Fall isn't just an important time for new fashion collections and TV shows, it also signals the start of the season for many of sports leagues, including the N.B.A. As a way to tap into basketball fan fervor, EA Sports built a pop-up in Midtown and used it as a platform to launch its new NBA Elite 11 and NBA Jam video games. Dubbed the "Triple Double" and open for three days to the public starting last Friday, the experiential site was designed to showcase the history of the sport, how the video game publisher crafts its products, and artwork inspired by basketball.
Produced by marketing firm Project 2050 and Matthew Stoelt, the pop-up took over two floors of 960 Sixth Avenue—the old Atlantic Bank of New York building that will be turned into a hotel by 2012—with an enormous LED ribbon banner, vintage arcade games, two standard backboards, and players such as Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, Sacramento Kings point guard Tyreke Evans, and nine-time N.B.A. All-Star Dominique Wilkins.
Building on the idea of a triple-double, a term used in basketball to refer to a player who accumulates double-digit statistics in three different performance categories, EA Games focused on three concepts for the launch of its two games: sports, art, and gaming. With a scaled down basketball arena as its stage, the Project 2050 crew divided the space into areas for a host of activities.
The main floor was built in imitation of a basketball court, with official court markings on a white-wash wood floor. In here, consumers found 18 consoles for playing the new titles, walls of memorabilia and basketball-inspired art, and stations where interviews with NBA Jam and NBA Elite 11 creators like animator Derek Cummings, gameplay producer Novell Thomas, interface designer Sunny Lee detailed the game making process. Auxiliary sections of the street-level site held an arcade of vintage games and gaming machines as well as a retrospective wall for the EA Sports titles.
EA Sports also had use of an area on the second floor, a smaller space overlooking the activities at ground level. Here, the production team looked to create a skybox suite, with lounge furniture, Pop-a-Shot hoop-shooting games, a photo booth, and mini barbershop.
Video from Project 2050 on Vimeo.
