UConn guard Braylon Mullins (24) reacts with teammates after scoring the winning basket against Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Eliot Tatelman wants to make it clear. No one on the leadership team at Jordan’s Furniture, a company his family founded about a century ago and Tatelman led for more than 50 years, is rooting against the University of Connecticut’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. Rather, Tatelman and his colleagues would love for the Huskies to keep winning in the NCAA tournament even though some think otherwise.
Earlier this year, Jordan’s ran a promotion to attract customers to shop online or at its eight stores in New England. If the UConn men’s and women’s teams each advance to the national title game, anyone who bought items at Jordan’s between Jan. 20 and March 1 will receive a full refund. When Jordan’s struck an agreement with an insurance company late last year to offer the deal, the odds were low anyone would get free furniture. Now, it is looking much more likely.
On Friday night, the No. 1 ranked UConn women face South Carolina in the Final Four in Phoenix. The next night, the UConn men meet Illinois in the Final Four in Indianapolis. The UConn men and women are seeking to make the national title game in the same season for the third time, joining the 2004 and 2014 seasons when both programs won championships. Duke in 1999 and Louisville in 2013 are the only other Division I programs to have both their men’s and women’s teams in the national title games in the same season.
It is no surprise the UConn women are still playing. After all, the Huskies are 38-0 and have defeated their opponents by an average of 37.8 points per game, including by 32.5 points in four NCAA tournament games.
The men’s team, however, is a different story. On Sunday night, UConn trailed Duke by as many as 19 points, was behind by 15 at halftime and made just one of its first 18 3-pointers. But with Duke ahead by two points and having the ball with 10 seconds left, the Blue Devils committed a turnover. UConn freshman guard Braylon Mullins then made a 40-footer with less than a second remaining, putting the Huskies up 73-72, their first lead since going up 2-0. Duke couldn’t convert on a Hail Mary pass, sending UConn to its third Final Four in the past four seasons.
“I stood there and was like speechless,” said Tatelman, who watched the game on television. “I go, ‘What the (expletive) just happened?’ I said, ‘Oh, my God. They did it. They won.’”
Jordan’s Insists Promotion Is Good For Business
Since UConn pulled off the stunning comeback, Tatelman has heard from friends and acquaintances who worried he might be upset. No, he assured them.
During the promotion period, people spent more than $50 million on items at Jordan’s. But the company took out an insurance policy and is paying premiums based on a set percentage of sales regardless of whether the deal pays off. And it is only spending a small fraction of the potential payout.
“I want it to happen because it’s not coming out of my pocket,” Tatelman said. “Some of my customers think, ‘Oh, you don’t want this to happen. You’re rooting against UConn.’ But no, that’s not true.”
In fact, Tatelman noted both UConn teams making the finals is good for business.
“If this happens, every person that bought furniture, the first thing they’re going to do is call everybody they know, ‘Guess what? I just got all my living room for nothing,’” he said. “That’s part of the fun of the whole thing is that if you do win, you want to brag to all your friends that you were stupid. You should have gone in and bought a living room set or something.”
Jordan’s Becomes Berkshire Hathaway Subsidiary
Tatelman, whose grandfather started Jordan’s, took over the business along with his brother in the early 1970s from his father. At the time, Jordan’s had only one store in Massachusetts and generated $300,000 in revenue per year, the same it can currently make in a day. The Tatelman brothers soon expanded Jordan’s and began spreading the word via ubiquitous advertising. Eliot Tatelman not only ran the operations, but he also became the company’s chief spokesperson, often appearing on radio and television.
In October 1999, the Tatelman brothers sold Jordan’s to Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company run by Warren Buffett, the 11th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $140.7 billion, according to Forbes. As he does with most businesses, Buffett let the Tatelman’s continue to run Jordan’s. While Tatelman’s brother stepped away in the 2000s, Tatelman stayed on board until last spring when his two sons took over day-to-day operations, although he is still involved and in touch with Buffett.
“I have a great relationship with Warren,” said Tatelman, who is 79 years old, 16 years younger than Buffett. “He’s an awesome guy. He’s been to my house for dinner. We talk quite often. He’s just a super guy, and he’s very supportive.”
Jordan’s first had a sports-related promotion in 2007 when it became the Boston Red Sox’s official furniture retailer. The company offered anyone who bought a mattress, sofa, dining table or couch between certain dates a refund if the Red Sox won the World Series.
The Red Sox did end up winning the championship that year, leading to $35 million in rebates. Still, like now with the UConn promotion, Jordan’s was on the hook for just a fraction of that cost, as it had bought an insurance policy.
Since then, Jordan’s has run other deals involving the Red Sox, including if a pitcher threw a no-hitter, a player hit for the cycle or a ball hit a sign in the outfield. But Tatelman said that no other promotion has paid off for the customers, which is good news for the insurers taking on the risk.
“They’ve been doing very well on me,” Tatelman said. However, he added that “this one, they’re nervous.”
Jordan’s Expands And Strikes UConn Partnership
The idea for the current promotion began last summer when Jordan’s approached UConn about a partnership. The company in recent years opened its first two Connecticut stores, one in Farmington where a Lord & Taylor previously was and the other in New Haven at the site of the former New Haven Register newspaper headquarters. It wanted to lure customers. There are no NBA, NHL, NFL or Major League Baseball franchises in Connecticut, so UConn is the de facto professional organization that most people in the state follow.
Tatelman appeared in television commercials with UConn forward Sarah Strong, a first team Associated Press All-American; UConn guard Silas Demary Jr.; and the UConn mascot.
Jordan’s has worked with the same insurance company for each of its promotions, although Tatelman would not disclose the firm’s name. He added that the insurer then partners with other insurers to spread the risk, similar to what a bank or other lender does when it syndicates large loans to other parties so it is not exposed to a significant payout or loss.
Berkshire Hathaway is one of the largest insurers in the world via several subsidiaries, including GEICO. The company has offered so-called prize indemnification insurance in the past, including for a promotion in 2014 that would pay $1 billion to anyone who picked all the winners of each NCAA men’s basketball tournament. No one won that prize.
For the UConn promotion, Tatelman and others spoke about options with the insurer. They considered several scenarios, including providing free furniture if one of the teams won the title or both teams won, before settling on them each making the final.
“It’s all based upon the insurance company and the odds,” Tatelman said. “It’s got to be something that could happen but that’s not going to be easy to happen. If it’s too easy, then I can’t afford the insurance.”
The UConn deal fits into Jordan’s marketing strategy of attracting attention in a competitive business and getting people to visit their stores, which Tatelman refers to as entertainment complexes. For instance, the company has a large indoor ropes course at its New Haven, Conn., IMAX theaters at two of its Massachusetts stores and restaurants at most of its stores.
Tatelman said Jordan’s may invite people to watch Friday’s and Saturday’s games at their Connecticut stores, although nothing is finalized.
“Everybody that likes UConn and everybody in Connecticut is thrilled to death,” Tatelman said, “except our insurance company.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timcasey/2026/03/31/jordans-furniture-is-rooting-for-uconn-even-as-customers-may-receive-large-refunds/
