Page 20 - BusinessWest September 5, 2022

Gene Cassidy, president and CEO of the Big E, announces plans for Hooplandia at a press conference staged last month.
Stressing the Fundamentals Hooplandia Organizers Set
a Date for 2023
By George O’Brien
Mark Rivers acknowledged that a lot of things have changed since he and officials at the Big E and the Naismith Memorial Basketball of Fame first announced that the region would host a giant three-on-three basketball tournament to be called Hooplandia.
Indeed, that announcement came late in 2019, just a few months before the arrival of COVID-19, which would eventually cancel large- scale events of all kinds and put plans for Hooplandia on ice — for 2020, 2021, and then 2022.
But what hasn’t changed, said Rivers, a marketing and programming consultant to the Eastern States Exposition who has also worked with the Hall of Fame on tournaments, is that what he calls the ‘fun- damentals’ are still in place.
“Three-on-three basketball is still very, very popu- lar, and Springfield is the birthplace of basketball,” he told BusinessWest, as he explained, succinctly and effectively, why those who conceived Hooplandia are still bullish on this concept and are proceeding with a tournament set for late June 2023.
If anything, conditions are even better, he said, noting that three-on-three basketball has only become more popular as a sport — and a competi- tion (more on that later).
Everything is “
lined up for a great event. It just took a little
longer to get there.”
Staff Photo
John Doleva, president and CEO of the Hall of Fame, agreed, noting that, while it might have been easy to walk away from the event given all the challenges and uncertainty moving forward, the vast potential of the concept led them to stay the course.
“Everyone stayed with it, and that’s very encouraging,” he said. “To
have all those entities — the Big E, the city of West Springfield, Mark
Rivers — step up and be as committed, if
not more, after a couple of years is a very
positive thing.
Hooplandia Continued on page 22
20 SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
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