THE FUTURE OF THE MALOOF MONEY CUP

The Future Of The Maloof Money Cup

Photos & Interview by Eric Hendrikx

Ever thought skateboarding would be the industry that enhances educational and cultural exchange programs around the world, stimulates tourism opportunities to foster economic growth in third-world countries, and provide numerous nations with an affordable and accessible activity for their youth?

Probably not, with all of the anti-streetskater jargon we see in parking lots, plazas, parks and other public and private hotspots, sporting savory concrete and marble benches and smooth aluminum hand rails on their properties.

But it doesn’t matter how many No Skateboarding signs are posted in our communities, or how many millions of skateboard deterrents are bolted down to those benches, ledges and stair rails, because the children have spoken—Skateboarding is the fastest growing sport on the planet.

Leading  the pack in this global action sports take-over is Las Vegas Palms Hotel owner Joe Maloof. No stranger to sports, Joe also owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, and was recently named a Hero by CNN Headline News for his work in the community through the Maloof Skateboarding Assistance Foundation to provide financial assistance to skateboarders, who are often considered too high risk to insure.

Consistent with his community conscious direction, Joe has developed a skateboard competition that not only provides highly sought-after entertainment across the nation, and globally, but also gives back to those communities tenfold.

“I think the New York City Maloof Money Cup 3 event we just held was terrific  in two ways. After the event, I was contacted by twenty-seven other cities around the nation that wanted us to bring the Maloof Money Cup (MMC) competition to their city and build a skatepark for their community. And then, after MMC3 was done, the skatepark we built and left for the community of Queens was voted the best skatepark in the city of New York. So it was not only great for our brand, but also great for the community of New York City and of course, mainly for the kids.

The Maloof Money Cup 4 was held in Orange County, California. It was a tremendous event that exceeded our expectations and delivered world class skateboarding to Southern California with the largest cash prizes in the industry. They  had great acts there as well to entertain the crowd including Nelly and Lil Jon.

Next, we’re headed to Portland, where we will hold MMC5. We’re gonna have an amazing event there, close to the Rose Garden, bring in the competition and leave the community with a wonderful and unique skatepark. We are working in conjunction with the City of Portland on this one, where we’ll put up 75% of the money and the city will contribute 25%. I’m really excited about Portland.

I think next year we’ll have between three and four MMC events in the United States and we’ll also hold one in South Africa. It’s hard to decide where to else to go outside the US, we’ve had interest from Brazil, China, Germany and the list goes on. We really have to be strategic as to what we want to establish, since there is so much interest and opportunity. We really need to do it the right way so we aren’t running around with our heads cut off.

The South Africa event will be held in Kimberley, the diamond capital of the world, September 30 through October 2, 2011. It’s a beautiful city with wonderful people, and I’m proud to say that we will be bringing something exciting to their community and leave them with something special for their children to enjoy for many years to come. It’s really a spectacular, beautiful area, right where the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans meet.

We always give the opportunity for the local skaters in the community to make the competitions, but there’s deffinitely no favoritism. They can make it if they’re good enough. We always want to make sure that we maintain the integrity of the event so that we have the best available skaters in the world, as we have in the past and I’m sure we will in the future.”