SK8 UPDATE - MALOOF MONEY CUP

Check out http://www.sk8rstv.com/sk8rstv for more Sk8rsTV. When the Maloof brothers, owners of the Palms casino in Vegas and the Sacramento Kings basketball team, decided to create a world class skateboard competition, they delivered. The first annual Maloof Money Cup was a huge success, with competitors raving about the 70,000 dollar vert ramp and 150,000 dollar, 230 cubic foot street course, complete with the false front of a bank building and plenty of stairs, tables, benches, and rails for skaters to do their thing on. And the payouts were record shatteringly huge... Pierre Luc Gagnon won the pro vert competition and was awarded 75,000 dollars, the biggest cash prize ever for a skater for his awesome display on the U Shaped composite ramp. And just a few hours later, that bar was raised when Paul Rodriguez won the men's pro street championship and was given 100,00 dollars for his efforts, making that the high water mark for prize money awarded in a pro skating tournament. To put that in perspective, Rodriguez's payout is twice what Chris Cole made when he won the Street competition at last year's X Games. Joe Maloof, who was the visionary behind the money cup, said that “I just think it's time for skateboarding... it's time for these guys to make some money. What's wrong with that?” And they put their money where their mouth is, paying out a total of 475,000 dollars in prize money. And you can bet that the X Games organizers are keeping an eye on the Maloofs and their new tournament to make sure they don't get upstaged... Gagnon even jokingly asked X Games officials if they were going to let the Maloofs “get away with that"