Big Money!

With June passing, July brings excitement with the second annual Maloof Money Cup to hit the OC Fair & Event Center. Brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof founded this event, and for those of you who don't know, these brothers own the Sacremento Kings and also the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. But that is besides the case, because the event they are putting on is 100% skateboarding.The second annual contest is taking place July 10-12 during the opening weekend of the OC Fair. This is all really exciting because the duo putting this on is offering an amazing prize purse of $450,000 total. This is the biggest amount of money any skateboarding contest has ever seen, and they made sure of it. This large sum of money is definitely incentive to push the skaters to the limit this year, which will be nerve-wrecking and so exciting to watch. A quick recap from last year's top contenders are: Paul Rodriguez Jr. ($100,000 for Pro Men's Street), Pierre-Luc Gagnon ($75,000 for Pro Men's Vert), Lacey Baker ($25,000 for Pro Women's Street).No one can deny how much skateboarding has infiltrated to the mainstream, as skateboards replace footballs and baseballs around the nation. Maloof Bros. are aware of this, and with this being the second contest, it will hopefully be back year after year and stake their claim for the highest paying skateboard contest. They see a bright future for skateboarding and they definitely want to continue the support and involvement in it.Of course, running an NBA team and owning a Las Vegas resort and hotel does not account for all the skateboarding details. This is where the brothers called in the help from professional skateboarders such as Rob Dyrdek, Geoff Rowley, Jake Brown, Dave Duncan, Andrew Reynolds, and other skaters for their advice and most importantly for all the design aspects. With big business money and sponsers supporting this event along with the helpful advice and involvement of big name skaters, this is one event that should not be missed as it only comes once a year!   If you can't get down to the Orange County area and purchase a ticket, fear not. You can catch the madness on CBS, and I believe Fuel TV is covering the preliminaries. Also you can view the MMC on the web as well. With the involvement of Rob, I'm sure you kiddies can also catch it on MTV. With all the hard work and dedication skaters have put forth to their craft, it is nice to see them compete for a chance to win six figures.  For more information check out these links:http://www.allisports.com/tours/maloof-money-cuphttp://skateboarding.transworld.net/2008/5/5/money-talks-web-exclusive-j...