We tapped into some of the discussion in and around club basketball in the Prime Event recap a few weeks ago but I wanted to take a deeper dive into the world of club basketball when asking Why dont Shoe Circuits Run Events Every Day of the Viewing Period?
I guess before we can answer that lets give a little context and background.
Until 2019 there were only two shoe circuits and Nike was the clear front runner in all of grassroots basketball circuits. Adidas has a circuit and has had one for a long time. Originally run by Michael T White of ASGR then “Pops” and now by Maike Barnett and JC Hulls. Between the two you would see between 50-60 clubs nationally who were sponsored who left a huge majority of clubs who were not and a really healthy independant market. Before the EYBL had a league Nike had a culminating tournament (Nike Nationals) at the end of the summer but teams were free to attend any event and play independent teams during live viewing events. When the EYBL started their league which was the first league in girls grassroots hoops it started to end those Nike teams playing independent teams and teams from other circuits in a live viewing setting. If you were around before the EYBL you know how good exhibition day at Battle in the Boro was on wood floors in a high school gym at Blackman High School in Murfreesboro. A Lot has changed and I don’t know if it is for the better.
Enter the Girls UAA in 2019 which has upped its list of clubs to nearly 40 in 2021 and the return of club basketball. So now you have 3 circuits which hold almost 100 of the top club teams in the country. In Florida alone right now there are 6 club teams who are sponsored by a shoe company. What did this do to live events – It created shoe events and everything else and the strength of the shoe events versus an almost non-existence of elite independent events like there were when we played exhibition day at Battle in the Boro. We can argue who the best club is, we can argue who some of the best independents are but if you are trying to say the majority of quality club teams at this point are not on a shoe circuit (or actively trying to get on a shoe circuit) you are just not telling the truth. On top of that now we have a situation where even the non-shoe company events are really just being propped up by the shoe company teams. There is no longer a majority elite independent club event that exists anymore and that is just the truth from someone who spent nearly 15 years as an independent club. The only reason the shoe teams are playing in non-shoe company events at this point is because they are running most of them and using them as a way to fund their program and themselves.
A lot of people will read this and argue how great these non-shoe events are but the reality is if they were so good why not drop out of the shoe league and just play in non-shoe events year round and not play in any live shoe events? Part of it is they are driven by trying to find some type of trophy to win at the end of the year and justify how good of a coach they are but the other part of it is they want good games. People play in a shoe league because they are promised quality games, every game, and they know college coaches will watch their kids every game. You just cant get that outside of a shoe league. Argue Argue Argue as much as you want but that is a pretty simple plain broad statement.
So this brings us back to the title of this article: Why dont Shoe Circuits Run Every Day of the Viewing Period?
Well the simple answer is because the teams wouldn’t go for it because they want to make money running events even if it means playing bad people or going to a weaker event. But at some point I think clubs have to choose if they want to be an elite club program or an event operator and the mixing of the two has really impacted club basketball in general. When we all started this no one did it to get rich but a few have figured out how to get rich and that has caused everyone else to chase that regardless of the collateral damage and impact to kids.
Personally lets play shoe circuit games every day of the viewing period. Lets get great games, play in front of coaches, and get our players better.
Now obviously there is going to be some financial loss so the additional revenue from the events added to the shoe circuits should go to the clubs. This will help offset some of the losses people take from events but they will need to decide to be a club director or be an event operator. In the 2020 pandemic year Nike was planning to do this by adding an Oregon stop to the EYBL which means they would have April, May, and the first half of July just leaving the second half of July for whatever people want to do for 5 days. I think eventually the brand and interest of the shoe leagues will have a serious conflict with the clubs if the clubs continue to build as event operators and become competitors to the shoe league and continue to damage club basketball. Lets be honest there is not much value in the non shoe dates other than you might be able to play closer to home and be seen by some local schools.
I know this is going to be a really unpopular article but if we want the quality of events to get better, kids get good competition as much as possible, and get clubs money in conjunction legally through their shoe circuit this would be the way to go. Now the question is do the shoe circuits have the leadership to do what is right to make the league great or continue to move towards major conflict between the team directors and the shoe circuits.
Just a thought …
