While putting together its own makeshift “multi-team event” of sorts last season, Arizona wound up making a lot of money for the school’s cash-strapped athletic department.
According to game contracts the Star received this month under a public-records request filed in September, Arizona was paid a total of $725,000 to play Michigan State, Alabama, Purdue and FAU on neutral courts during the 2023-24 nonconference season instead of earning a much smaller sum to participate in a traditional three-game “MTE.”
By contrast, Arizona was paid only $150,000 for playing three games in the 2017-18 Battle 4 Atlantis and didn’t earn anything by playing in the 2021-22 Main Event at Las Vegas. The prestigious Maui Invitational, in which Arizona last played in 2022-23, also pays no appearance fees but some travel costs.
UA special assistant TJ Benson, who coordinates the Wildcats’ schedules, said sprinkling in high-profile neutral games can also help break up a long string of nonconference home “buy” games, in which the Wildcats pay guarantees for mid- or low-major teams to make one time appearances at McKale.
“Neutral-site games are great for the fan base,” Benson said. “Plus with a sizeable guarantee amount, it makes a lot of sense to do them.”
The MTE payouts — to teams or players — could change in the seasons ahead as the NIL era continues to alter the sport: An eight-team “Players Era Festival” MTE in Las Vegas reportedly plans to guarantee the NIL collectives of each participating team $1 million in NIL funds next season.
But at least at this point, high-profile single neutral-site games have become much more profitable for a school than participating in an MTE and, in some ways, a string of marquee home games.
UA earned $250,000 for its win over Alabama in Phoenix in December, plus an additional $75,000 for agreeing to play in Birmingham in 2025-26.
High-major teams typically agree to face each other outside of conference play only in MTEs, in one-off neutral-site games or as part of a traditional “home-and-home” series where each team plays at the other’s homecourt over a two- or four-game series. Cash is not usually exchanged for home-and-home deals.
Hosting teams such as Purdue and Alabama as part of a traditional home-and-home contract can make Arizona’s McKale schedule become more attractive, but doing so generates only minimal extra ticket income, since the Wildcats rarely have less than 2,000 empty seats for any home game.
As it was last season, the Wildcats worked in two cashless home-and-home deals, playing at Duke and hosting Wisconsin, while they will travel to Wisconsin and host Duke in 2024-25.
Then, because last season fell between appearances in the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis, the Wildcats put together their own neutral-court series against teams all rated in the Top 25 at one point or another last season. As it was, both Purdue and Alabama reached the Final Four, with the Boilermakers losing to UConn in the title game.
“I want to go to the most prestigious ones we can be involved with because I think that’s what Arizona basketball should be” playing in, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said before last season. “Maui is a can’t-miss. Bahamas is another great one, but it has kind of changed. It used to be the Preseason NIT and the Great Alaska Shootout, which was awesome going up there.
“So it is a little bit of a changing landscape and there’s just so many more of them popping up. Now you get these one-game neutral deals and we’re in a lot of them. It’s a great opportunity for us.”
Arizona went 2-2 on neutral sites last season, losing to Purdue and FAU, but the gauntlet ultimately may have prepared the Wildcats for the Pac-12 season, when they won the league’s regular-season title.
Financially, Arizona won every time. After beating Duke on Nov. 10 and MSU en route to an 8-0 start that vaulted them to the No. 1 ranking early last season, the Wildcats flew to Indianapolis to play Purdue on Dec. 16. They lost 92-84 but picked up a $250,000 deposit for playing the game.
UA was paid $175,000 for its double-overtime loss to FAU in December in Las Vegas in one of the most exciting games of the year.
Four days later, UA faced Alabama at Phoenix, winning 87-74 and picking up another $250,000 paycheck. They went from Phoenix straight to Las Vegas, losing 96-95 there to FAU in double overtime on Dec. 23 but gaining a $175,000 payday and the exposure of a national Fox broadcast.
The only games Arizona played that were tied to an official MTE last season were their home game against Texas-Arlington and their game against Michigan State in Thousand Palms, California. As part of that deal, UA paid $90,000 to UTA and received $50,000 from the event promoter in exchange for playing the Spartans, a much smaller sum than they received from the one-off games they struck elsewhere.
The Wildcats are scheduled to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis next season — with a tentative matchup against UCLA in Phoenix their only neutral-site game — but are likely to keep lining up big neutral-site games into the future.
“One hundred percent,” said Benson, who worked with Lloyd at Gonzaga when the Bulldogs became known for lining up multiple neutral games every season. “The guys get up for these.”
The Wildcats’ $175,000 payout for facing FAU was actually something of a wash, however.
In order to free up another away game so they could play FAU in Las Vegas and still meet their self-imposed 18-game home minimum, Arizona paid Southern $158,000 to move its game with the Wildcats from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to McKale.
The game was part of the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series that had each Pac-12 school paired with a SWAC school for a home-and-home series, but Arizona wound up playing Southern both times at McKale after making the unusually high payout for switching the second one to Tucson.
As part of the deal, Arizona also agreed to play at Southern in 2025-26 for no financial guarantee but that game is also expected to be bought out.
For the Wildcats’ other home nonconference games in 2023-24, Arizona paid guarantees to visiting opponents at a typical rate that ranged between $80,000-$105,000 for a total of $548,000.
