Partners & Sponsors
The Gala is hosted each year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation to help fund the Foundation’s two national programs--Ticket To Reading Rewards and The College Basketball Experience in Kansas City, which includes the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2010 we are honoring Senator Bill Bradley, a Hall of Fame basketball player who attended Princeton University and played for the New York Knicks; a Rhodes Scholar; a three-term United States Senator; and a presidential candidate in 2000.
The first recipient of this award was Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the NBA Phoenix Suns, Managing Director of the USA Basketball 2006-2008 Men's Senior National Team and recently elected Chair of the USA Basketball Board of Directors for the 2009-2012 term. Colangelo was instrumental in assembling the 2008 Men's Basketball Olympic team, which won the gold medal in China.
The Gala is a wonderful event that allows college basketball supporters access not only to our honoree, but also to some of the top college coaches in the country. Attendees will long remember the evening they spent with our coaches.
The NCAA® has partnered with the NABC Foundation and Ticket To Reading Rewards program to target middle school students in the NCAA Men's Final Four® host cities to read books outside the classroom setting. The program offers many benefits to middle school students in the Final Four cities who reach various levels of rewards for reading.
Tours of college campuses and opportunities to attend collegiate basketball games are also exciting highlights of the program. The NCAA attempts to highlight selected students to attend the NCAA Bracket Town™ and Final Four Friday® fan events during Final Four weekend as a special reward for extraordinary participation levels. The NABC Foundation coaches often make the time to visit select schools as another significant incentive during Final Four week.
Main Event Merchandise Group is the official merchandise and apparel partner of Ticket To Reading Rewards, handling all custom development, production and fulfillment of the program's rewards and other materials. Main Event is a leading full-service logo apparel and merchandise supplier for both corporate partners and many non-profits, colleges and amateur sports organizations nationwide. Through the partnership with the NABC Foundation, any purchase of promotional apparel or merchandise from Main Event by a member coach or corporate supporter of Ticket To Reading Rewards meaningfully benefits the progam.
SPONSORS
Ticket To Reading Rewards is provided at no cost to students or schools through the generous support of our Sponsors, grants from Foundations, our Board members and other friends of the NABC Foundation. The following is a partial list of current and past funding providers:
—Hundreds of thousands of free subscriptions - NIKE
- NCAA Colleges & Universities (Free Tickets to Games)
- Staples
- Sprint Foundation
- Knight Foundation
- McDonalds Charities
- Ariel Capital Management
- Blaylock Partners
- Lincoln Harris
- Scholastic Books—Over 200,000 free books
- YRC Worldwide—Fast and reliable transportation
- Board Members of the NABC Foundation
If you are interested in supporting Ticket To Reading Rewards, please contact us privately at NABCFoundation@tickettoreadingrewards.org.