Field Level Media
05 Dec 2025, 03:35 GMT+10
(Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
Dubai wants to get in on the college basketball tournament fun.
In the wake of the Players Era men's tournament expanding to 18 teams and beyond, Dubai plans to stage a new early-season tourney called the Royal Palm Invitational in November 2026, CBS Sports reported Thursday.
The report said multiple power-conference teams 'are expected to be involved.' St. John's coach Rick Pitino told the New York Post that tournament organizers approached him about participating but St. John's did not have interest.
Reports did not say who, specifically, was behind the event. Dubai is a large and massively wealthy city on the Persian Gulf.
It is believed that the tournament would pay teams for their participation, following the example of the Players Era, which debuted in 2024 as a tournament that paid players and programs name, image and likeness money.
Originally an eight-team event in Las Vegas, Players Era had 18 men's teams and four women's teams in 2025 and plans to grow to an unprecedented 32 teams participating in the 2026 men's event. It featured the likes of St. John's, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Gonzaga this year, with Michigan winning the championship.
A handful of college basketball games have been staged in European locations in recent years, but a tournament of this stature in the Middle East has not been attempted and would bring with it several logistical questions. A regular-season college basketball game hasn't been played anywhere in Asia since a 2015 game in Shanghai that saw Washington beat Texas 77-71.
--Field Level Media
Get a daily dose of Detroit Star news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Detroit Star.
More InformationMALWANA, Sri Lanka: Landslides and flooding caused by Cyclone Ditwah killed at least 334 people in Sri Lanka, with nearly 400 missing...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: A new national survey suggests America's teenagers are growing up with the same mistrust of the news media...
CANBERRA, Australia: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon in an intimate ceremony over the weekend...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Even as the Trump administration this week blamed vetting failures by the Biden-era for the admission of an Afghan...
KYIV, Ukraine: Andrii Yermak, Ukraine's powerful chief of staff and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's lead negotiator in talks with the...
DHAKA, Bangladesh: A Dhaka Special Court sentenced Bangladesh's ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, this week to 21 years in prison...
(New York) - The arrest and return of an asylum seeker who took his children to the Club World Cup soccer tournament final on July...
(Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images) Dubai wants to get in on the college basketball tournament fun. In the wake of the Players...
(Photo credit: Michael McLoone-Imagn Images) Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be sidelined approximately two-to-four...
(Photo credit: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) The intense historic rivalry moves to another level on Sunday when...
(Photo credit: NICOLE HESTER / THE TENNESSEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) Freshman phenom Aaliyah Chavez scored a season-high...
(Photo credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images) INDIANAPOLIS -- Never before in the 15-year history of the Big Ten Championship Game has...
