Geoff Rowley will lead the course design team for the 2011 Maloof Money Cup

Sacramento Kings and Palms Casino owner Joe Maloof announced that pro skater Geoff Rowley will lead the course design team for the 2011 Maloof Money Cup skateboard contest series. The series will be making stops in Orange County, California, New York City and Kimberly, South Africa. Maloof also announced that there will be at least one new U.S. city stop for the Money Cup in 2011 that should be announced very soon. Can't wait to find out!

Rowley, a veteran pro skater and lynchpin of both the Flip skateboards and Vans shoes teams, helped in the design of Maloof courses in years past, particularly the one that remains a skatepark in Flushing, Queens New York where 2010 Money Cup NYC was held and where it will return in 2011.

Last summer Rowley briefly aligned himself with Rob Dyrdek's Street League contest series. Skaters that compete in Street League are beholden to exclusive contracts that stipulate they won't compete in any other contests besides Street League and other Street League sanctioned contests which does not currently include the Maloof Money Cup events. However, Rowley didn't end up competing last summer and presumably has gotten out of any contractual obligation to Street League.We will be digin' to see if there is any controversy a brewin'.

For the Maloof Money Cup design projects, Rowley will work with Joe Ciaglia from the California Skateparks company. California Skateparks have built all four Maloof Money Cup contest courses since the contest's beginning in 2008.

Rowley's enthusiasm for the project was clear when he told ESPN, "The cool thing about the Maloof events is that the parks get left behind for the local skaters. This is what made it an easy decision for me to be involved with the design process; the Maloofs are giving back!"