Hey,

Good evening to ya! We got final final sign off for the 2021 edition of the Hoopsfix All-Star Classic on Sunday, so I am currently frantically running around trying to pull something off in 3 weeks that normally takes 3 months. Yikes.

To that tune, site has been slow on content, and so seeing as we are in full on event and planning mode, here are 3 musings on things I am spending a lot of my time on at the moment:

🏀 Rule of 6

After a lot of brainstorming on various different event formats, I came to the conclusion it is basically impossible to run a successful and profitable basketball event in the UK without 1 of these 6 things: sponsorship, decent amount of paying spectators, cheap venue, public funding, high registration cost for players/teams, or voluntary staff. Would love to know of any examples that are successful without at least 1 of these things - so let me know if you know of any. It is clear why there isn't more basketball activity in the summer.

🌱 Going all in on the Foundation

The Hoopsfix Foundation has been a registered CIC since 2016 (but active since 2014) to run all the Hoopsfix All-Star Classic activities through as a not-for-profit with separate accounts etc. We are in the midst of levelling up the organisation, where I have always been a sole director because we've only dealt with private/commercial revenue streams for the event, to being a fully fledged organisation to begin applying for grants to grow the scope of what we do. I think it has real potential to make a huge impact on the game here, and am in the process of recruiting our first proper board of directors to push things forward. Stay tuned in the coming weeks...

☀️ Summer Hoops

Related to point 1 above, there is a huge opportunity to own the summer basketball scene here - outside of Ball Out (which is great!) - there is nothing really that offers at scale competition. I am currently putting together a pretty big pitch to make something happen in 2022 - but would be interested in what you think? What is the summer missing? Where are the opportunities for basketball providers? Why are there not more people trying to do things in the summer?

That's me done - as always, hit reply with any thoughts, questions or anything else!

With gratitude,

Sam