The Metro Sports Report changed roles last November when we held our own basketball event at Kirkwood Community College.

Instead of merely covering an event, we were responsible for organizing an event and making sure it ran smoothly.

From all accounts, it was a smashing success. All eight Metro boys basketball teams said they enjoyed the experience and we received lots of favorable feedback from the fans who attended the Metro Sports Report Classic at Johnson Hall.

Now we'd like to do it again next season. Twice, in fact. But we need your help.

We are currently looking for companies and businesses that would like to serve as our title sponsors. And instead of just holding an event for the Metro boys basketball teams, we'd like to hold a separate event for the Metro girls teams as well.

Both Classics would be held in November, but quite frankly we'll need some financial help to pull it off.

The pricetag for serving as a title sponsor for one of our events is $7,500 so we can essentially pay our bills for rent, game officials, bench officials, printing and the donation of $250 per game to the Iowa Hall of Pride.

In return, the title sponsor would get their name plastered all over the event. It would be "The Metro Sports Report Classic, Brought To You By Ecker's Pizza Parlor," or "The Metro Sports Report, Brought To You By Jim's Deli."

Your company's name would be prominently mentioned every time we wrote a story about the event. It also would be prominently mentioned in every press release, it would appear on prominent signs at the event and you would be mentioned on all radio interviews.

The title sponsor also would get a major advertising package on the Metro Sports Report website and a special ad promoting the event. In addition, the company would be saluted at the Metro Sports Report Classic during a ceremonial jump ball.

Play It Again Sports of Cedar Rapids served as our title sponsor for the inaugural Metro Sports Report Classic. We'd like to think we helped promote the company and we greatly appreciate their financial support.

Now we'd like another local company to step forward and get involved.

We're thinking about making a few twists with the events this year. Most prominently, we'd like to invite some non-Metro teams to the Classic and make it "Metro vs. Non-Metro" or "Metro vs. Wamac Conference" or something like that for variety.

Some Metro teams would rather play a non-Metro team, for variety,because they meet regularly during the regular season anyway. We've listened and would like to comply.

One thing will not change, however. We will continue to feature as many cheerleading teams, dance teams, bands, national anthem singers and other

extracurricular groups from the schools as we possibly can. They enhanced our event a great deal last November and made it more than "just" a basketball event.

We are also looking for Silver Medal Sponsors at the $2,500 level and Bronze Medal Sponsors at the $1,000 level if you'd like to get involved for that amount.

We plan to hold our events in November, either in the middle of preseason practices or shortly after the basketball season has begun. We anticipate being sanctioned as Hall of Pride events, which means our event would not count toward a team's allotment of 21 regular-season games.

We had a great time at Kirkwood last November with the first Metro Sports Report Classic. We'd like to do it again, but we need your help.

Please give me a call at 390-4236 or send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I am the president of the company and would love to hear from you.