Basketball Backstop of the Future

Abstract

This masker thesis describes the design process of the basketball backstop of the future. A basketball backstop is the piece of equipment with a ring, on which the players score during a game of basketball. The game of basketball is changing; fans want a more engaging game experience and sports marketing becomes increasingly important. Schelde Sports is global market leader of basketball backstops. Even though the game of basketball is changing, the basketball backstops have not changed years. The changes around the game of basketball also has an impact on the stakeholder relations of Schelde Sports. Schelde Sports currently has strong relations (through their dealers) with the venue managers, who buy the basketball equipment. The increasing importance and potential of sports marketing will direct these relations more towards the sports marketeers. Research, conducted for this project has shown that the basketball backstop is visible over 50% of the broadcasting time of a basketball game. The visibility of the backstop and the focus of fans on the backstop gives it a lot of marketing potential. Integrating features focussing on the exposure of marketing messages gives the basketball backstop a significant added value and provides a high revenue potential. For the design of the concept multiple stakeholders had to be taken into account. For the sports marketeers, the exposure areas should be maximized placed at high focus locations. The basketball game should not be affected by the added features and the players should be protected from injury in the case of impact with the backstop. The fans want to have an enriched game experience, but more important, their view on the game should not be blocked by the basketball backstop. The design integrates two features in the basketball backstop: LED displays and backboard projection. The displays are located high, behind the backboard and lower, behind the front padding. The shape of the displays maximizes the exposure area, without blocking the game view of the fans, located behind the backstop. The projection screen at the backside of the backboard is transparent and will only be used for advertisement after a score. This prevents distraction for the players and limits the impact on the game view for the fans. The custom shaped LED displays are built up out of small rectangular modules of 40 x 160 mm. These modules are arranged seamless in the configuration of the desired shape. The modules at the angled edges are covered to give the display a straight border. The backboard projection makes use of a high luminance short throw projector, creating a bright image from a short distance behind the backboard. The projection screen, the image is projected on is a transparent foil, capturing the projected content, while maintaining its transparency.