BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A sports marketing company is suing the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame over a business deal involving preseason college basketball tournaments.
The Gazelle Group filed suit March 10 in Boston federal court against the Naismith Hall of Fame, claiming the defendant is still holding on to more than $72,000 it admits belongs to Gazelle.
The tournaments at issue - the Empire Classic, the Legends Classic and the Hall of Fame Tip Off Tournament - were played in 2020 during the COVID pandemic at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut instead of their usual venues in New York.
The lawsuit says Gazelle and the HOF agreed to a formula to distribute revenues and expenses and brought in IMG College to sell sponsorships. Gazelle was to be in charge of the Empire and Legends tournaments, and HOF was responsible for the HOF Tournament, the suit says.
Some HOF games were cancelled because of COVID, the suit says. Eight Gazelle games were broadcast on a premium television channel, but only one HOF game was, it adds.
"As the games neared their conclusion, HOF expressed concern that the cancellation of its games would mean less revenue for HOF than it had initially anticipated," the suit says. "In a meeting between representatives of HOF and Gazelle, HOF asked whether Gazelle would agree to change the terms of the agreement, to provide more revenue to HOF."
Gazelle refused, but HOF refused to follow the terms of the sponsorship agreement with IMG, the suit says. A new calculation emerged regarding the distribution of sponsorship revenue, the suit says.
"HOF evidently decided that it had leverage, in the form of the sponsorship revenue that it had collected for sponsorships that HOF sold for Gazelle games and sponsorships that HOF sold for jointly organized games - including the portions of those funds that HOF owed to Gazelle under the agreement," the suit says.
"HOF therefore withheld the funds that it owed to Gazelle - including the $72,631.30 that HOF admitted it owed to Gazelle under HOF's newly devised calculations."
HOF has stated it would pay Gazelle the newly calculated share if Gazelle agrees to the new agreement, the suit says.