On the same day the NBA playoffs get underway, Canada’s largest basketball tournament under one roof is being played at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.
The Alley Oop Basketball Tournament is hosting 267 teams featuring players between U9 and U18, bringing 3,000 athletes to shoot some hoops in the city.
Event organizer Scott Ady said this weekend is the first half of two different events (the second is in June) that will generate 4,000 hotel nights in the city.
“This is the hot time for club basketball,” Ady said. “Our season runs generally from April until mid-to-late July. It’s a small window. So it’s great that we get to use a facility like this, where they dump the ice out for four months of the year, and we’re able to bring our courts in.”
What Alley Oop isn’t is a high school tournament, he added.
“We do have high school division here, so there are high school-aged players, but we have kids all the way from eight years old all the way up to 18 years old,” he said.
Brady Byam said one of the biggest advantages of the Alley Oop is that it’s all under one roof, rather than spread out at gyms and schools across the city.
“Young kids get to see your older kids, so they get to see what they’re working towards and how good they’re going to be at some point,” Byam said. “It’s the best community opportunity for these basketball organizations to put all their people in one spot.”
Byam said basketball is going through a growth spurt of popularity in Canada.
“Basketball, especially in Calgary, has been surging pretty good for like, the last like 15 years,” he said. “But once the Raptors kind of won their their championship, the interest just went like spiked overnight.
“It’s just growing rampantly, it’s amazing. The game is just awesome.”
With files from CTV’s Darren Wright
