 2019 expansion team Aliens also got their first BIG3 victory on Saturday.
As former No. 1 NBA Draft pick Greg Oden proved to be a matchup problem for the Ball Hogs.
Aliens now 1 – 2 defeat Ball Hogs (0 – 3) 51 – 39.
The final matchup of the evening started off with fireworks as both teams traded early game runs.
Agent Zero knocked down four 3-point shots in the second half to lead his team to a 51 – 35 victory.
