RAMADA to Serve as Title Sponsor of 2011 All-College Classic

Rachel Margolis Siegal

December 7, 2011

RAMADA, ESPN and the Oklahoma City All Sports Association announced an agreement establishing the worldwide hotel chain as the title sponsor of the 2011 RAMADA All-College Classic. As the world’s oldest collegiate men’s basketball tournament, predating the NCAA, NBA, NIT (National Invitation Tournament) and NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) events, the RAMADA All-College Classic will be held Saturday, Dec. 17 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The doubleheader features Oklahoma against Houston at 8 p.m. ET on ESPNU, and Oklahoma State versus New Mexico at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN2

“Serving as the title sponsor of the All-College Basketball Classic provides RAMADA Worldwide a great opportunity to reach a wide range of college basketball fans,” said Kristin Rozewski, RAMADA Worldwide Director of Marketing.

For tickets, go to www.ticketmaster.com, call 1-800-745-3000, or visit the Chesapeake Energy Arena box office. The RAMADA All-College Classic is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN.

ESPN Regional Television

The nation’s largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) annually produces more than 1,200 sporting events. Content includes action from NCAA football, basketball and Olympic sports, NHRA and professional and amateur golf, accounting for more than 3,400 live and/or original hours of programming. ERT’s owned and operated events reach over a million fans a year and provides more than 200 additional hours of programming.

In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (SEC, BIG EAST, Big 12, Mid-American, WAC) and manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.

ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several sporting events:
Collegiate Football
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg; Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); BBVA Compass Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); MAACO Bowl Las Vegas; Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu); Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (Houston); MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney (Orlando, Fla.) and The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards