“I think it brings a lot of eyes to the area,” said tournament organizer Maury Hanks, a former NBA scout, “And you know, people come down here again, and this time of year, great weather, and then they can come here, and it’s not your busy season. It’s not fall break or spring break for the summer. And so I think you bring a lot of lot to the area of Niceville that, you know, before the tournament was here, it didn’t happen.”

The tournament sold out its tickets to the games before the first tip-off – which meant there was plenty of interest in at least some of the games from the fans. But some who couldn’t get tickets complained about the empty seats in the stands on television. The tickets are sold as a bundle to all of the games on each particular day, which means Oregon fans might have bought tickets to see the Ducks game and headed for the door when another set of teams lined up on the court. 

Even though he had a sellout crowd of 2,400, Hanks says the lack of local knowledge about the tournament frustrates him. “Nobody here locally knows about this tournament,” Hanks said, “We stay, or I stay over at the Embassy Suites [in Destin]. And I go into a liquor store to buy beer for the referees – this is about four or five years ago. [The store owner said], ‘What are you doing in town? Are you here for Thanksgiving? I said, ‘No, sir. I’m here to work.’ He goes, ‘What do you do?’ I said to run a basketball tournament. He said, ‘The high school?’ I said, ‘No, a college tournament.’ He says, ‘What kind of colleges’ and I said, ‘Cincinnati,’ He says, ‘Hold on, the University of Cincinnati, the Bearkats?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And he showed me his class ring. And he goes, ‘I had no idea that tournament was here.'”

Hanks continued, “I think if more local people know it because it gets harder and harder every year to run a tournament. There’s more and more competition, more tournaments, you know, with NIL and things like that.”