If you are a true-blue fan of college basketball, isn’t it madness that you don’t use your timeshare to put you courtside for the action?

It’s NCAA hoops time, and again this year, the nail biting excitement of college basketball teams in competition for the title of national champs, will cause millions—that’s right—millions of us to be parked in front of our televisions.

Each year, some fans cheer for schools with storied basketball traditions, like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, or North Carolina. Other fans watch with the hope that this year a Wichita State, George Mason, or Valparaiso will write a Cinderella story. They call it March Madness for a reason and true fans know that when it comes to college basketball, on any given day, any single team can beat any other team and become the winner.

Typically, audiences for the televised coverage of NCAA tournament competition are record breakers for CBS Sports. In 2006, CBS also set, or came very close to setting, (depending on whose statistics you trust) the record for the largest online simultaneous streaming audience, with “March Madness on Demand.”

If you don’t already have tickets for this year’s games beginning March 13, you can plan to be back on the couch again. Even if you have tickets, don’t expect to be able to book a hotel room or make a timeshare deal to see the Final Four in Atlanta, Georgia or even most of the cities hosting the regional rounds.

Accommodations have long been sold out to people who planned to be sitting in the stands, viewing the action first hand, and bought their tickets and reserved their hotel rooms or timeshare condos far in advance. But as all true basketball fans know, “there’s always next year.” So next year, or the year after, why not plan to be at the games in person?

Here’s a partial schedule of future dates and sites. Mark it on your calendar, buy your tickets, and schedule your timeshare condo to put you at the right place at the right time.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Dayton Ohio.

Thursday and Saturday, March 20 and 22, 2008 Anaheim, California; Omaha, Nebraska; Washington, D.C.

Friday and Sunday, March 21 and 23, 2008 Birmingham, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida

Thursday and Saturday, March 27 and 29, 2008 Charlotte, North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona

Friday and Sunday, March 28 and 30, 2008 Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas

Final Four: April 5 and 7, 2008 San Antonio, Texas

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Opening round: Dayton, Ohio Thursday and Saturday, March 19 and 21, 2009 Greensboro, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon

Friday and Sunday, March 20 and 22, 2009 Boise, Idaho; Dayton, Ohio; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota

Thursday and Saturday, March 26 and 28, 2009 Boston, Massachusetts; Glendale, Arizona

Friday and Sunday, March 27 and 29, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee

Final Four: Saturday and Monday, April 4 and 6, 2009 Detroit, Michigan

A bit of hopeful news for owners at Royal Oasis timeshare vacation resort.

I haven’t written about Royal Oasis timeshare resort since May of 2006. Even though some of our regular readers have asked for updates, I haven’t been able to offer any—there just has not been any reliable news.

But according to a recent edition of the Newport News, online edition, Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie and Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe have both “hinted” at a pending purchase. The Newport News quoted Wilchcombe as saying, “We know that the group is the right fit for Freeport and will bring the brand, the experience and the commitment to Freeport and to Grand Bahama.”

In case you are not familiar with Royal Oasis, the timeshare resort was damaged by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, in September of 2004. When the timeshare company closed the resort, over one thousand people were laid off. To exacerbate the impact on the local economy, two thirds of the 38 merchants at the International Bazaar, businesses supported in large part by the timeshare owners and visitors at Royal Oasis, have also had to close.

As for the timeshare owners themselves, they have been left to own or in many cases, make payments on property that is unusable and un-saleable. Royal Oasis is a highly atypical situation in the world of timesharing today. There are thousands and thousands of timeshare vacation resorts around the globe and it is inevitable that every year a few properties will sustain damage from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or fire. But you never hear about these situations because repairs are made quickly, business is soon back to normal, and individual owners are not personally impacted when it comes to using and enjoying their interval timeshare or vacation club membership.

Here’s the one thing you can count on. As soon as any of us at Sell My Timeshare NOW know anything definitive about Royal Oasis, we will be passing that information along to you.

Timeshare fraudster facing up to five years in prison.

Vladislav “Steven” Zubkis, a businessman from San Diego, has admitting to defrauding investors of more than $1.8 million in two different investment schemes.

Zubkis, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, has been in the business of swindling others for several years. In 2001, a federal judge imposed a $21.5 million judgment against Zubkis, and banned him from being an executive or officer in any public company, after he sold stock in what turned out to be a bogus chain of coffee houses. Zubkis ignored the ban and has been hard at work on other fraudulent schemes, one involving the purchase of a Las Vegas casino and another, the proposed construction of a storage facility. For his efforts, Zubkis now faces up to five years in prison; $250,000 in fines; and $1.8 million in court-ordered restitution, to be followed by deportation from the United States.

And what’s the good news here for the timeshare industry?

One more timeshare fraudster is out of business. At the time of his arrest, Zubkis was promoting a luxury timeshare housing development in Baja, California. He was promising investors, that for their $13,000 investment, they would see profits between one and three quarters of a million dollars.

You may be surprised to learn who is buying timeshare today

If you are interested in reselling your timeshare, your timing couldn’t be better. According to a recent article published by Hotel Interactive (http://www.hotelinteractive.com/) entitled, “FutureTimeshare Buyers: Market Profile 2006,” more than 9 million households in the US expressed interest in buying a timeshare within the next two years.

Not only is the overall percentage of Americans interested in timesharing on the increase, but the demographic is expanding as well. While the majority of timeshare owners still fall into the category of middle age and middle income, research shows a high degree of interest in timesharing by the Generation X crowd (age 28 to 41) and even the under 27 age group sometimes referred to as the Echo Boomers because they are typically the offspring of the Baby Boom generation.

Where once primarily households with annual incomes greater than $50,000 made timeshare purchases, today’s purchaser may have an annual household income in the $30,000 and up range. Timeshare purchases by African-Americans and by Indian-Americans (first and second generation American citizens of Asian Indian heritage) are also increasing at a significant rate.

Perhaps more people are realizing that timeshares can offer incredible opportunities for easy-to-plan travel and vacation ownership. Data from the National Leisure Travel Monitor^sm (developed by Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown/Yankelovich Partners) also shows that among the average American’s personal goals, family time ranks higher than earning money ranks. Issues of political and economic uncertainty and prevailing global unrest have influenced public perceptions and values. In 2000, 26 percent of adults took their children with them on vacations. By 2005, that figure had seen a 10 percent increase, including 61 percent of parents who said they would take their children out of school in order to enjoy a family holiday or vacation time.

Statistics such as these should be reaffirming for the timeshare industry as a whole, whether viewed from the perspective of the seller or the buyer. If you have timeshare that you wish to sell, take heart because everything points to an ever-growing market of potential buyers. And if you are considering timeshare property to buy, then the news is all good for you too, as research clearly shows, this is an industry in a positive growth trend. Industry standards, new and diverse vacation products, and your own opportunity to someday resell, only look better and better all the time.