ESPN deal adds to reach of Aurora Games

The worldwide leader will put its stamp on a worldwide celebration of women's sports.

ESPN divulged this week that it has secured exclusive broadcast rights to the inaugural Aurora Games, to be held Aug. 20-25 at Times Union Center.

The announcement assures that the all-women sports festival, which will feature competition in tennis, gymnastics, basketball, ice hockey, figure skating and beach volleyball, will get national exposure via ESPNU and streaming at ESPN3.com.

"It's going to be a celebration of women competing in their sport and telling their stories," said Carol Stiff, the network's vice president of women's sports programming.

ESPNU will provide a three-hour window of live coverage each of the six days of competition. It will be 7-10 p.m. the first four days, then during the afternoon on the weekend.

Among the athletes committed to participate are tennis pros Garbine Muguruza, Victoria Azarenka and Bianca Andreescu, figure skater Ashley Wagner, beach volleyball stars Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan, and hockey players Haley Skarupa and Venla Hovi.

"That's the beauty of women's sports, to tell the stories," Stiff said. "That's part of the model NBC uses with the Olympics. I'm sure we'll be diving into that."

The Aurora Games is producing the telecasts in cooperation with ESPN. Talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

"We're putting together a (production) group," Aurora Games creator and executive producer Jerry Solomon said. "It's made up of a variety of people that I've worked with over the years on other productions. There's a group out of New York called M2, which is providing all the technical elements. I've got directors who I've worked with on other things who are coming in from wherever they live from around the country. We're going to...