Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

A quick housekeeping reminder: 

We will hold Office Hours, a Zoom call conversation with me and the Extra Points Community, this Wednesday, December 18, at 6 PM CST.

We’ll have an RSVP link at the bottom of this newsletter, along with the next two newsletters. I’ve got a few stories and notes I’m happy to discuss, but Office Hours is about your questions, so we’ll chat about what you want to chat about!

We will also shift into a holiday schedule next week. I’m taking off for Utah Thursday night, and will be out in the mountains with family for a little over a week, with limited access to email. We will resume a regular posting schedule after the holidays.

Back at the Extra Points Bowl, I remember chatting with a few conference executives and industry people after the game. At the moment, everybody agreed the event was a major success, not just because it was a great football game featuring talented teams, but because of the venue.

The Hall of Fame Stadium created a very different experience than most D-III athletes were used to. It was much larger, had professional stadium amenities, big ol’ scoreboards, and oh yeah, was right next to the actual dang Pro Football Hall of Fame, which the players got to tour the day before.

It got all of us thinking…there are other D-III bowl games, sure, but where else could you potentially hold an event like the Extra Points Bowl? What other venues could offer a unique experience, sat in the right geographic footprints, and could be affordable and available?

The problem is…there just aren’t that many football stadiums that fit that description. Most of the 20,000ish seat football stadiums out there are, you know, being actively used by another college football team, or aren’t in the right locations, or are too decrepit. It’s not that you can’t play a college football game in a unique setting (like, say, Bristol Speedway), but it’s much harder to pull off.

But what about other sports?

I know I’m not the only person thinking about this. About a year ago, I wrote about Wyoming’s wrestling program, who pulled off an event in a dang barn, and was actively looking for other unique venues, like a state prison. Basketball games have been played everywhere, from hotel ballrooms to battleships.

And in a world where basically every single athletic department, from the P4 to D-III, is looking to find new ways to create new revenue streams, build attractive broadcasting inventory and add value to the student experience, everybody should also be thinking about unique locations for one-off events.

I want Extra Points to be in the Solutions Business, not just the Hold Up A Microphone While Other People Complain Business, so in that spirit, I have pulled together a list of unique venues for future sporting events. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

First: Play a basketball game in a church gym

I understand that having a gym in your church is not a phenomenon unique to the Latter-Day Saint experience, but I would respectfully submit that having a gym in your church is central to the American Latter-Day Saint experience. If you grew up Mormon, or around Mormons, and you liked basketball even a little bit, you probably hooped in the church gym.

The larger LDS meetinghouses, called Stake Centers, usually have full basketball courts with hardwood and scoreboards and the markings in mostly the right places. But in smaller church buildings, like the ones I attended most of my life, the courts are typically much smaller, and for reasons known but to God and some bureaucrats in Salt Lake City, they’re carpeted.

This is not a joke.

Now, would I take great pleasure in watching a college basketball game crammed into the perpetually stained carpeted Cultural Hall somewhere in rural Ohio? Yes, of course I would. But that wasn’t safe for us idiot teenage boys, and it wouldn’t be safe for elite athletes who actually know how to play basketball.

But playing a game on an actual church basketball court, with hardwood and everything, could serve as an homage to the courts where local members of a community learned to play. It’s a reminder that you don’t need 9,000 seats and a jumbotron to have great competition. You can just set up some chairs for family members (metal folding chairs, of course. IYKYK), throw in a TV camera, and invite Utah Valley to play Utah Tech or something.

It doesn’t even have to be an LDS church gym. Shoot, Nike turned a church into a basketball court. There are other options out there that don’t permanently smell like crushed Cheerios.

Would it take a lot of work to convince some skeptical suits in the Church Education System to throw open a meetinghouse to secular basketball competition? Yeah, probably. Would you need to restrict the event to low-major programs who won’t miss out on quite as much home-game ticket revenue? Yeah, probably. Would you need to tie the event to some local charitable cause? Yeah, probably.

But do I unironically think playing a game in a church would be a cool event that could be deeply meaningful for the right program and community? I do.

I’ve got a few more ideas. But first, a word from our sponsors:

This isn’t traditional business news

Welcome to Morning Brew—the free newsletter designed to keep you in the know on the business news impacting your career, company, and life—in a way you didn’t know you needed.

Note: this isn’t traditional business news. Morning Brew’s approach cuts through the noise and bore of classic business media, opting for short writeups, witty jokes, and above all—presenting the facts.

Save time, actually enjoy business news, and join over 4 million professionals reading daily.

Check it out

Second: Play in a factory.

I am a son of the Midwest, and was naturally trying to think of locations in my old stomping grounds. It isn’t practical to play a basketball game in a cornfield. There isn’t enough room to play in a Casey’s General Store. You might be able to pull it off in a Fleet Farm, but who wants to move all the stuff out of the way?

But you know what we do have in the Midwest? Besides a gazillion high school basketball gyms in Indiana that could seat 10,000 people? FACTORIES.

What’s more Midwestern than a FACTORY BASKETBALL GAME?!? The coaches can ditch their ties and dress like this. The backdrop would make compelling television. You could pair the event with internships or labor history events if you were so inclined.

Would there potentially be significant liability and safety concerns, that would need to be assuaged? Yes, of course. You probably couldn’t pull this off in like, the Owens Corning Super Itchy Insulation Factory, or like, Michigan Rusty Nail and Spikes, LLC. But somewhere, I think you could find the right marriage of location and venue to pull it off.

In fact, let me volunteer a facility not far from where I grew up, a place that I absolutely promise you all is a real building and not a Photoshop.

COULD YOU GUYS EVEN IMAGINE? MAKING BASKETS AT THE BASKET FACTORY?!? Don’t pretend that you wouldn’t buy an ESPN+ subscription just to watch that, no matter who was playing.

Third: Play in a National Park

As cool as it would be, I don’t think it’s practical to suggest playing a college basketball game outdoors. The weather is too unpredictable, and I don’t think anybody would go for it.

But we did a volleyball game outside, and everybody thought that was pretty cool.

But maybe this is more of a baseball sort of event. I’m not suggesting anybody bulldoze some trees or hiking trails in Rocky Mountain National Park to set up a 7,000 seat baseball stadium or anything, but I do wonder if the right park would have a large enough clearing to set up a very basic, temporary, field for a baseball, soccer, or volleyball event.

This isn’t something you do because you’re trying to sell 10,000 tickets. But for schools that are already close to major park systems, setting up an athletic event in the park would make for some killer TV tracking shots, would give all the athletes an amazing and unique experience, and creates another opportunity to brand and promote your university in a new way.

Just off the top of my head, this feels like something Northern Colorado, Southern Utah, Nevada, Pacific, or Fresno State could potentially get behind. Or better yet, one of the Alaska schools.

Would this look very cool on TV? Yes, of course. But if there’s a way to compete without damaging the environment or jeopardizing wildlife preservation efforts, I honestly think a college event or two in these parks would be an unforgettable experience for the athletes, their families, and for the school.

And yeah yeah it’d probably make a hell of a fundraising junket too. I GUESS.

I’d love to hear some of your suggestions. Lots of event management companies read Extra Points, after all, and what starts as a joke post could very well become a reality.

I mean, shoot, look at the Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy! YOU’RE WELCOME EVERYBODY.

Speaking of stuff that could become a reality in the future, join us in Atlanta next month with John Wall Street to discuss the potential marriage of Private Equity and College Sports. Details below!

Want to read the rest of the newsletter? Subscribe today!

Premium Subscriptions make Extra Points possible. Upgrade today to get access to everything we write: