In unity, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas men’s basketball programs will square off in a charity exhibition game Sunday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. at Kansas City’s Sprint Center. The purpose of the charity event – Showdown for Relief – is to raise awareness and financial support for hurricane relief efforts.
MU, KU and the Sprint Center, working in concert with the Kansas City Sports Commission, have collectively agreed that proceeds from the game will be donated to organizations assisting victims of the natural disasters that have occurred recently in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Money raised from the game will be contributed to the organizations that the five living former U.S. Presidents have come together to support: the Houston Harvey Relief Fund, the Rebuild Texas Fund, the Florida Disaster Fund, Juntos y Unidos Por Puerto Rico and the Fund for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
MU and KU together sought and received a waiver from the NCAA to play the extra exhibition game.
“The opportunity to use the platform of college basketball to help so many people in need is the most important aspect of this event,” Mizzou head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “Buy tickets to this game, but also please donate if you are able to, as there are people in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who need our support. This scrimmage will not only be fun for fans of Mizzou and Kansas, but also for people all over the world.”
“The opportunity to make an impact on those suffering as result of the hurricanes, through the game of basketball, is a great opportunity for our program,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “When I brought the idea to our administration we immediately decided that, if we were going to do this, it needed to be selfless, impactful, and there could be no recognized revenue as a result of the competition. With that in mind, I contacted Coach Martin and discussed the possibility of us playing an exhibition game for the benefit of so many affected by the catastrophic storms. We both felt that this would be a great opportunity to impact others.”
The two schools will split the approximately 18,000 seats in the Sprint Center; each athletics department will distribute its allotment. The game will not be televised or streamed, but each school’s radio network will broadcast it. The goal is to sell out the Sprint Center, which could yield approximately $1 million to distribute among the five charitable organizations.
Members of the Tiger Scholarship Fund will have the opportunity to purchase tickets from the Mizzou allotment first based on donor rank. TSF members should watch their e-mail for more details. A limited number of tickets for Mizzou students will be available to purchase starting on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
Any remaining tickets from Mizzou’s allotment will go on sale online only through www.sprintcenter.com starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18.
