Nova Scotia puts on a show at the national basketball championships

The Carleton Ravens men's and women's basketball teams were the stars of the 2023 U Sports Final 8 weekend earlier this month when they became the first university in 38 years to claim both national basketball titles in the same year.

But every great story needs a fantastic setting, and the province of Nova Scotia delivered exactly that — building on a sterling tradition for the men's tournament in Halifax and cultivating a new one in Sydney, N.S., for the women's tournament.

Halifax being home to the men's national basketball championship is nothing new.

Thirty-four of the 60 men's national tournaments have been held in the province's capital, including 26 times at the Scotiabank Centre, the site of this year's event where fans were treated to an instant classic of a final.

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Carleton Ravens defeated St. Francis Xavier X-Men 109-104 in double overtime to claim a fourth straight men's basketball national title.

For the fourth time in the last seven years, Sports & Entertainment Atlantic (S|E|A), an event management company based in Halifax, organized the men's national championship in conjunction with U Sports and an Atlantic University Sport (AUS) school.

"We explored a lot of new ideas when it came to on-court activations, in-venue and out-of-venue hospitality, and ticketing to name a few," said Chris Jamieson, the tournament organizer and Director of Event Services at S|E|A.

"We also took some risks with completely new ideas," he told CBC Sports. "This year, we launched two very successful community outreach plans that provided opportunities for minor basketball teams within our community to witness some Final 8 action. We had over 1,500 minor basketball youth in the building, which created a very special atmosphere."

Those 1,500-strong were part of a Final 8 attendance record of 40,092, a number not far off from the U Sports attendance record of 43,513 set at the 2016 University Cup held at the same venue, also organized by S|E|A.

"Compared to other larger cities in Canada, when these events come to [Halifax] they immediately become the hot ticket and do not need to compete with other major shows or events," Jamieson said.

"Local businesses are welcoming, fans are receptive, and surrounding communities rally around the event which ultimately helps improve the overall experience."

CBU building its own tradition

Four hundred kilometres northeast of Halifax, the women's national basketball championship was experiencing that same passionate Maritime support at the Sullivan Field House, with Cape Breton University (CBU) acting as both host and organizer of the event.

Unlike the men's championship, the women's tournament is a rarity in Nova Scotia, last being held in the province in 1980, and only being held in a Maritime province in six of the previous 50 events.

"[The host] is really only guaranteed two games, so with that you want to make sure that the stands are full, and that's where we created a bundled tournament package," said CBU's Chris Bell to CBC Sports.

Bell had various responsibilities as championship convener, including organizing the overall promotion and ticketing strategy for the event.

"Tickets were purchased through a grassroots sales initiative where we went door-to-door to small-to-medium sized businesses … [as well as] the general public. And the people that wanted to buy these tickets were basketball fans and wanted to see these great student athletes as they vie for a national championship."

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Carleton defeated Queen's 71-59 Sunday to capture the school's second women's national championship title.

While the team succeeded in filling the newly renovated arena — including packing the 1,000-plus capacity complex in the final — a primary goal of hosting was to showcase the facilities that are open to the public to use for community programs and other recreational sports, as well as use the platform to display a form of entertainment that is available to fans throughout the year.

"It was with purpose and intent to create a kind of 'Toronto Raptors' fan experience, having the music playing, giving away T-shirts and having the young kids participate in the starting lineups and the national anthem," Bell said.

With the women's Final 8 in the books, CBU now looks to further build upon that relationship with the community at the 2023 men's soccer championship in the fall, having also hosted the 2021 women's tournament.

But beyond the community engagement, each major event also helps put a smaller school like CBU on the map.

"[Consistently hosting events] could be a swing factor for a young student athlete from a recruitment perspective, but also from a general student aspect [when they notice] a smaller school … vying for national titles all the time," Bell said.

"A student in western Canada when they see that may say, 'you know, what, I want to go to that school.'"