SlamBall: we pass.

01

The 2-cent problem

About $15.1M has gone out of the bank since Feb 2023. Visible revenue is under $200K, and only $27,500 of it is from a named payer: Pabst $10K, The Speakeasy $15K and Wasserman $2.5K.

That's about 1–2 cents back for every dollar spent. Ticket money the venue kept wouldn't change this, because only about 200 people paid on a typical night.

02

Funded for several seasons, delivered one

• Feb 2023: $11M raised. In a 2023 press interview Mason described it as about two years of runway and said they'd be "close to profitability by Q1 2025".
• Jul–Aug 2023: one season followed. It cost "north of $8M", and he called that cost "untenable".
• By about Apr 2024: $4.2M more from existing investors was spent with no season. That includes a single $2.22M wire.
• Today: there is no team, and in his own words no proper P&L or balance sheet. The company card bounced in every month but one from Sep 2025 to Mar 2026.
• Track record: six seasons in 24 years. The only back-to-back pair was 2002–03.

03

The insiders aren't adding money

• Existing investors, including Blitzer, Rubin, Griffin and Ehrenberg, have put in $15.2M in total.
• The last $4.2M went in as SAFEs (notes that turn into shares later). They never turned into shares, because the $5M+ round that triggers that never happened.
• No new investor money has come in since Jan 2024. Nobody stepped in when the cash ran out in Aug 2025.
• Mason hasn't said that any existing investor is joining this round.
• A $1M SAFE could sit the same way: no shares and no control.

04

The new 2027 plan repeats the old assumptions

• Tickets: about 200 paid a night in 2023, against about 4,480 a session at $44.80 in the 2027 plan. Tickets are 76% of operating revenue by 2034. Halve them and the plan never becomes cash-positive.
• Team sales: the plan sells 2 teams in 2028, a year before the league launches in 2029, and $90M of teams in total by 2034. Without those sales the business loses money every year until 2033. Team owners only make money from their share of fees when more teams are sold.
• No signed deals: in his words there are "no LOIs" (letters of intent) for team sales or for media, which rises from $750K to $25M in the plan. The $890K of licensing income comes from conversations, not contracts.
• Funding gap: $4.4M goes out in 2027. The $20M raise isn't planned until Q4 2027, and there is no cash today.

05

What $1M buys

• About 5–6 weeks of the 2027 plan.
• About 2% of the company at the $50M cap. That stake is paid after the $11M Class A preference (money older investors get back first) and the $4.2M of unconverted SAFEs.
• The company would need to sell for about $135M just for us to get our money back.
• The US trademark appears to be registered to Mason's California entity, not to the company.

06

The best case still isn't worth it OUR ESTIMATES

• Revenue: the plan hits $134M by 2034. That's roughly Savannah Bananas scale (outside estimates put them at about $100M revenue and about $500M value). The Bananas took 10 straight seasons of sell-outs to reach ~$100M; SlamBall's plan assumes 8 from a near-zero base.
• Sale value: a sale at $400–800M would make our stake of about 1.5% (after dilution) worth $6–12M, after 7–9 years.
• Odds and expected value: we put the chance of this at about 1 in 20. Weighted across all outcomes, we'd expect back about 0.7x what we put in.
• Control: we'd be a minority holder with no board seat and no right to see the numbers.

07

What would make it investable

1. A commercial CEO runs the business, with Mason as Founder and Commissioner.
2. A low-cost, studio-first model, with production paid for by a distribution partner.
3. Clean books, debts settled, and all IP owned by the company.
4. A reset price: a note at a $5–8M cap, or buying the IP outright for $1–2M.
5. Money released only as milestones are hit: a media deal, 3,000+ paid tickets, and $1M+ of sponsorship.

08

Why it's still not for us

This is a turnaround we would have to run ourselves: 12–24 months of hands-on work plus legal costs. Any of our ~15 pipeline ideas is a better use of that time and money.

BENCHMARK

Savannah Bananas vs SlamBall

Bananas revenue path: ~$20M (2023, season 8), ~$45M (2024), ~$100M+ (2025, season 10). Tickets and merchandise are over 90% of revenue. Figures are Forbes estimates; the club does not publish revenue.

SOURCES

Where each fact comes from

All the hard numbers come from Mason's own documents or emails. Rows 6, 37, 40 and 41 are outside sources. Rows highlighted in the source column are our own estimates or analysis.