Maloofs Again Host Skateboarding Event Despite Losses Last Year

NBA Kings co-Owner Joe Maloof "estimates he lost" $1M staging last summer's inaugural Maloof Money Cup, but he and his brother, Gavin, had "such a good time watching the world's top skateboarders" compete, they are staging a second iteration of the event Friday through Sunday, according to Bernie Wilson of the AP. Joe Maloof said, "We've been involved with all kinds of sports throughout the years, football, basketball -- and I tell you, I don't know that I've ever had more fun than last year. ... I just loved it. I didn't want to leave." The Maloofs for this year's event have "signed a stable group of sponsors," and Joe Maloof said, "This year, regardless of the economy, we're going to make money. The money, though, I'm going to kick it right back into the event next year." Wilson noted this year, most of the world's "top skateboarders will be back to try to get their share of sport's biggest payday, about $450,000 in cash and prizes." Paul Rodriguez last year earned $100,000 for winning the street competition, while Pierre-Luc Gagnon earned $75,000 for winning the pro vert competition. The first-place money in street and vert remains the same this year, but the winner in each division "also gets a $10,000 watch and two guitars worth a total of $2,790." Joe Maloof said of last year's event, "It was a first-time event and we had to prove ourselves right [out] of the gate. There were a lot of people who said, 'What are the Maloofs going to be doing in skateboarding? They don't know anything about skateboarding.' And so I thought that to do it right and to establish ourselves, we had to do it first-class all the way." Wilson noted there are "plans to hold a Maloof Money Cup in Las Vegas in October" (AP, 7/9). In California, Erika Ritchie reported the Maloof Money Cup is "doubling its sponsor dollars and expanding live coverage" of this weekend's event. The course -- "built as a one-time skate course only -- will feature replicas of famous streetscapes from around the world, including Pier 7 in San Francisco and the UCI 6, a staircase" at the Univ. of California at Irvine (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 7/9).

RAMPED UP: Joe Maloof, when asked why he created the Maloof Money Cup, said, "Every time I look out the window, I see people skateboarding -- from 10 to 40-years-old. I thought, 'This is something I might want to get involved with.' ... We were gonna do a camp and then I started having people come to me saying, why don't you do a competition? And, that's kind of how this came about." Maloof said of skateboarders, "It's basically the same demographics as an NBA player. They're basically 19 to 34 ... you have some young kids ... but for the most part, these are high class, highly trained athletes that are amazing at the tricks they do." Maloof said he is going to hold a Maloof Money Cup "every year." Maloof: "I'm sure that we'll eventually have more than one of these, I hope, and maybe we can do a course in other parts of the country, where we can go into a city, build a course, have a Maloof Money Cup there and then leave the course for the public" (ESPN.com, 7/9).