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Organizers of the NY Film & Entertainment Soccer Tournament, which brings together the media, entertainment and marketing communities on the field, have set April 19 as the date for this year’s match.
The all-day event will take place at Pier 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park and consist of a five-versus-five industry tournament open exclusively to teams and players within the creative industries, a youth showcase open to players of all ages and a celebrity match featuring stars from the sports and entertainment industry. Participants will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
STORY: Mia Hamm Helps Launch Entertainment Industry Soccer Tournament
The 2014 NYFEST partners include City Soccer in the Community, Claudio Reyna Foundation, Kick4Life and Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.
Last year’s NYFEST was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy’s damage to potential venues. However, 2013 marked the tournament’s expansion to Los Angeles for LAFEST, which was held at Home Depot Center, home of Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy.
This year marks a return to New York and a first in an outer borough for the tournament, which draws dozens of teams and hundreds of players from film studios, production companies, advertising agencies, record labels, artist-management firms and TV shows for fast-paced, round-robin play.
A team fielded by MDC Partners took the NYFEST trophy in 2011 and 2012. Sony Pictures Classics claimed the first LAFEST championship in 2013.
STORY: Sony Pictures Classics Soccer Team Wins LAFEST Industry Tournament
“We’re incredibly excited and fortunate to be back in New York City, have a venue like Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5, and have such a strong lineup of new and returning partners,” said SPC executive VP of Acquisitions & Production Dylan Leiner, a co-founder of NYFEST. “The launch of LAFEST in 2013 showed the uncanny power, popularity and influence of the game in the business, and we look forward to growing the tournament further with a hugely successful NYC homecoming.”
Celebrity participants in past years have included Ethan Hawke, Orlando Bloom, Alessandro Nivola and Mark Consuelos and athletes Steve Nash, Tony Sanneh, Anderson Silva, John McEnroe and Ndamukong Suh.
“New York City is arguably one of soccer’s global capitals and will become even more so, both for the integral role of the creative business in the sport’s popularity as well as its boom among youth citywide,” said CinemaCapital founder Jeffrey Saunders, a co-founder of NYFEST. “NY and LAFEST naturally bring all of this to light, and we and our partners welcome the industry, and the City, to be a part of it and come out for April’s event.”
2014 NYFEST team and player registration opens Feb. 3. For more information, visit www.nyfest.org.
E-mail: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com
Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27
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