Hoopfest Another Slam-Dunk For Spokane Organizer Rejects Plans For Creating Franchised Version Of City Festival
As volunteers early Sunday evening began methodically stripping down the 263 temporary basketball courts that provided the skeleton for Hoopfest ‘96, it became apparent that Rick Steltenpohl and his staff have a show good enough to take on the road.
A record 3,903 teams, 15,351 participants, 1,000 volunteers and an estimated 40,000 onlookers crowded into 16 city blocks in the heart of Spokane and staged a weekend celebration of playground basketball.
They did it without major incident and, according to figures worked up by the Greater Spokane Sports Association, were expected to drop more than $1.2 million into the local economy in the process.
But the executive director of the country’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament said no matter what the future might hold, Hoopfest will remain loyal to Spokane, the city that gave up its downtown streets back in 1990 so co-founders Rick Betts and Jerry Schmitt could realize their dream.
“We could rubber-stamp this thing and take it all over the country,” Steltenpohl said as he watched the Open Division finals at Nike Center Court drop the curtain on a record-setting, seventh annual Hoopfest.
“But this community has been very good to us, very supportive. And I want to make our mark here. I’m not interested in going to Missoula next weekend and Bismarck, N.D., the next.
“This is where we live and this is where we want our focus to be.”
The idea of franchising Hoopfest was put to Steltenpohl after the final day of the two-day event went off with hardly a hitch - much like opening day.
By midnight Sunday, the streets were to be cleared of equipment and debris and ready to be washed down in time for this morning’s commute.
Since its inception, Hoopfest has funneled more than $250,000 to Spokane-area charities and currently operates on a budget of $499,000.
The organization, efficiency and productivity of Steltenpohl, his two-person paid staff and the 23 volunteers who serve on Hoopfest’s board of directors and operating committee are becoming recognized - and appreciated - in other cities.
Steltenpohl says he and several Hoopfest board members have served as consultants for an upstart 3-on-3 tournament in Walla Walla.
And the group has been approached about staging an event similar to Hoopfest in Tacoma.
“We’ll look at it,” Steltenpohl said of the Tacoma gig. “But I’m not going to spend six months in Tacoma putting a tournament together, because I need to be here.”
Steltenpohl said he has participated in other 3-on-3 tournaments that set up in different cities throughout the country. Two of the best known are Hoop-It-Up, a Dallas-based operation that makes an annual stop in Seattle, and Gus Macker, which has branched out to nearly 50 Midwest satellite sites after building dramatically on its modest driveway beginnings in Belding, Mich.
“Anyone can do a 3-on-3 tournament because it’s a very basic concept,” Steltenpohl said. “Hoop-It-Up just puts everything into a couple of semis and ships it around the country, and we could do that, no big deal.
“But the Gus Macker is pretty cool, because it’s more like Hoopfest. (Organizers) still put their energies and focus into the main event in Belding, because that’s where they made their mark.
“Our interest is more in this community than it is going all over the place. We’ve looked into something like (the Macker), but if we ever decide to do it, we’ll add more staff, because we’re not going to shortchange Spokane.”
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