Sponsors use exhibition teams for publicity

EA Sports, Nike view traveling squads that play colleges during preseason as 'a great opportunity to get PR'

On a Sunday afternoon last November, North Carolina played host to an exhibition game against the EA Sports All-Stars, a team of former college basketball players assembled by a video game company.

During a timeout midway through the first half of a surprisingly close game, Dana Pump, who operates the EA Sports team with twin brother, David, offered his players a deal.

“He saw that we were playing OK, so he told us that if we beat those guys, it’s an extra $500 for each guy,” said former Virginia standout guard Curtis Staples, who played for EA Sports that night. “The guys went out there and busted their butts after that.”

Staples scored 31 points as EA Sports shocked North Carolina, 107-76. Each player got a bonus that for some represented a 25 percent raise and the video game company got its name in headlines all over the country.

Colleges once scheduled primarily foreign teams and Athletes in Action during the three-week exhibition season. But corporations such as EA Sports and Nike, among others, have joined the fray. Their teams are designed to promote company products and give the colleges better competition.

Nike assembled its first exhibition team last season, and now has three, each playing schools that have contracts to wear Nike apparel.

“This is a way for Nike to provide a service to its schools and showcase its product,” said Bill Frieder, the former Michigan and Arizona State coach who is a Nike consultant. He coaches the Nike team that plays ACC and SEC schools that are affiliated with Nike.

EA Sports launched its first team prior to the 1998-99 season. After using employees to choose and coach the team, the company hired David and Dana Pump, who are active in AAU basketball in Southern California, to select and manage five EA Sports teams.

“It’s become a really big job,” said Brian Movalson, Global Brand Manager for EA Sports. “We don’t want the headaches with it, but we want the exposure. It’s a great opportunity to get PR.”

By sponsoring these teams, EA Sports puts its name and logo in front of thousands of its ideal customers each night, while the Pumps make a sizable profit. According to Darren Cohen, assistant coach for as EA Sports team, his squad receives as much as $20,000 per appearance. ACC schools, he says, pay between $12,000 and $15,000.

Higher fees allow team owners to pay players more, which attracts better players, which builds more competitive teams, which are what the college teams are seeking in exhibition opponents. David Pump says he pays his players between $1,500 and $3,500 for the three-week season. Players also are given a $25 per diem and sleep two to a room in hotels.

“We take this as a serious business,” David Pump said. “I’m not cheap when I’m paying players. I try to do it as first class as possible. We’re not eating at McDonald’s.”

The Pumps and Nike both are active in the often controversial summer league circuit, which has spawned numerous NCAA investigations. The relationships between AAU teams and the three-week teams concerns Rob Kennedy, who runs the One World All-Stars and is the nephew of veteran college coach Pat Kennedy.

Rob Kennedy said that because his program does not have a tie to an AAU team he does not have to worry about a college coach scheduling him primarily to help his chances of signing a star AAU player.

“Unlike other teams, we don’t have (high school) kids playing for us” on an AAU team, said Kennedy, whose team lost to Virginia, 73-57, Sunday as part of its 12-game, 14-day tour. “But for some of those teams, that’s their sell.”

Jason Curry, who manages and coaches the Big Apple Basketball three-week team, is trying to start an AAU program.

Curry’s team lost to Virginia, 84-60, on Nov. 10 in one of its six games in 10 days and will play five smaller schools: St. Francis, Delaware State, Bucknell, Loyola and VMI. Those are schools where Curry said he will try to steer his AAU players.

“These are schools maybe where some of my kids might play,” he said.

In the four years of operating his team, Curry has established relationships with coaches and agents abroad, where several players from his team have signed. He was able to get Virginia to play his team because he was a teammate of Cavaliers assistant Alexis Girard at St. Michael’s (Vt.) College.

For the players on teams such as Nike and EA Sports, the benefits are clear. American players with European contracts use these exhibition games to get into playing shape, while the unsigned can flaunt themselves in front of European scouts. European professional teams have a Nov. 30 registration deadline for all non-European players.

And it doesn’t hurt Nike if the exposure gained by playing on one of its teams lands a player a pro contract.