The Charlotte Sports Foundation (CSF) announced Thursday the Ally Tipoff will return to Charlotte, N.C. for another year. Ally Bank will be the title sponsor for the women's college basketball event through 2026.
"We want to have the best women's basketball doubleheader in the country," CSF executive director Danny Morrison told CBS Sports.
With Thursday's announcement, the Queen City is well on its way. The second annual Ally Tipoff will take place Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte and will feature four nationally-ranked teams. CSF and Ally Bank announced No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 2 Iowa will be joined by No. 1 South Carolina and No. 11 NC State.
In the inaugural event earlier this season, Caitlin Clark scored 44 points to give the Hawkeyes a 80-76 edge over the the Hokies in front of 15,196 fans -- the largest-ever crowd for regular-season women's basketball game in North Carolina.
The highest attended regular season game in program history #Hokies 🦃 | #AllyTipoff pic.twitter.com/1FdTE8UxnF
— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) November 10, 2023
"Last year could not have gone better," Morrison said. "We had two great teams, a great game. We wanted the place to look and feel like it was a Final Four-type event. And I think it delivered on that."
Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks agreed.
"We were in the Final Four last year, and tonight the atmosphere, the way it was put on -- I mean, you walked into the building and you thought it was Ally's building -- and so for me as a coach, for me as a father figure, for them to be able to experience this, it means everything to me," Brooks told reporters following the event last fall.
It took Ally Bank 24 hours to commit to the concept as the title sponsor. The company, which has a headquarters in Charlotte, committed to investing equal dollars to men's and women's sports by 2025. The Ally Tipoff in Charlotte will be part of that commitment for the next three years. Recent announcement from Ally have included a partnership with the Las Vegas Aces and the Wrexham AFC Women's Soccer Cub U.S. tour this summer.
The Ally marketing plan is simple. Drive viewership, drive attendance and serve the fan that is already there. In doing so, Ally Bank has also disrupted the existing blueprint, or lack thereof, for women's sports media.
"A rising tide lifts all boats, and the brand and business returns are there," Ally head of sports and entertainment marketing Stephanie Marciano told CBS Sports. "A few years ago, yeah, maybe there was a little bit of risk in some of the investments and decisions we were making. But that's gone in our opinion."
Last year's event drew 548,000 viewers and, at the time, made it the most-viewed regular-season women's college basketball game on ESPN2 since 2017. Clark told media that crowds like the 15,000+ at the Spectrum Center should be the norm for women's basketball. A mere four months later and Clark's postgame comments seem like a prophecy.
Iowa sold out season tickets for the 2023-24 women's basketball season and played in front of sold-out crowds at home and on the road. Overall attendance was up 150% for opposing teams when Iowa rolled into town, per the Associated Press.
"This is the type of event we love to play in -- high-level opponent, regional so our FAMS can be part of
the game, and backed by a sponsor who has invested in growing women's sports," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said in a statement.
South Carolina fans are well-traveled, as Staley alluded to in her comments, though the coach herself has roots in the Queen City. Staley played six WNBA seasons for the Charlotte Sting and led the team to the 2001 WNBA Finals, where they fell short to Lisa Leslie and the Los Angeles Sparks.
"We appreciate the Charlotte Sports Foundation and Ally Financial for coming together to create what should be a great day of women's basketball in Charlotte -- a place I know appreciates great basketball," Staley added.
Women's sports, if not on the rise, is certainly gaining more marketing dollars. Deloitte forecasts the valuation for women's sports will surpass $1 billion this year, a 300% increase since 2021.
"There's still work that we all need to do," Marciano said. "Women's sports are not at the scale that we all want them to be right now. But that is not because of the lack of fan demand. That is just because we need the business to continue to catch up with these tremendous athletes."
