Dubai wants to get in on the college basketball tournament fun.
In the wake of the Players Era men’s tournament expanding to 18 teams and beyond, Dubai plans to stage a new early-season tourney called the Royal Palm Invitational in November 2026, CBS Sports reported Thursday.
The report said multiple power-conference teams “are expected to be involved.” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino told the New York Post that tournament organizers approached him about participating but St. John’s did not have interest.
Reports did not say who, specifically, was behind the event. Dubai is a large and massively wealthy city on the Persian Gulf.
It is believed that the tournament would pay teams for their participation, following the example of the Players Era, which debuted in 2024 as a tournament that paid players and programs name, image and likeness money.
Originally an eight-team event in Las Vegas, Players Era had 18 men’s teams and four women’s teams in 2025 and plans to grow to an unprecedented 32 teams participating in the 2026 men’s event. It featured the likes of St. John’s, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Gonzaga this year, with Michigan winning the championship.
A handful of college basketball games have been staged in European locations in recent years, but a tournament of this stature in the Middle East has not been attempted and would bring with it several logistical questions. A regular-season college basketball game hasn’t been played anywhere in Asia since a 2015 game in Shanghai that saw Washington beat Texas 77-71.
