YouTube

Remember SlamBall? The basketball-on-trampolines thing on TNN back in the early 2000s? Vaguely? OK, cool. Well, it’s coming back.

From Sports Business Journal:

SlamBall is planning on making its return in the summer of 2023 in Las Vegas with a regular season and playoffs to be broadcast live. The goal also is for this to become an annual, destination event.

While the group does not have a media deal yet, they have been having conversations with a number of outlets. “We are sports media guys with a lot of relationships with the biggest distributors, so we’re pretty bullish on that side of the business,” said SlamBall founder Mason Gordon.

(…)

Outside of the summer window, SlamBall partner Tom Penn, the former LAFC and NBA team exec, said they will “go on tour to various hotbed markets around the world where SlamBall has a following and can go in the way that the ATP brings a tennis tournament into town.”

As the cheeky headline above states, there are literally dozens of streaming platforms now that need content. Especially sports (and sports-adjacent) content. This revival has to have that in mind.

There are still plenty of “cheap” sports rights deals to be had. Mid-major college hoops, European basketball and soccer, etc. But SlamBall will likely be cheaper, especially if it is centrally located in a casino’s conference space.

There is also a chance it will translate well in the TikTok era and we know people are into Ninja Warrior-ish stuff. So it makes sense to give it a go as a broadcast product. The tour aspect doesn’t make as much sense, but who knows if that will ever get off the ground. Or if it even needs to

If SlamBall can come back and thrive, you have to think RollerJam is next.

James Kratch can be reached at [email protected]05

James Kratch is the managing editor of ESNY. He previously worked as a Rutgers and Giants (and Mike Francesa) beat reporter for NJ Advance Media.