Operating a basketball tournament - Why Battle on the Blacktop will be Bermuda's premier basketball event

What’s up everyone!

I hope you’re all enjoying your week and are looking forward to a great weekend!

This week I wanted to explore something that I referenced in last week’s edition: Battle on the Blacktop. This event is very special to me and important for AceBoy Sports Group, as this was the first ‘real-life’ operation that essentially brought ABSG to life. The first edition of BOTB was launched in August of 2018 and was Bermuda’s first ever 1 versus 1 outdoor basketball tournament, with the second edition taking place in August of 2019. Unfortunately, the third edition did not go forward in 2020 for obvious reasons and 2021 was complicated for events in Bermuda due to COVID-19 restrictions still being in place, so a special December 2022 edition is planned for the third installment.

Lets take a look at how this event came to materialize…

As I’ve said before, basketball is my sport and one that will always be a pillar of ABSG’s operations, making Battle on the Blacktop our flagship event. I settled on a basketball tournament as my first event due to two factors:

1. I knew basketball and I was confident I could put on a really special tournament.

2. At the time I felt that I really needed to launch something tangible with the ABSG brand and name attached to it.

After starting ABSG in early 2017, I was operating solely from an Instagram page posting about Bermudian athletes who were playing abroad in university, kind of like a highlights page. While I was still in school and planning to undergo a masters degree upon graduation, I saw events as the logical next step in growing ABSG into a multi-faceted sports management company in Bermuda. My thought process here was that I would be able to strategize and plan the events while away at school between classes and on weekends, and then implement the events when I was home for term breaks. After much deliberation, countless hours and weeknights spent in my dorm room on Excel, I had settled on the concept for Battle on the Blacktop as my very first event to officially launch AceBoy Sports Group.

Why basketball and why that type of tournament?

I always liked the aura and vibe that came with 1 versus 1 basketball, particularly when played on an outdoor court. There is just something so simple yet energizing about playing outside going head-to-head with guys who have the same passion for the sport. Up until 2018, a 1 versus 1 basketball tournament had not yet been done in Bermuda, so this was the niche I had been looking for, and apart from one or two leagues a year, the Bermuda Basketball Association does not do much else with regards to basketball. This presented an ideal opportunity to break into the basketball community with something tangible that players could compete in outside of the BBA league and school league seasons.

During the time I was brainstorming my plans for the event, I was only 21 years old and I didn’t want something super serious. I wanted to build something fun, new, and fast-paced that would be exciting for the players and fans who would be interested in participating and watching. Basketball in Bermuda has always lacked personality, which in my personal opinion is down to the BBA’s lack of foundation and consistency, and that was something that I wanted to ensure was paramount in this tournament. To do this, I set out to create an atmosphere that just felt fresh to the sport in Bermuda, and drive home what ABSG will be about in the future.

The tournament itself was single elimination, with all players that lost in the first round entering into a ‘redemption round’ bracket to have another go so that all players were guaranteed a minimum of two games. The entry fee for one player was $10, which included a free ABSG branded t-shirt. I wanted to keep the costs low for my first go at hosting this event in an effort to make it accessible to a wider range of possible participants. The ethos of BOTB is to be a communal event that showcases Bermuda’s best and brightest basketball players, not necessarily to maximize profits, and having a higher cost of entry would’ve negated that mission.

I elected to go with having no referees so players had to call their own fouls, which only added to the competitiveness and energy of each game, mimicking a pickup game. Points were scored on a 1s and 2s basis (for those that don’t know that means a normal two-pointer in basketball equals one point, and a normal three-pointer equals two points) which is common in 1 versus 1 games. Going into the tournament I was anticipating and aiming for a minimum of 20 participants, so games would be won by the first player to reach seven points.

To add to the vibe I was hoping to create at the actual event, I invited all the athletes I had worked with during our promotion days. This included athletes from the National rugby teams and various footballers/cricketers who were around for the weekend. I thought this helped to create an atmosphere similar to that of a college game-day, where athletes from numerous teams support each other during their respective matches.

Strategizing, organizing, and more planning!

Being a senior in university at the time, I had various other things that took up my day-to-day life. From my internship, dissertation, studying, homework, and my social life, it was a very steep learning curve to plan my first ever event on the side! If time to plan and organize an event is the most pressing component of event management, then budgeting and capital has to be a close second. After fully diving into what I needed in order to make this event a success on the first try, I settled on a total budget of just over $3,000. While I had plenty of money saved up over my many summers grinding away on the Mid Ocean Golf Course in Bermuda (fantastic course btw), I still wanted to make sure the majority of that was saved for life after university (and for some fun during my college years of course). After drafting up the official budget, it became increasingly clear that I had to find a sponsor or two.

For those of you that aren’t experts in the Bermudian business landscape, the country has an extensive international business sector, with various international companies set up on the island operating in insurance, banking, and accounting, among others. In addition to providing hundreds of jobs for locals, the majority of these companies have fantastic charitable foundations which provide crucial financial assistance to charities, small local businesses, and sports clubs/organizations. I started applying to various companies in the insurance sector, and I was eventually successful in receiving a $3,000 sponsorship from Chubb Bermuda for the first edition of the event. This sponsorship allowed me to fund the banners, DJ, filming the event, and x200 ABSG branded shirts as handouts for signing up. I still had to cover all social media advertisement from my own funding, but securing this sponsorship was huge and I will always be grateful to Chubb Bermuda for showing their support. Ra’ees Tankard of Road Less Traveled Videos filmed and took pictures of both editions of Battle on the Blacktop.

Battle on the Blacktop #1

The first edition of BOTB took place on August 11th, 2018 at the outdoor court on Parson’s Road in Bermuda, starting at 3pm and ending at 7pm. Advertising and registration began three months prior to the event, and was done through our social media channels on Instagram (posts and stories), FaceBook (posts), and Twitter (posts). I reached out to one of the local news publications to run an advert on the event two-weeks prior to the launch date. I hadn’t originally budgeted for this but during talks with the publications, the editor shared that they were from the Parson’s Road area, and expressed how nice it was to see a local company bring an event to the area that they felt had been neglected. This was a real wholesome feeling and from there, I really felt that BOTB was going to be a staple event in the Bermuda sports industry.

On the day of the event we had registered 14 players to take part, slightly lower than the 20 participants I was hoping to reach, although 14 players for a 1 versus 1 tournament is still a decent turnout. Despite the numbers, it was encouraging to not only see players of different age groups, but also ones who I hadn’t yet known of or met in the basketball community. While I was hoping to have some of the older, better known players attend, I also wanted to be able to reach players who hadn’t yet had a chance to get involved in basketball in Bermuda. This was definitely accomplished, again showing encouraging signs that BOTB could be an ideal introductory event for newcomers to the sport.

Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any assistance from the Bermuda Basketball Association in regards to promoting the event. I had sent them the various promotional items I was using on social media to share on their channels and with the older players in and around the BBA (since I didn’t have their direct contacts), but ultimately none of those players or BBA reps attended the event. This was a bit of a let down as it showed a lack of support from the organizing body to a local startup trying something new and different, but in the end I think it actually benefitted the event tremendously. Younger players were able to play in a positive environment and really get after it and compete with one another and just have fun.

To make this tournament enticing for players to come out in the brutal Bermuda sun, I knew I needed to make this competition as rewarding as possible and introduce a bit of ‘maturity’ to the tournament. In order to accomplish this, the prize for the winner (other than a trophy and free t-shirt) was a $200 cash prize. I thought this was needed in order to add a touch of ‘legit-ness’ (not a word but I’m using it), and breakaway from the mindset of “everyone gets a trophy” that a lot of local sporting events operate under. While it might sound shallow, and I fully intend on building out a portfolio of ‘communal and charity-focused’ events, I want BOTB to also be something elite that players and fans take seriously, and I figured a cash prize was a solid way to incorporate that into the personality of the event. The prize for the ‘redemption round’ bracket was a free t-shirt and gift card to a local sporting goods store.

The winner of the inaugural Battle on the Blacktop was Gerhson Kurt (those of you who read my last post will know who that is!), who faced off against Jorel Smith (again, if you know, you know) in the finals by which time we had formed a pretty decent sized crowd from the surrounding neighborhood. As it was an outdoor public space with no seating for spectators, I wasn’t able to charge admission (nor do I think I would in the future as long as it remains outdoors) but at the height of the event there must have been at least 20-25 people in attendance, inclusive of players and spectators. All in all it was a fantastic learning experience and provided a great launching pad for the next edition the following summer.

Watch the Battle on the Blacktop: 1st Edition Highlight Video here!

Battle on the Blacktop #2

The second edition of Battle on the Blacktop was hosted on August 17th, 2019 and took place from 5pm - 8pm, again at Parson’s Road. While all the rules from BOTB1 carried over from to BOTB2, there were a few operational and logistical differences that occurred as well. First and foremost, I changed the start time of the event from 3pm to 5pm because, well, it was hot! That was the main takeaway from the players and spectators in attendance, and was the reason more people showed up to watch towards the finals when it was approaching 6pm/6:30pm. Also, a shorter window of 3 hours from 4 provided a more concise time slot for those interested to show up to watch or play. The awards for both the main bracket and redemption bracket stayed the same; cash prize and trophy, inclusive of a free t-shirt.

Secondly, the banners I ordered for the first event will last for years, so that also impacted the projected budget in a healthy way. Additionally, after feedback from players and spectators, I decided not to book a DJ for BOTB2. The general consensus was that it was nice to have the music, but the vibe didn’t really change with a DJ, so I got my own speaker and asked everyone to submit songs for a playlist, which was a fun player activation! Upon further number crunching, I submitted a proposal to Chubb Bermuda again to sponsor BOTB2, and they were able to grant me a $3,000 sponsorship. Again, I express my sincere gratitude to their charitable foundation for assisting!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as organized in advertising for the second edition as I was for the first. From May to the end of July in 2019 I was studying abroad in Madrid as part of my Masters in International Sports Management from UCFB, and I just didn’t have as much time as I had the year before. During that time I had also just gotten my intermediary license with the England FA, so I was also working with prospective clients on securing trials at football clubs. I know its not an excuse, and it was definitely a lesson learned in time management and prioritizing tasks, something I know I’ve built on and have gotten much more efficient in doing.

By the time the day of the event came, we had yet again 14 players who had registered to take part, it wasn’t more than BOTB1, but at least it wasn’t less! What was encouraging though, was that about 60% of the BOTB2 participants had not played in BOTB1 - the counter point here however, is that we didn’t add a new 60%, we lost players from the previous year. This was down to a common denominator however, in that most of the players who didn’t participate in 2019 who had done so in 2018, were in university or going into their freshman year, so had already left the island. As stated above, I didn’t get back to Bermuda until late August, so I wasn’t able to host the event on the same weekend as 2018 due to my flight plans, therefore I had to push the date for BOTB2 back two weeks.

Changes and setbacks aside, BOTB2 was still a successful event and only added to what we accomplished in 2018. The second edition saw newcomer Ethan Medeiros crowned as champion, defeating Bryce Gonsalves in the final round. We once again drew more of a crowd during the semi-final/final round, and I can confidently estimate that during this time there were probably close to 30 people (spectators and players) in attendance. During BOTB2 we also put up our shirts for sale and sold quite a few more than during BOTB1, which was a welcome development. Again, I thought BOTB2 was successful in a few ways; we built on what BOTB1 accomplished but also confirmed what worked and what didn’t work in BOTB1.

Watch the Battle on the Blacktop: 2nd Edition Highlight Video here!

Whats in store for BOTB3?

As previously mentioned, I’ve not yet been able to officially announce Battle on the Blacktop 3. This has mainly been down to the fallout of COVID-19 restrictions for events in Bermuda during the summers of 2020 and 2021, and if the event is to go forward it has to be done properly. I am now in the midst of finalizing a date for BOTB3, which will take place in December 2022 during the Christmas break to allow the university students to take part after returning home for the holidays.

Building on what I learned during the planning of BOTB2, I will begin advertisements for this edition in September 2022. We will also look to have two separate age groups competing, one 16+ and the other 12-15. This will hopefully encourage younger kids to take part, who have not yet been able to find an avenue into basketball in Bermuda. Since this will be a winter edition, I will have to adjust the timing since it will be getting darker earlier, so a mid-late afternoon tournament is the likely route.

After my experiences being a team rep in this past BBA league (you can find this post on my dashboard), and their lack of assistance in the past two events, I will not be seeking their collaboration for BOTB3. I would love to work with a well run governing body that has the best interest of the sport and its participants at heart (especially the youth), but I cannot back the efforts of the Bermuda Basketball Association based on what seems to be their long term vision for the sport, therefore they are not an organization I will look to officially collaborate with.

I also see BOTB3 as being a great opportunity to build on our online presence, so this edition of the event will be live-streamed in addition to being filmed with condensed highlights posted on our YouTube. I would also like to create a ‘behind the scenes’ series of the day of the event, showing interactions between players, spectators, sound-bites, etc. I’ll be hoping for a fantastic event yet again, and am confident we will continue to develop our flagship event into one of Bermuda’s most exciting and competitive sporting events!

Talk to you next week!

Jason