Basketball team seeks crowdfunding

Undoubtedly inspired by MyFootballClub, which assembled 50,000 football fans to buy a British football club, a professional Bulgarian basketball team is now looking for sponsorship from a crowd of fans. While MyFootballClub first collected enough money from its members and then selected a team to buy, ten-year-old Start is taking a pro-active approach by asking basketball fans to fund an existing team. Start is seeking a minimum of 10,000 people—in Bulgaria and elsewhere—who are willing to sign up before May 1st, 2008, pledging to pay BGN 40 (EUR 20 / USD 30) each if enough other members register to do the same. Once the money has been collected, the team will organize a basketball camp and try-outs. Training sessions will be filmed and broadcast on nashiaotbor.com, allowing crowdfunders to help spot and vote for talented new players. Akin to MyFootballClub’s setup, members will virtually manage the team, voting online on key decisions concerning players and coaches. Will be interesting to see how this one pans out, and how many other sports teams start looking for crowds of benefactors! Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen