The Basketball Tournament

RG33

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So, one of my best friends and another buddy have developed "The Basketball Tournament", which Zach Lowe just wrote about today on Grantland:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/welcome-to-the-basketball-tournament/

They've been working on it for 3 years and have launched the official website today in connection with the Grantland story.

Its ultimately a combination of Fantasy sports, reality TV, and competitive sports that is hopefully going to be social media driven, with $500,000 going to the winning team. Anybody can enter, the 24 teams with the most "fans" on the website get automatic bids, and then 8 teams are selected by my buddies (so they can ensure the celebrity names get involved). They've had some inklings from Antoine Walker, Iversen, some former college teams/players as the article mentions, etc.

Its pretty cool, and is amazing that it has come to fruition. The website is:

http://www.thetournament.com


EDIT: website link
 

scottyno

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Dec 7, 2008
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seems like it could potentially be really cool if they get some legit names interested but I don't really understand the point if every game isn't on tv or streamed live or at least on demand or something
 
edit: Also, this tourney needs a broke former nba players team playing for themselves, and an NBA on TNT guys team playing for charity
 

Deathofthebambino

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Greeley, anyone I know involved in this?  Seems like a really cool idea and I'm definitely going to follow along.  I really like the whole free agent thing, and the idea of a free agent saying how much of the 500k they want if their teams wins.  That could get really interesting.
 

RG33

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Deathofthebambino said:
Greeley, anyone I know involved in this?  Seems like a really cool idea and I'm definitely going to follow along.  I really like the whole free agent thing, and the idea of a free agent saying how much of the 500k they want if their teams wins.  That could get really interesting.
I don't think so. My buddies are Dan Friel (Arlington) and Jon Mugar (Belmont). They have Daryl Morey's former assistant GM involved now as well (which is how they got the Grantland story done, he talked to Daryl, Daryl is good friends with Zach Lowe, etc.).

The original concept was winning team gets like $10 million, the final game is televised on a Sunday in June, etc, but the networks want to see it work and get the social media thing going first.
 

RG33

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They have had 3000 fans sign up, and have 8 teams eligible for the tournament already in the first 10 days.  There's still time to get a SoSH team together. . . .  :)
 
http://www.thetournament.com/
 
 
 
 
 
Edit:  hyperlink
 

Deathofthebambino

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I just logged in as a fan.  Haven't chosen a team yet, but leaning towards the Cornell team.  Is there any upside to choosing a team early on, or can I wait a few weeks and see what other teams sign up?  I notice you lose 1,000 points every time you jump off a fanwagon, so I assume that means you can switch teams later on, but at a cost.
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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Greeley - only just saw this now, but I think there's a real market for this if they can continue getting the word out and get some ex-NBA players to compete.  I just love the concept, and they've done a great job with their PR so far.
 
I've done something similar like this for the tech-startup world before (it was investor pitches in a head-to-head matchup format).  In my view, your friends need a couple key elements:
 
- Reffing at the level of good college conferences, at least.  Refs empowered to call technicals and who can judge charge-vs-block without committing a travesty of officiating.  Not sure if the actual refs who do this for college conferences can take moonlighting gigs like this in the off-season.
- Live streaming.  UStream.tv is a pretty good option, there are lots of ways to livecast this and work with a platform that already has the ability to charge for access.
- Good commentators.  I wonder how much they'd cost to moonlight.  Maybe you can cut a deal with ESPN giving them right of first refusal to televise in the future if they let their commentators do these games for the internet audience, and you just pay their travel expenses.
- Some local promotion incentivizing an actual crowd to show up in person.  Nothing's more pathetic than watching a game where it's clear nobody is in the stands caring about how things go.
 
Other thoughts:
- There have got to be some sponsorship opportunities with athletic-gear companies if they can make an audience materialize
- They could make the book on wagering on winners of individual matchups, or at least try to run it through a legitimate casino.  There'd be an instant audience boost.
- Willing to bet with the article up now, you could get Bill Simmons interested.  He might be worth a cut of equity in this thing just for the publicity he can bring.
- I wonder how hard it is to network to get a meeting with Michael Jordan.
- Shouldn't be too hard to figure out what the right price point is for live streaming.  If you get most of the above taken care of, my gut instinct is the same as a commentator on that Grantland story - $15 for live only, $25 for on-demand access.
- There are lots of small PR outfits out there who could make an enormous difference if none of the founding team has a background in PR.  The Grantland story was a nice coup, but a good PR rep freelancing shouldn't break their bank right now and might make an incredible difference in their audience and reach.
 

RG33

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Deathofthebambino said:
I just logged in as a fan.  Haven't chosen a team yet, but leaning towards the Cornell team.  Is there any upside to choosing a team early on, or can I wait a few weeks and see what other teams sign up?  I notice you lose 1,000 points every time you jump off a fanwagon, so I assume that means you can switch teams later on, but at a cost.
I'm not really sure to be honest. I "fanned" a random team that had like 92 fans to help them get closer to the required 100 to qualify. They have had over 10,000 people "fan" teams now, so its going really well.
 

RG33

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The championship game is this Saturday, at Case Gymnasium at BU. It is going to be broadcast LIVE on ESPN3 at 7pm.
 

radsoxfan

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Just wanted to chime in and say this tourney is awesome.  Wish I was still living in Boston, would definitely check out the final. 
 

RG33

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Bumping this as the 2015 Basketball Tournament has 6 days left for registration.

The cash prize this year is $1,000,000 and it will be in 4 locations (LA, Philly, Chicago, NYC I believe). They will also be paying for the transportation for teams to the quarterfinals matchups. The Championship Game will be LIVE on ESPN.

Here is the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thetournament

The website is www.thetournament.com
 

RG33

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TBT had a hugely successful 2nd tournament -- the championship game was broadcast live on ESPN on a Sunday afternoon in June.

They are doing Podcasts now, and the recent one about how this whole thing came about was pretty good. With that said, whether you listen to it or not, it will help them out a lot to have you leave a rating AND review of the Podcast.

https://www.thetournament.com/news/tbt-podcast-behind-scenes-tbt
 

Deathofthebambino

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There is a quarterfinal game being televised on ESPN2 right now. It looks like it's between the #1 and #3 seeds. Very high level ball being played. Looks like this thing is really starting to catch on. Congrats to your friends.