HRM Mayor Mike Savage named honorary chair of 2013 Subway AUS men’s basketball championship

(HALIFAX, N.S.) - At a press conference in downtown Halifax Thursday morning, Atlantic University Sport (AUS) and the organizing committee of the 2013 Subway AUS men's basketball championship presented by G-Series, announced that Mr. Mike Savage, mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) will serve as the honorary chair of the 2013 event.

This year's event will be hosted March 1-3 at the Halifax Metro Centre.

Phil Currie, executive director of Atlantic University Sport and chair of the organizing committee, also unveiled other plans for the event, including the "Six Teams, Three Days, One Champion" campaign, the entertainment acts lined up to enhance the fan experience and some new social media and webcasting initiatives that will increase the exposure the event and the participants receive.

"We are excited to have Mayor Savage serve as the Honorary Chair for this year's championship," said Phil Currie. "Mayor Savage has made it clear to me that he supports university athletics here in the city and understands the value events like these bring to our region. To have him involved in this event will help us deliver on our vision to inspire leaders and be Canada's ultimate student-athlete experience."

As Honorary Chair, Mayor Savage will participate in the AUS awards banquet, take part in the opening ceremonies and help crown the champion on Sunday, March 3rd by assisting in the presentation of the banner and trophy to the 2013 AUS champions.

Mr. Savage was elected as Mayor of HRM on October 20, 2012. He previously served as a Member of Parliament for the riding of Dartmouth - Cole Harbour from 2004 to 2011.

"This is always a great tournament. It gives our young basketball players a chance to experience the best in amateur sport," said Mayor Savage. "I know that Halifax will welcome the basketball players and fans from across the Atlantic Region, and I encourage everyone to come out for some great basketball during the tournament."

Currie was also pleased to announce that Ben Rutz, Dylan Guthro and Andrew Doyle will be among the acts to perform over the course of the weekend at the event and during half-time shows. Rutz is the violinist for multi-platinum selling, Juno and CCMA award winning artist Johnny Reid; Guthro recently earned the 2012 Music Nova Scotia Award for Best New Artist Recording of the Year and Doyle is a Glace Bay native who has opened in the past for Randy Bachman, Rick Tippe, Matt Minglewood, The Guess Who and April Wine.

As outlined in a new strategic plan for the conference unveiled this past fall, Currie added that plans are also underway to use this year's championship as a vehicle to help promote the pride and passion that make AUS championship events memorable and also raise the profile of university sport and student-athletes using a number of different platforms.

"We feel our 'Six Teams, Three Days, One Champion' campaign truly captures the fact that the only way to guarantee a trip to the CIS championship will be to win this event," says Currie. "While we will continue to use our traditional marketing platforms including television, radio and print to engage our audience, fans can also look forward to some exciting new initiatives that will be driven online via social media and by leveraging many of our other partnerships to further expose our event, our student-athletes and our product."

Over the course of the next five weeks, fans will see a noticeable increase in activity and promotions via Facebook and Twitter, and Currie also announced that live scoring will be available on the AUS website, via the AUS Front Row mobile app, and that all five games of this year's championship will be webcast live online at www.AUStv.ca.

"In addition to our partnership with Eastlink TV as our broadcast partner, we are pleased to be able to use our newly launched technology to keep our audience informed and also showcase all five championship games online at AUStv.ca," added Currie. "Our fan base stretches around the globe and we're looking forward to using social media and the internet to bring our product to them."

Ticket packages for the 2013 Subway AUS men's basketball championship presented by G-Series are on sale now and can be purchased through Ticket Atlantic at 902-451-1221 or online at www.ticketatlantic.com.