Chapter 465 - Marathons and Business 9

David Falk listened to what Jake said and was impressed when he heard that Jake wanted to pay for all expenses before the game if they didn't get an income from sponsors and a broadcaster interested in broadcasting the game, the costs before the game for bringing all the players and renting the Miami Arena was very high.

David estimated it could be over 1 million dollars, he sure knew Jake had that money, but in this situation where many players who made millions of dollars were thinking about organizing a game to make money, Jake who was a newbie I was thinking of organizing a game to raise money for a charity.

Thinking about what Jake asked David realized that it would not be difficult for him to achieve this in a few hours, and if the purpose of this game was to give more fame and publicity to the new players, David did not think that Jake would have any problem with the team owners and with veteran players because of that.

"Okay then, Jake, I'm going to help you organize some things, but it's up to you to talk to the broadcasters and sponsors to get more income for this game to happen."

"Thanks, David, this is enough for me, but before talking to the broadcasters get me the number of players please."

With David having agreed to his idea, Jake became more excited, he now had to convince the players to come to the game because without them he would not be able to convince the broadcaster and the sponsors or even the fans to come and watch the game.

On the same day David sent Jake the contact details of all the players he had put on the list, David did not understand why he did not put several names that could make this game even more successful, but Jake already had everything in mind when he invited the players.

First, because he thought that several of the names he was going to invite would not want to come to that game, and Jake also knew which players were playing in Europe or intended to play in Europe during the lockout until the beginning of the NBA games.

Jake's goal was to make a game in which the coaches would be him and another player on the opposing team, on his team Jake did not want to have another PG because he intended to play the 48 minutes, but as he could not do that he would invite another player to his team, but he would warn that this other player would not play for long in the game.

Jake started by calling Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, the two quickly agreed to participate in this game if it was really going to happen, Jake said the game would be in Miami and it would be December 17th if everything worked out as he planned.

Jake also asked Vince Carter to invite Tracy McGrady to this game because he knew that Tracy McGrady was dissatisfied with his debut season in the NBA and also that Vince was very close to him.

So Jake had invited 3 more players and his friends had confirmed, of course, that Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, and Tracy McGrady would be on his team if everything went well, after that Jake decided to call some people he played against when he was on the Tar team Heels.

Jake called Mark Bibby and told how he planned to make this game and that if the players accepted everything it was confirmed, so luckily Mark Bibby accepted Jake's invitation and Jake said that Mark would be the coach of the other team and of course he would be the captain of the opposing team too.

Jake was happy to get 3 players and so he called Michael Doleac, Michael D.i.c.kerson, and Matt Harpring, the more players who accepted his invitation the easier it was to invite others and so Jake called only who he knew they would accept.

Jake also called Paul Pierce and Bryce Drew to play on his team and so he had 6 confirmed players for his team and 3 confirmed players on the opposing team, after confirming with so many players it was easier to convince the others.

Jake also called Raef LaFrentz, Robert Traylor, Jason Williams, Pat Garrity, and Larry Hughes who also agreed and knew they would play on Mark Bibby's team, Jake also invited some players who were chosen in last season's draft.

In addition to Tracy McGrady that Jake had asked Vince Carter to invite, Jake also called Ron Mercer and Tim Thomas, and with great courage, Jake also called Tim Duncan to this game after inviting everyone.

Jake said it was a game for charity and he had no purpose other than this game and so he would not have to accept the invitation of the other players who wanted to make a game with all-stars, Jake invited Tim Duncan because he knew him from the games from the university and hoped that Tim Duncan would accept.

Luckily for him Tim Duncan really accepted and Jake said he would play for his team, of course, Jake did not want to have Tim Duncan as an opponent in such a game and if Tracy McGrady accepted his team he would be much stronger than the opponents' team.

The same day later Vince Carter called saying that Tracy McGrady had agreed to go to that game and Jake was very happy about it and told Vince Carter about all the players who had accepted and so the game could happen regardless of anything.

One day Jake had talked to the players and organized an important game like this, now it was just a matter of waiting for David Falk to organize the Miami Arena and then Jake could call the sponsors and the broadcasters.

Jake would call his sponsors first to see if anyone wanted to support this game that would have the proceeds sent to the charities, those sponsors could even talk to the broadcaster who would broadcast the game later to have their commercials in between games.

When David got the call from Jake saying he had already found 17 other players besides him to participate in that game, David had to say that he was really surprised, especially when no real benefits other than fame were promised to the other athletes.

Even more when Jake said that Tracy McGrady and Tim Duncan had agreed to participate in the game as well, so David decided that he would help Jake to rent the Miami Arena for December 17th and get the telephone numbers of the stations.

Even so, David still doubted that Jake would get many sponsors for this game because the sponsors might not have commercials broadcast on television, but it was a benefit game and only with the money that Jake would get from broadcasting the game and game tickets already could donate more than $ 1 million to a charity.

But again David underestimated Jake's ability, the first person he called the next day was for Matthew, Jake thought Matthew's company was making millions from digital camera sales.

But even selling so much they didn't have much advertising for the company, thinking about it Jake thought that this game could be a good opportunity to advertise Matthew's company.

Since it was Jake who helped his company to be as successful as it was today even before it was a company that was at risk of going bankrupt, Matthew trusted Jake a lot and couldn't imagine how bad it would be for his company to sponsor a game like the one the income was for a charity.

As it was for just one game Jake asked for $ 50,000 in sponsorship, that would also be a good value to attract other companies to sponsor that game, after confirming with Matthew, Jake called Mike and quickly got Adidas support for that game since that they could make the teams' uniforms and everyone wears their shoes.

Jake just thought that it would only help him to have fewer things to do, Jake also got support from Gatorade and Pepsi, so Jake would get drinks and a lot of things that the players needed.

Jake also talked to his mother and all the players would eat at her restaurant so that the restaurant would get free publicity, Jake did not want to try to get sponsorship from any hotel and would also pay for the players' airline tickets.

Jake also called Jeff Bezos and asked if Amazon was interested in being one of the sponsors of this game, it was the company that Jake was also a partner in, but he promised that he would leave all decisions to Jeff Bezos.

The company was not yet as big as it would be in the future and had not made a profit yet, but for $ 50,000 to do something new and still help a charity Jeff held a quick council meeting and agreed to sponsor this game.

So in just 1 day Jake had managed to get $ 250,000 to pay all the costs of the game as sponsorship and he got uniforms for both teams and drinks for everyone, so Jake knew he had a lot more influence than he imagined.

After achieving all of this, Jake was much more relaxed and excited because for sure everything would work out now that he had already obtained almost everything he needed, he just had to wait for David to confirm the rental of the Miami Arena and after that, he could start talking to broadcasters.

While Jake did all this, he didn't forget to do his training for the marathons every day, and the most important thing was that Kate had returned to Miami after her work commitments.

Jake decided it was time for him to take courage and ask Kate to date him, Jake was very confident that Kate also liked him as he liked her, and after the marathon, he had no more commitments before the game he would organize.

So Jake thought it was the right time to start dating Kate and they could still spend almost two months together dating before they had to go back to work next year.