“Booms” and “Claps” are coming to Arizona, and they have nothing to do with Chris Berman.
The “worldwide leader” hosts one of the largest private parties of the weekend – 2,500 people at Westworld in northeast Scottsdale, Arizona. This has the highest concentration and highest number of pro athletes of any party of the weekend.
Jersey-chasers, suit up.
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Last year in New York, Serena Williams cut through the throngs to gain access to see Robin Thicke and Kendrick Lamar at that bash, as then-Miami Heat guard Ray Allen ducked in through the carpet’s side door the night before playing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
This year, Charli XCX tops a “Saturday Night Live” performance and dropping an album last month with this choice booking. The Brit who wrote Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and scored with her “Boom Clap” anthem will open for J. Cole. She just performed in L.A. on Tuesday night at a small event tied to the upcoming “Rock in Rio” festival coming to Las Vegas.
Kudos to her agents at Paradigm, who are keeping her busy in Arizona. Charli is also performing earlier on January 30 at a VH1 event at an air force base, and the next night with Steven Tyler at Rolling Stone’s party.
As for J. Cole, he has made headlines recently for his trips to Ferguson, Missouri and New York (protesting the Eric Garner case). Somewhat lost in this, is that he quietly had the #1 album the week before Christmas, in the middle of Taylor Swift mania.
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Listen up for his “Power Trip” and the appropriately athletic themed “Work Out”, his 2011 breakthrough single that you know for sampling Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” (e.g. “Straight up now tell me do you really want to love me forever….or is it just a hit and run.)
Amongst pro athletes that worship at the altar of an ESPN relationship, the urgency and interest in the annual #ESPNtheParty is high.
“We are now in our 11th year hosting this premiere event,” ESPN’s Event Marketing Manager Lauren Robinson tells TheWrap. “Every year we continue to think strategically about how we can raise the bar from the year before – and that begins with our venue.”
Westworld is 117,000 square feet of brand new venue, which will usually be used for horse and auto shows. It has the sprawl of an army base, so I expect minimal parking and dropoff hassle after the 10 mile drive from downtown Scottsdale. Back in town, ESPN has set up at the Fashion Square Mall for a week of live broadcasts – 17 hours a day.
They have a long list of sponsors and partners.
In recent years, they have bridged their client activations at the ESPYs and other tentpoles across both on-air promotion and off-air activations. In Arizona, the brands getting on board with them include the V Foundation for Cancer Research, Cîroc, Coors Light, Curve Sport, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jockey, Mercedes-Benz, Nike Golf, Omnia, Full Swing Golf, Riddell, and GoViva.