Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league will stage its New York event this June at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, which is normally the home of the US Open major tennis championships.
The deal follows a partnership between the professional three-on-three basketball league and the United States Tennis Association, which operates the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
The 14,000-capacity Louis Armstrong Stadium, which has a retractable roof, was recently transformed as part of a wider $650m revamp of the tennis facility. According to a press release, Big3 plans to utilize the entire campus for a range of family-friendly events.
“The USTA is excited to welcome some of the world’s most talented athletes to the home of the world’s biggest stage in tennis,” said Danny Zausner, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center’s chief operating officer. “For many years, Louis Armstrong Stadium has held some of the greatest match-ups and rivals in tennis, and now we get to bring fans another display of greatness and competition. We are looking forward to transforming our entire facility into an exciting and entertaining spectacle for Big3 fans from our backyard of Queens and throughout New York City.”
Last year, the Big3 held its New York event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which is primarily the home of the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets.
In January, the Big3 announced a series of major structural changes to its format, led by a rebranding of its 3-on-3 form of basketball as an entirely new sport called Fireball3. Last month, Big3 also extended its domestic broadcast partnership with CBS Sports for the 2020 season.
The move to stage the competition at Louis Armstrong Stadium also represents the latest step by the USTA to further monetize its campus, which included hosting the Fortnite World Cup finals last year.
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