Dubai needs to get in on the school basketball event enjoyable.
Within the wake of the Gamers Period males’s event increasing to 18 groups and past, Dubai plans to stage a brand new early-season tourney known as the Royal Palm Invitational in November 2026, CBS Sports activities reported Thursday.
The report stated a number of power-conference groups “are anticipated to be concerned.” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino advised the New York Submit that event organizers approached him about taking part however St. John’s didn’t have curiosity.
Stories didn’t say who, particularly, was behind the occasion. Dubai is a big and massively rich metropolis on the Persian Gulf.
It’s believed that the event would pay groups for his or her participation, following the instance of the Gamers Period, which debuted in 2024 as a event that paid gamers and packages identify, picture and likeness cash.
Initially an eight-team occasion in Las Vegas, Gamers Period had 18 males’s groups and 4 girls’s groups in 2025 and plans to develop to an unprecedented 32 groups taking part within the 2026 males’s occasion. It featured the likes of St. John’s, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Gonzaga this yr, with Michigan profitable the championship.
A handful of faculty basketball video games have been staged in European areas lately, however a event of this stature within the Center East has not been tried and would convey with it a number of logistical questions. An everyday-season faculty basketball sport hasn’t been performed wherever in Asia since a 2015 sport in Shanghai that noticed Washington beat Texas 77-71.
–Area Stage Media
