From school supplies and food drives, to running a 5K for breast cancer, to now renovating a basketball court, Top Shot’s Atlanta Hawks Fan Community have found ways to combine their love of the NBA, collecting, and giving back.
“I've talked about utility and it's always been sending people to games, which is awesome, but I think this is a new form of utility to where it's ‘You guys are building something that's going to last forever in the real world,’” Team Captain Espnyc1969 said. “Our community is awesome because they feel the same way about giving back, it's really just paying it forward.”
The court refurbishment came through the Team Captains finding new ways to leave a lasting impact on the overall Atlanta community.
They started talking to the Atlanta Parks and Recreation where they were then connected to the Savannah College of Art and Design. From there, they learned about the court refurbishment for Adair Park and knew that it would be the perfect project to get in on.
On the Adair Park website, they explain the park’s recent transformations: In more recent times the neighborhood has experienced some trying times, but within the last few years an influx of urban pioneers has Adair Park undergoing a positive transformation.
Team Captain utkjmitch said that the overall process of the refurbishment and the finished product will help bring Collectors together in a unique and accessible way. The park will serve as something that connects the community and their families in the physical world that goes beyond attending a game.
“There's a real physical basketball team playing and there's real fandom and real engagement. Now how do you bridge that knowing it's not realistic for everybody to have unbridled access to the team and it's not realistic for us to go full digital and just completely disconnected, disassociated from the team either. So how do you kind of meet in the middle and how do you engage those communities?” utkjmitch said. “Philanthropy kind of became a way to do that that says you all can be a part of something that is local in our community and in our city. You may not be able to participate in all the events, but now there's a physical token.”
The Hawks Fan Community will be leaving their mark on the park in a unique way. The community will be donating the park benches, and on those benches will be a plaque with a QR code that can take anyone who scans it to their Fan Community branded website.
The park refurbishment was recently completed, and the Team Captains are planning to have many different events and activations at the park, starting on February 25, 2023.
“We were looking at all different avenues of how we could engage and finding ways to make an impact through the park. Use the restoration project as an anchor point, build some programs from there, engage with some other nonprofits,” utkjmitch said. “It gave us something that was more approachable. It's sustainable. It sets a foundation and we also find it's giving people an entry point [into Top Shot].”
With the park and court renovations completed, the Team Captains are eager to share the moment with the rest of the Hawks and Top Shot Community.
“To see people's faces light up when they get rewarded by the court or if it's a Moment that we donate or if it's sneakers we gave away or something like that…that's the fandom excitement,” Espnyc1969 said. “That’s the best part about the whole Team Captains program and trying to bring people together and make new friends.”
Stay up-to-date with the Hawks Fan Community and the park renovations here.
Learn more about joining your favorite team's Fan Community here.
