KALAMAZOO, MI - Creators of the Juneteenth basketball tournament coming to Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center next month have lowered the entry fee for competitors and removed the $1,000 grand prize for the winning teams in all three divisions.
The initial entry fee for a team of up to eight players was $500, but that is now $200 for the 17-and-up and 16-and-under divisions, though tournament founder Charles Riddle Jr. said free youth team slots are also available for those experiencing financial hardship.
“We want the kids to play in a big arena, and we are willing to pay for those who cannot afford it,” Riddle said. “My love for basketball started at a young age, and I would have loved this opportunity to play at Wings Event Center.”
Deadline for registration is May 31, and all participants will receive a player pack that includes an event T-shirt, a pair of socks, a sports towel and a water bottle.
In place of the $1,000 first-place prize, members of the winning team will receive a Moneyball Sportswear apparel package.
Single-elimination bracket play begins Saturday, June 19th, and other basketball festivities will include a 3-point contest and a dunk showcase featuring Kalamazoo native and Harlem Globetrotter Doug Anderson, who was the 2013 College Slam Dunk Contest champion.
The event will also celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the day in 1865 Union soldiers informed enslaved people in Texas that they were free, thus ending slavery in every U.S. state.
The Emancipation Proclamation officially outlawed slavery in Texas and the other states in rebellion against the Union almost two-and-a-half years earlier, but enforcement generally relied on the advance of Union troops, and with Texas being the most remote of the slave states and having a low presence of Union troops as the American Civil War ended, enforcement there had been slow and inconsistent.
Posters, signs and messages on the jumbotron at Wings Event Center will highlight notable African-Americans and their contributions, as well as provide information on the Juneteenth holiday, which is not officially recognized by the federal government, despite efforts in Congress to make it a national day of observance or a full-scale federal holiday.
Advance tickets are $7 for children 12 and under, and they’ll cost $10 at the door. Tickets for spectators age 13 and up will be $15 in advance and $20 at the door, with $5 of each ticket sold going to local and Black-focused non-profit organizations Eliminating Racism & Creating/Celebrating Equity (ERC/CE), Interfaith Strategy for Advocacy & Action in the Community (ISAAC) and Rootead.
Beginning June 1, Michigan’s indoor capacity limits will raise from 30 to 50 percent, meaning that more than 2,500 spectators will be permitted at the 5,113-seat Wings Event Center.
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May 26, 2021 at 12:24AM
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Kalamazoo’s Juneteenth basketball tournament lowers entry free, removes $1,000 prize - MLive.com
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