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- The New Sporting Event
Hey everyone,
This week we’re going to look at the growing trends that are becoming mainstays in the sporting event space, and how I’ll be adopting some of these practices when building out the next event pipeline for AceBoy Sports Group. We’ve been pretty quiet on the events front over the last year or so, with our last event being Battle on the Blacktop 2 (you can check this out on the dashboard) which took place in 2019! The main reason for this has been the growth of our athlete representation arm, making the summer a fairly difficult period to get any events up and running with that being prime time for player registrations (COVID also didn’t help in 2020).
Nevertheless, our goal is to launch BOTB3 before 2024 and will take place either in late summer or late November, ideally during a period when the college students haven’t left the island already. For those of you who don’t know, Battle on the Blacktop is a 1 versus 1 outdoor basketball tournament, which I’v described as being our ‘flagship’ event. The primary objectives for BOTB3 is to increase participation and spectator numbers, have at least two age groups, and livestream the event. I won’t drone on about BOTB3 in this post (you can see that one on the dashboard), instead I’ll touch on some other event ideas we have in mind for the future…
2023 Trends
Community integration
Focus on sustainability
Introduction of new sports
Use of technology
Adapting competitive formats
Instead of speaking to each of the above points individually, I’m going to discuss how we can incorporate these trends into our events management and development processes going forward. ABSG will look to be more involved in various sports in Bermuda in numerous ways, one being events. We have events earmarked in rugby, volleyball, basketball, golf, and watersports. Each of those sports presents us with the opportunity to build a unique event in Bermuda.
I truly believe the most important aspect of any sport in Bermuda involving the community in some way. Bermuda is a very small population, and places a high value on sport within the culture, therefore making the community feel part of the event is crucial. BOTB for example, is hosted on a local outdoor court in the Parsons Road area of Pembroke parish, just outside the City of Hamilton. While we didn’t do this in the first two editions, we will be approaching local businesses to either sponsor the event outright, or offer them the opportunity to set up a ‘pop-up’ shop on-site at the venue. This wasn’t done in the first two editions of the event based on our costs being so low and only needing one title sponsor. Going forward, we want to incorporate the local community as best as we possibly can.
Building out events with a focus on sustainability is another important factor to consider in Bermuda. Without totally releasing the plans for our golf and watersports events, these are two examples of where we would partner with a local charity in order to raise awareness for an environmental cause that could use local exposure and attention. While our events might not be large enough to fully integrate technology at the moment, we will continue to build out our social media presence on the day of the events, and look to offer a livestreaming option to increase viewership.
We’re already doing this to an extent with BOTB, although a 1 versus 1 tournament concept isn’t original to the sport, it is original to Bermuda. The sports industry in Bermuda is almost a blank canvas, and we have the ability to try different event formats without copying any existing ideas from local companies or organizations. Introducing new concepts to local sports such as volleyball and rugby will be great ways for us to incorporate ourselves within those sporting communities, and continue to develop from there.
Now I’m sure everyone has heard of pickleball? Well, if you haven’t you can check it out after you finish reading (and subscribe!) but for those who know what it is, will also know how rapidly its grown and how popular the sport has become. I’m not suggesting we will be doing anything pickleball related in the short-term, but you never know. The point here is that we need to be open to new possibilities, whether that be technological changes, format adaptations, or working within new sports entirely. Being a start-up in a relatively young sports industry in Bermuda gives us the luxury and flexibility to experiment with different sports and projects, so it’s important to keep an open mind, and look to do things differently and take inspiration from various sources.
I hope you all enjoyed this week’s edition of Learning The Venture, until next week!
Jason