The Pipeline - Series 2: Battle on the Blacktop 3, the flagship event makes its return!

Hey everyone!

I hope you have enjoyed your week and are ready for an even better weekend, and what better way to start it off than with a little light reading from yours truly (you can start drinking later)! If you’ve already subscribed, thank you so much, and if you’re new here you can hit that button below:

This week marks the second installment of ‘The Pipeline Series’ where I’ll be talking about future projects that are in store for AceBoy Sports Group. In the first edition of this series, we took a look at the sports I have earmarked as potential avenues for involvement for the company. This week, we are going to talk about the return of Battle on the Blacktop, with 2022 being the year of the third edition of our flagship event. For those you that don’t know, Battle on the Blacktop was my first ever event under the ABSG umbrella, with the inaugural launch in 2018, followed by the second installment in 2019. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, the third edition has been on hold the past two years, but we are looking at coming back with a bang in 2022!

Following a two year hiatus, you’d think I would have a few grand ideas for our beloved event’s return, right? Well too bad, you’d be completely wrong. I would love nothing more than for BOTB3 to explode back onto the sports events scene in Bermuda, but the most important thing for ABSG at the moment, is ensuring our events and other operations are scalable in a sustainable manner. It would be fantastic if we were able to put on a fabulous event that put us in the limelight, but it is crucial we build out these events in manageable ways, and that can be done with simple goals of increasing attendance, investing in quality marketing endeavors, and garnering more local sponsorship. Now let’s take a look at each of those:

Marketing, marketing, and more marketing…

The life of an entrepreneur is challenging, fun, and rewarding. You learn a lot about what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. You also learn what is incredibly crucial for growth, and for me that has to be marketing. Most of my marketing is networking via LinkedIn or social media, but for BOTB3, I’m going to have to get creative and find some new methods to increase our attendance and player registrations. In past editions of the event, I’ve stuck solely to social media and advertising through Bernews.com, which is a local online publication. These two tried and tested methods were preferred in the events early days simply down to capital and sponsorship available, but this time around I’ll be looking to expand on our marketing endeavors.

I think a great avenue to take will be partnerships with local athletes and content creators. We’ve seen a bit of a boom in Bermuda in the ‘creative’ space, and some are actually pretty good at what they do. In addition to garnering support from local athletes, I’ll be targeting a few of the local youth programs to assist in spreading information about the event to any potentially interested younger players. I’ve quickly realized that a successful event is built on reputation, and while reviews from our first two installments were positive and encouraging, it would be great to expand that opinion of ABSG to the wider populace.

More is less, or is it less is more…?

In BOTB1 and BOTB2 we had 14 participants each time out, but 75% of the 14 players in BOTB2 were different from BOTB1. This is encouraging since we reached a new audience, and BOTB2 was hosted two weeks after BOTB1 was a year prior (due to my study abroad scheduling conflict), meaning that a lot the university aged students had returned to school. While our goal this year will be to eclipse 20 participants (optimistically I would like to get to 30), it was still enjoyable having a smaller scale tournament, which for myself alone was easy to manage. Obviously the way the tournament runs is pretty self-reliant, all that is required on my end during play is to coordinate when/where each participant is playing.

As I’ve mentioned before, the ultimate goal for Battle on the Blacktop is to become Bermuda’s premier basketball event. To do this, we are going to have to increase participation and consequentially that might mean I need to bring in more assistance on event days. However, we need to keep the growth sustainable or the event won’t succeed and could potentially plateau at a level that we don’t want it at. It is crucial that while we do aim to increase participation, we also maintain the level and quality of play so that the event remains an attractive option for both players and fans.

Connecting with the community, local business, and stakeholders…

Above all and arguably the most important goal of Battle on the Blacktop, has always been community involvement. Fortunately, Chubb Bermuda have been gracious enough to sponsor the first two editions of the event, and it is my hope they will continue to be a sponsor. This year, I would like to bring in companies who do not operate in the international business sector, but rather who are local to Bermuda and could perhaps be involved in other ways beside financing. This year I would like to make a push to involve more businesses from the Parsons Road area, which is where the event will be held. It is my hope this will solidify a sense of community for the event, and ensure that the area benefits from the event itself.

Additionally, I will be ushing for more individuals of known status on the island to attend via invite. While there are no fees for spectators, and I would like to maintain this well into the future of BOTB, it is my hope an invite that is based around a community centric event will add some much needed exposure to what should be a fun and exciting day. This could include, but won’t be limited to, athletes returning home for the festive period (BOTB3 will take place in December), small business owners, other entrepreneurs, constituent representatives, etc. All in all, connecting the community through sport is a principle target for AceBoy Sports Group, and I believe that Battle on the Blacktop can achieve that.

What’s next…

Thanks for reading this week everyone! If you wouldn’t mind sharing or leaving a comment with any suggestions on what you’d like me to discuss in the future, I’d love to hear back from you!

Until next week!

Cheers,

Jason