EL PASO- El Paso County’s pledging almost a $500,000 toward luring the Conference USA’s basketball tournament back to El Paso.

Today commissioners agreed to share a loss of $850,000 with the city if the basketball conference doesn't make enough money through ticket sales.
The conference tournament would return here in 2013 or 2014.
Since the city and county are both backing it, the El Paso sports commission calls it a great opportunity.

"They each committed to $425,000 as a loss, that’s only a guarantee, last time it was here it generated over a million dollars so we're ok with that," says Sports Commission President Brian Kennedy.

El Paso is competing with cities like Tampa and Memphis for the basketball tournament. We could know next month if El Paso wins the bid.