NBA free agent Gary Payton II is launching a professional skateboard league, joining a growing movement of athlete-led leagues aimed at providing year-round relevance to Olympic and action sports.
The Skate Board Association, a coed, six-team street skateboard league, plans to hold its inaugural 10-game season next summer in Big Bear Lake, California. Payton, who last played for the Golden State Warriors, told ESPN he founded the league with partners Royce Campbell and Sheldon Lewis because of his childhood love for skateboarding.
“Growing up, I always wanted to be a skateboarder. The skate park was right next to the basketball court,” he said. “I’d skate there with my friends and they’d skate the park and I’d hoop.”
When his partners proposed the league, “I was like, ‘Why hasn’t there been a professional league like the NFL, NBA or NHL for skateboarding?'” Payton said. “‘Let’s change the sports game and the skateboard game.'”
Payton will be director of VIP relations and an owner of one of the league’s six teams, which will each feature six athletes — three women and three men — plus reserves and coaches. Men and women will receive equal pay.
The league has signed 18 athletes to nonexclusive contracts, including 2020 Olympic silver medalist Kelvin Hoefler, SLS Select Series champion Manny Santiago, X Games skateboard street gold medalists Ryan Decenzo and Pamela Rosa and silver medalist Samarria Brevard.
Bravard said the league structure would alleviate the stress and uncertainty athletes currently face and help them focus on competition. “This is a game changer and will create avenues for us that weren’t there before,” she said.
Unlike most skate contests, which pay athletes a prize purse based on how they finish, the SBA will pay athletes salaries and bonuses and give them a share in revenue from merchandise sales. Top draft picks will receive six-figure salaries, and the lowest picks will earn salaries in the mid five figures.
Payton II said the league plans to sign at least 18 more athletes before its draft in Los Angeles at the end of this year.
The SBA is the latest in a series of new leagues trying to address the fragmentation of competition in sports like skateboarding and better support top athletes.
In March, snowboard star Shaun White launched The Snow League, a multi-stop international halfpipe series for snowboarders and freeskiers. The next month, four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track league held its first meet in Kingston, Jamaica, but it folded after three months due to financial troubles. The inaugural season of the X Games League, which will see skateboarders and BMX riders compete together on teams, is set to begin next summer.
“I want the skaters to be valued, and to get them the right sponsorships so they can take care of their bodies, take care of their families, buy their own crib,” Payton said. “If I can change the game for them, that’s a win.”
The league plans to hold its inaugural six-month season in Big Bear, a mountain town two hours east of L.A., with plans to expand to additional cities in the future.
“Big Bear has always been a natural home for altitude training and action sports, and we’re excited to welcome the SBA as they set their sights on our mountain community,” Visit Big Bear CEO Travis Scott told ESPN.
Payton said he wants to see the SBA expand into an NBA-style league with multiple venues around the country, training facilities and an annual draft combine. “Skaters put more of their body on the line than athletes in most sports other than football,” he said. “Why don’t they get the same treatment as NBA players when they’re taking more risks than we are?”
Payton said he believes other pro athletes will join him as team owners in the new league. “A lot of athletes in football, basketball, they skated growing up and had to put down their boards to play their sport as a professional,” he said. “But they still have that feel of wanting to be a skater.
“To be an owner of an SBA skate team is bringing us back to playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater, picking the guys, picking the brands to skate for. So many people have that connection to skateboarding.”
