Eric Koston Thinks Prize Money Is Too Low in Pro Skateboarding

NEW YORK -- If the whole of pro skateboarding found it necessary to elect a player rep, then they might want to consider Eric Koston for the job. The uber successful Koston has enough talent and widespread appeal to cut it as one of the top guys on Nike SB, but he still has enough cred to run the popular park/site The Berrics. Koston who finished 35th at the Maloof Money Cup New York spoke at length with FanHouse about the lack of legitimate prize money at pro events and why he has such high hopes for Rob Dyrdek's Street League.

FanHouse: What did you think of the format of this year's contest, and how would you describe the environment?

Eric Koston: "Overall it's good. It made a lot of sense. The groups were smaller, but then they staggered it so you got time to rest too. It made a lot of sense. So it was really good. Especially in this f*****g heat. My god."

Maloof Money Cup NYC

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FanHouse was all over this summer's groundbreaking skateboard contest.
- Maloof Money Cup Results
- Maloof Money Cup Photos
- Chris Cole on Top Again
- Eric Koston on Prize Money
- Paul Rodriguez on Contests
- Jereme Rogers to Return
- Bastien Salabanzi Goes Fourth
- Lil Jon's Big Love for Skating
- Pudwill Places Well
FH: The purse being as high as it is for a skate contest; how much does that change your approach coming in to this?

Koston: "You're asking the wrong guy. It didn't change my approach for s**t. It's definitely better. I'm not going to say it's not like these guys don't deserve it either, though. I think it's sort of what they deserve, really. The bar (with prize money) has been set so low that this seems super high, but at the same time, I think that's where it sort of should be."

FH: Well, you're someone that's obviously crossing over -- Nike sponsors you and you're doing a lot of other stuff -- do you ever think about the fact that, actually, hey, we should figure out a way to get the rest of these guys more money?

Koston: "I've been thinking about that for the last 10 years, easily. Or just, 'Why aren't they?' If you look around and see who's sponsoring events, and the Maloof Money Cup is a little different, but you see the rest of them and there are a lot of big sponsors involved. So then you ask, 'Why are (the skaters) still getting the scraps?'"

FH: I mean, say, 15 grand is a lot of money, but for fourth place, if you were to compare that to other sports ...

Koston: "It's not so much about fourth place, but it's like, who's involved? And if you wanna play, you should pay. Really. But then it's like big, big corporate you-know-whos that sponsor this."

FH: Well, the sponsors are where you guys make most of your money, not in contests, right?

Koston: "It's true. But then ... especially when everybody on the peripheral will sponsor an event, but never sponsor the skater, they hop on board and that's the only time they do, so yeah you should pay the skaters, right?"

FH: Yeah, I talked to Bastien Salabanzi, a guy who might not be pulling that much from sponsors right now and is a little bit on the fringes, but he was super excited to be here and place fourth. And I'm thinking that this is still one of the top guys in the sport, and this is probably the most generous contest out there, yet he only walks away with 10-15 grand. Maybe it should be more.

Koston: "You know, it's always a weird thing talking about money, right? But it's like, how much work do they put in to creating a TV show? A show is the product, the product is what sells to all the sponsors, so it's that sort of trickle-down effect. But the guys who are actually putting on the show should actually get rewarded for putting on the f*****g show."

FH: Well, you're a part of Rob Dyrdek's Street League, and is that part of the thinking in putting that league together?

Koston: "Well, I've talked to Rob and I've known Rob for about 17 years. I've known him for a long time, and we've always discussed how bad it is, but recently when he's taken the initiative to get this thing going, he's really thought it out: What's wrong with what's currently going on and how do you make it better? And he figured it out, I know it, we all know it. It's just, how do we do it? So we have to sort of band together to do it. That's the reality. Everybody's got to be part of it and if we all are one voice, then you have to talk to that person."

FH: Well, I hope it works.

Koston: "Me too. But I don't really care either way if it does or doesn't. But I'd rather support that than what I have been participating in through most of my career."

FH: And you'd like to leave that for the kids coming up as well.

Koston: "And we'd also like for the crowd to be more skater, which this place is really super-sick in terms of being a skate audience. You guys got a transit system and trains; you can get people here. That's why it was really a skate crowd. It was really our crowd. It was cool."

FH: And how's Nike been treating you?

Koston: "They're good, man."

FH: They get it?

Koston: "Oh, more than I ever thought too, which is crazy. But it did take them a while. When I find out, when I talk to them about their pasts and stuff, they might not have got it then. But now knowing them? They get it."