U.S. is mad for basketball finals

The Sports Beat

By Sweena Rai

It’s ironic that although basketball was invented by a Canadian, the sport has become as American as apple pie.

The U.S. has commercialized basketball not only at the professional level, but at the college level as well.
For basketball fans, March brings one of the most celebrated U.S. sporting events — the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament, also known as March Madness.

Sixty-four college teams from across the United States participate in the tournament that is jam-packed with entertainment and school spirit.

The tournament is held in sold-out arenas filled with excited fans, cheerleaders and school bands. All this hype is brought to millions of fans through TV coverage by major U.S. networks.

College sports in the U.S. generates billions of dollars in merchandise sales, tickets and TV contracts.
Then there’s Canada.

Did anyone notice that the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union’s (CIAU) men’s basketball finals were held in Halifax last weekend? Or that the women’s basketball finals took place two weeks ago?

Canadian college sports don’t get enough coverage and crowd support.

TSN only televises 15 CIAU sporting events per year and those are mainly championship games.

The reason Canadian college sports coverage is at the bottom of the network’s priority list is because it doesn’t attract viewers. Although eight teams go to the CIAU tournament in Halifax, only the men’s semifinal and final games are shown on TV. Yet this tournament is supposed to be the Canadian equivalent of March Madness.

The Halifax Metro Centre, which houses the CIAU finals and seats 10,600 people, only fills to 75 per cent capacity during the three-day event. Considering Canada has a much smaller population than the U.S., some might say this is a pretty good turn-out. But it’s not good enough.

More money, media exposure and school pride need to be invested in Canadian college sports because there’s good entertainment value in the CIAU championship games.

Although the two NBA expansion teams have only been in Canada for three years, perhaps they’ll help fuel Canadian sentiment for basketball.

Canadians need to look past hockey as the be-all-end-all of Canadian sports or else Canadian college sports will always be seen as mediocre.