City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
—

There’s no city better for basketball than the City of Brotherly Love. Now the city’s hoops coverage is about to take a massive step forward.

Today, CoBL and The Philadelphia Inquirer are announcing a joint partnership that will benefit the city’s legendary and thriving amateur basketball scene, from high school up through college and so much more. This partnership will see CoBL content appearing in the Inquirer and on Inquirer.com, while the Inquirer is providing CoBL with financial support to expand its operations and cover even more Philly-area hoops.

“This is an incredible day, not just for CoBL and our staff, but for the thousands of area high school and collegiate basketball players as well as their families, friends, and all the fans who love watching them play,” CoBL co-founder and editor-in-chief Josh Verlin said. “Partnering with the Inquirer means our two newsrooms can work together to provide the most high-quality, in-depth coverage possible, rather than competing with each other for stories.”

Founded in 2012, CoBL has been providing high-quality, year-round coverage of the city’s high school and collegiate basketball teams and players, as well as coverage of the city’s grassroots scene and pro-am tournaments. In 2021, the organization relaunched as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, adding girls’ and women’s coverage. The site’s coverage reaches more than a quarter-million readers each year just from the website alone, not even including social media. 

In addition to its award-winning coverage, CoBL’s mission includes the training and development of the next generation of sportswriters. The organization has worked with more than 100 high school and college writers over the last decade-plus, with former CoBL writers working at the Inquirer as well as other media outlets, in corporate communications, and more.

“With this collaboration between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, we can offer high school and college basketball fans unparalleled coverage across Philadelphia,” said Michael Huang, the Inquirer’s executive sports editor. “It’s a perfect match of mission, resources, skill sets and personnel. We’re very excited about it.” 

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia’s oldest and largest daily newspaper and one of the oldest continuously-operating news outlets in the country, has had some of the country’s best hoops scribes on its staff over the last century, and this partnership aims to continue that tradition. 

The partnership will see CoBL content appearing on the Inquirer’s website and in the newspaper, as well as exclusive Inquirer-only content produced by both CoBL and Inquirer writers, columnists and contributors. Through support from the Inquirer, CoBL will be able to expand its operations, allowing the organization to produce even more stories, roundups, features and previews all year long.

CoBL and the Inquirer’s 2023-24 season preview content will begin on Mon., Sept. 25, the first day of official practices for Division I programs across the country, with our Big 5 Preseason Awards. High school team previews and further college preview content will begin Oct. 2 and continue through the start of the season.