NEW YORK (2010 FIBA World Championship for Men) – Tickets for the international basketball double-header to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday 15th August go on sale today (30th June).

As part of their preparations for the 2010 FIBA World Championship, four Turkey-bound teams will play exhibition games in one of the most famous sporting venues in the world.

The USA will tip things off when they take on France at 13:00 local time (19:00 CET) before China square up against Puerto Rico at 15:30 (21:30 CET) to bring the first-ever World Basketball Festival – a four-day celebration of the game’s performance and culture hosted by NIKE Inc. and USA Basketball – to a memorable close.

Tickets for the double-header will become available on the internet here and here at 12 noon local time (18:00 CET).

The game between China and Puerto Rico will serve as a preview of their Group C encounter in Ankara in the first round of the FIBA World Championship. They will also be going up against Greece, Ivory Coast, Russia and hosts Turkey.

The USA will be in Istanbul’s Group B which consists of Brazil, Croatia, Iran, Slovenia and Tunisia and France have been drawn in Group D, based in Izmir, with their opponents there being Canada, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand and reigning world champions Spain.

FIBA