All Star Opportunity
By urbanhoustonian at February 10, 2012 | 4:07 PM | Print
Houston, you have an opportunity.
The National Basketball Association has announced Houston will be hosting the NBA All Star Game in 2013. This is Houston’s second hosting gig in the last couple of years.
A lot of folks, particularly those who care little about basketball, will dismiss the All Star Weekend festivities altogether, “I don’t like NBA Basketball, I don’t care if Lebron James is in town. WHO CARES?!”
This is a ignorant point of view.
Case in point, in 2006 the Society for the Performing Arts missed out on what I feel was a golden opportunity to counter program against the All Star Game. That weekend, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was in town. I shouldn’t have to connect the dots here. I envisioned an evening of great dance at Jones Hall with NBA Players’ Wives hosted by Oprah Winfrey. NOTE: In 2006, Oprah was in town for the All Star festivities.
Why didn’t this happen? Well, no one paid attention. No one had the vision to take advantage of the NBA All Star Game as a viable opportunity.
This should not happen in 2013.
Now, I am not suggesting you can just call up the NBA, and become and All Star Weekend partner. In fact, I’d put your chance of success at less than 5%. However, you don’t need to be a partner to plan and execute a successful tie-in event. There will be thousands of people in Houston that weekend. Of that many, only a few will be attending the official NBA All Star Game events.
Events like the NBA All Star Game offer an incredible opportunity for a city to present itself to a new audiences, many of them first time visitors to Houston. And while many of them are here for the parties and celebrities, just as many are here to have a good time.
That said, I’m going to bounce some ideas around in my head, get back to you on how your organizations can get involved in the NBA All Star Game hoopla.
In the meantime, you have year Houston, let’s make this the best NBA All Star Game Weekend EVER!
