By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
For BIG3 CEO Chris Hannan, professional basketball could use some innovation. Launched in 2017, the BIG3 and its 3-on-3 format were poised to take advantage of a void between the NBA and the desire for fans to get closer to the players and teams.
Behind founders Jeff Kwatinetz, and well-known rapper and actor Ice Cube, the 12-team league recently made Las Vegas its hub while COVID-19 continued to affect live sports throughout the world. LVSportsBiz.com spoke with the CEO, who started on the job in February .
LVSportsBiz.com: What would you tell people who know very little about BIG3?
Chris Hannan: It is professional basketball. That was the whole point of Ice Cube starting the league. This is a place to have the best pro basketball players in the world play three-on-three. Which is different from the FIBA format they just had in the Olympics. The Olympics are great, FIBA is great, but it’s not 3-on-3 the level that the BIG3 plays. We are the next level of 3-on-3 and we’re filled with former NBA players and Hall of Famers that people know.
LVSB: With Ice Cube being the face of the league along with the familiar former NBA players, how much does BIG3 benefit from that immediate brand recognition?
CH: I think the BIG3 did an amazing job the first three years. Most new leagues don’t make it through year three. They had an unbelievable beginning selling out Staples Center for the finals, it really has proven itself. Then, COVID hits, and it hits, and it hits everybody in different ways. The other pro leagues that had multi-billion-dollar rights deals had to find a way to bubble and get it in. Even if it was an abridged season, they had to figure it out.
The BIG3 made the right decision not to play last year because of COVID. Being a new league, back to the question of branding, it really had built a recognizable brand in a few years. We’ve been off, and so now we’re back we’ve recaptured that momentum and then some. So, I think Cube did an amazing job and now we’re revitalizing that brand. I think we’re better because we not only survived, we’re in a position to thrive in our fourth season and become a new league. There haven’t been new leagues that have survived in any sport in 25-years with the exception of UFC.
LVSB: Hannan previously held roles with Endeavor (WME/IMG), and was Executive Vice President of Communications and Integration with Fox Sports while UFC was growing its brand at the network. We asked him what sets BIG3 apart from other professional leagues.
CH: We’re not afraid to innovate and do things differently. We’ve got an icon in Ice Cube involved in the league. We also have all of these unbelievable talents. That’s what made the UFC what Dana (UFC President Dana White) and the Fertitta brothers bought. Similarly, we’re not afraid to try things as opposed to the other pro leagues who are very traditional and conservative in their nature. We’re not, and we’re willing to go after it. That’s what the UFC did to make itself what it is today. Now that they’ve arrived they’re still trying to reinvent themselves with the Apex and Fight Island.
LVSB: How would you define the BIG3 at the core from a business perspective?
CH: When I define us at the core it’s being innovative, which everybody says they’re innovative, but let’s take a step back. We have an innovative pioneer in culture, music, and film in Ice Cube. We’ve got a leader in Amy Trask as our Chairperson, who is one of the most successful female sports executives ever.
We have the first African American commissioner in Clyde Drexler. With Lisa Leslie and Nancy Lieberman, we have the first women to coach a professional men’s sports team. The DNA of our entire organization is about being innovative and looking at our league as how the world and the rest of the leagues should operate. They should be following our model.
We believe we’re the leader in terms of being set-up how an organization should strive to be. How you should look, hire the best people possible regardless of gender and ethnicity. We just hire the best people. Look, Lisa and Nancy have proven that this works. Forget they’re female; they’re the best coaches. Which is why it’s very possible that one or both of them are going to be NBA coaches someday.
So, our business is all about being innovative, not just for the sake of saying we’re innovative. We do what’s best for the league, culture, and we do what people expect. Without a doubt, we put the best product out there.
LVSB: You were announced in February as the new CEO of the league. There’s still a ways to go until we can fully say we’re out of COVID restrictions. Why do you think the league is in a position to come out of the pandemic and still be innovative in terms of how you reach the fans?
CH: COVID is a very fluid thing. What we planned in March was to go to 18 cities and that quickly became three. Vegas became our hub with stops in New Orleans and the playoffs are going to be in the Bahamas. We were trending on the right path as a country with vaccinations in June. Then, we start our season in July and look what has happened from the beginning of July to where we are now. We’ve regressed so much with the Delta variant, and the amount of cases. So, instead of going to New Orleans we were lucky to be able to go to Dallas, Chicago and Milwaukee.
The important thing for us is we have to stay connected to the fans from a distribution standpoint and the media outlets. We’re on CBS every week. We’ve got a great deal with Triller and FITE TV, and we’re on live TV every week. All our games are live. All of our games are free and anybody can get them on any Saturday we play. So, that’s the biggest connection to the fans. Obviously, we don’t have the same touchpoint in the venue with fans, but nobody does. We’ve even had to reduce our footprint here in Vegas a little bit because of what’s going on with the COVID numbers.
LVSB: Were you ever nervous that capacity would be reduced, or your event would be closed to fans in Las Vegas?
CH: The last two weeks of the season we did reduce our footprint here. We’ve made some adjustments in different ways so we could get through it. Health and safety is the biggest thing for us, the players, and our entire organization. We’ve taken all the steps. The good thing is once we started planning in March we already had a year of COVID-19 experience under our belts. We’ve been prepared to deal with the changes and mask mandate, testing, and very rigorous protocols. We know how long to isolate, quarantine, and know when they should come out. We’re going to keep doing that because it protects our players, but it’s not easy.
LVSB: Jarret Jack announced on camera his son just tested positive for COVID. As a league, how are you working with the players should they or a family member they’ve been in contact with tests positive for the virus?
CH: We have a disease specialist we’ve hired for the season who is guiding us. She’s an epidemiologist from UCLA Medical Center. She’s been guiding the entertainment studios as well for the past year. She’s been guiding us as an organization helping us stay safe. We have a whole playbook, a roadmap on how we deal with players if they’ve been exposed. The players are really coming to us to help guide them because they know we have the expert. In Jarret’s case, that situation is going to depend on when and if he was exposed to his son. We’ve had multiple situations to deal with in the past few weeks.
LVSB: What’s the percentage of vaccination for the league?
CH: We don’t disclose our vaccination status or when someone tests positive. Medical information is sensitive and confidential so we don’t disclose the numbers.
BIG3 has partnered with the likes of Taco Bell, Verizon and most recently, Microsoft. It represents a significant technology opportunity to reach fans in the arenas while games are taking place.
LVSB: You have a Microsoft partnership. You have a tremendous sports marketing background. What’s something you’re excited to implement with that partner once you can have a full season?
CH: I’m really proud of the Microsoft relationship. I’m really proud they stepped up to support our business. They are really doing a lot to support businesses like ours that are starting out and are minority owned like ours. They are doing what a lot of other companies say they’re going to do. They are actually doing it. They’re in partnership with the biggest leagues already.
I’ll give you an example of something we’re doing. Mike Taylor is out due to injury, from the Ghost Ballers. They’re going to sign into Microsoft Teams at the beginning of the game so he can talk to his teammates. What Microsoft brings to the table for us is not just an amazing brand, and amazing technology, but together we are able to do things other leagues are not willing to do. The idea that our player is going to be able to talk to his teammates courtside right before they game starts, that’s pretty unique to the BIG3. Right now we’re kind of in the laboratory this season.
They also powered our virtual draft so we were connected to our picks and couches around the country.
LVSB: You’re coming back to Vegas, right?
CH: Vegas is an anchor city that we’ll be in every year. Playing in the same city for three or four weeks, I don’t know if that’s something we’ll be doing again. We’re a roadshow, and built to travel to different cities. Vegas is a powerhouse sports town. It’s got the UFC, Raiders, Golden Knights, the Aces and of course all of the boxing. This is one of the biggest and best sports towns in the country if not the world now.
People culturally still have that hometown fan allegiance. If you grow up in Pittsburgh, you’re a Steelers fan. If you grow up in New York, you’re probably a Yankees fan. If you grow up in Green Bay, you’re a Packers fan. There will always be that. The younger generation follows players more than they follow teams. Our fans follow the league as a whole and they follow players.
That’s another reason we align with Las Vegas is because so many people come from all over and just enjoy sports here.
The BIG3 will be back to Vegas.
LVSB: In a perfect world, what does the BIG3 look like in 2022?
CH: I would say we’re going to be around the country in 18 to 20 cities. We expand the season a little bit longer too. In a perfect world we’re starting right after the NBA finishes. The reason for that is we can own the summer and we go all the way up to Labor Day when the NFL starts. We have 18,000 fans partying and watching our games.
All I want us to do from a basketball side is to just keep what we’re doing. We have amazing talent, We’re getting younger and the competition this year has been awesome. So, for 2022, we just continue to elevate.