We didn't see this one coming. CATAN, the self-proclaimed "world's most successful modern board game" is now a partner of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team, currently placed number six in the NBA's Western Conference.
According to the CATAN company's press release, "The collaboration features interactive concourse activations at select Timberwolves home games this season and extends into community initiatives, including participation in select Timberwolves outreach programs" - presumably that means bringing board games along for the ride when players visit Minneapolis schools.
The two brands have some prizes on offer to celebrate the partnership, which you can grab via the Timberwolves' Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts until November 10. Prizes include two tickets to a Timberwolves game on November 14, a CATAN-branded Timberwolves jersey, and a copy of the latest version of CATAN.
Does this deal make sense? The Timberwolves will be getting cash out of it, while the CATAN company is introducing its eponymous game to an audience it hasn't reached before. CATAN does have form as of the best board games ever for introducing people to the hobby - it kicked off the modern renaissance in American board game design by serving as an ambassador for Euro boardgames when it made it across the Atlantic in 1996. You can read our CATAN review for more in depth analysis.
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My personal head canon is that this is all the work of Crunch, the Timberwolves' fursuited wolf mascot. According to his original backstory, Crunch taught himself to play basketball "with a makeshift basket built of pine-cones and birch bark" in the deep woods of Minnesota, and eventually migrated to the Target Center in Minneapolis, where he is "lured out on game-days by the deafening howl made by Wolves fans". If anyone is going to develop a sudden passion for a board game, it's this cryptid savant.
Are you a Timberwolves fan? Would you like to see a different sports team and board game pairing - or have there already been some that we've forgotten about? Let us know what we're missing out on in the Wargamer Discord community.
There are actually quite a lot of strategy board games based on sports: Games Workshop recently announced a new edition of Blood Bowl, the game that puts the fantasy into 'fantasy football'. We'll let you know what we think when we're able to test it.