Ball4Real Looks To Compete With AND1 MixTape Tour
As AND 1’s Mixtape Tour celebrates its tenth anniversary, some streetball players "say they saw no alternative but to move forward and make a split" and form Ball4Real, a competing tour, according to Mark Lelinwalla of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. As the Mixtape Tour's revenues “multiplied along with their fan base," some players complained that the quality of basketball was being “watered down ... and the tour’s grassroots authenticity was being milked to benefit corporate interests.” Players who left AND1 to form Ball4Real said that they have “restored the grittiness, toned down the showmanship and returned the community-first aspect of the tour; AND1, they add, is now scrambling to regain its edge.” Ball4Real players said that “tension began mounting" in May '05, when American Sporting Goods purchased AND1. Some players said that their “input about the games and their marketing was being ignored after the purchase.” They worried that the tour was becoming “too commercial, too much about tricks and entertainment and too far removed from the gritty essence of streetball.” Greyhound, Spalding and Mountain Dew are among the companies that signed on to sponsor the breakaway Ball4Real tour. Ball4Real “passed on signing a deal with one of the major sneaker companies, opting instead to wear Stephon Marbury’s Starbury line.” Many of the players are represented Ball4Life, the agency of one of the tour’s founding members, Waliyy Dixon; player salaries range from $45,000-200,000 (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/3).
BALL4REAL: The Ball4Real Tour will stop at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis tomorrow, and Ball4Real CEO Lisa Fusco “believes fans will notice a difference” between the new tour and the Mixtape Tour. Fusco “touts Ball4Real as a player-owned operation where the participants have a say in the style of basketball as well as player recruitment and marketing.” AND1 GM Mark Woolsey “believes one group will ultimately rise to the top, and he likes his … business’s chances.” But Fusco said, “There’s a lot of room in this space, and what they’re doing is very different from us.” In St. Louis, Stu Durando notes in its first year, Ball4Real has embarked on a 30-city arena tour, while AND1 is operating a 10-city tour of outdoor venues this summer (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/5).
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