KNOX100
A 100-meter pool event in Knoxville and a cinematic love letter to swimming
Build the documentary from where swimmers and coaches first began—summer league, hometown pools, early mentors—and let KNOX100 become the visual centerpiece of a larger Colab story world spanning film, event, and premium commerce.
Framework for a 2026 JAX50 pilot, 2027 principal filming, and a 2028 flagship event and release runway.
Visual tone reference: the edge-of-the-world ocean-pool feeling of Arribas Sintra Hotel, crossed with the elemental clarity and destination-pool atmosphere of Balmorhea State Park.
2026
JAX50 pilot and Cade inventivity test case
2027
Documentary origins and embedded filming
2028
KNOX100 flagship event and LA28-adjacent runway
Why this concept works
The story is bigger when it begins at the first pool, not the biggest stage.
The emotional entry point is origin, not prestige. KNOX100 then becomes the payoff: a distinct event expression carrying the weight of years of effort, memory, and becoming.
The film opens with summer league, first pools, early coaches, and the ordinary places where elite swimming journeys began.
A 100-meter pool in Knoxville creates a visual and emotional hook that feels distinct from a standard meet or training documentary.
JAX50 acts as the test case for Cade inventivity, production language, sponsor activation, and the event-to-content playbook.
The rollout can connect film, athlete storytelling, and premium drops across swim, tri, and tennis personalities on ColabSports.com.
Core progression
The framework moves from childhood water memories to prototype event energy, then into an elevated Knoxville centerpiece with a wider cultural and commercial afterlife.
Arribas Sintra Hotel ocean pool
Use the Portuguese ocean-pool feeling as a reference for scale, edge, horizon, and the sensation of water meeting landscape.
Balmorhea State Park
Use Balmorhea as a reference for clarity, openness, and the almost mythic feeling of a destination pool in nature.
Start with where the athletes and coaches first met the water.
Use JAX50 in 2026 to test the event format, content system, and partner demand.
Begin principal documentary filming in 2027 with embedded athlete and coach stories.
Scale into KNOX100 as the landmark 100-meter pool event and cinematic centerpiece.
Carry the emotional runway into the Los Angeles 2028 build, right before or around the Games.
Production model
Origins, prototype, embedded filming, flagship event, release ecosystem.
The structure keeps responsibilities and momentum clear: gather memory-rich material first, learn through JAX50, build emotional depth in 2027, and let KNOX100 anchor the event and film payoff.
Collect childhood photos, first-team memories, hometown pools, family interviews, and early-coach stories that ground the film emotionally.
Use the 2026 Jacksonville test event to refine the field production model, audience experience, and sponsor integration before KNOX100.
Follow select swimmers, coaches, and adjacent personalities across training, travel, family life, and performance build-up.
Stage the Knoxville 100-meter pool event as both a competition moment and a visual engine for the documentary and brand ecosystem.
Launch the documentary, athlete capsules, and limited-edition product drops across swim, tri, and tennis through ColabSports.com.
Creative and operating package
A clean division of creative authority, production leverage, and platform value.
Sadoski directs the film. Burch helps produce and package it. Colab owns the broader destination, turning the project into a repeatable engine rather than a one-off media moment.
Own the visual language and emotional point of view
Sets documentary tone and visual grammar
Shapes athlete and coach narrative arcs
Leads the feature and short-form story world
Package access, partners, and execution
Helps secure athlete, coach, and brand access
Supports partner and distribution conversations
Builds the larger production and launch package
Turn cultural momentum into an owned platform layer
Host event and film destination pages
Launch curated products and collectible drops
Extend the playbook across swim, tri, and tennis
Creative north star
Position the film as a love letter to swimming: intimate at the beginning, transportive in the middle, and awe-filled by the time KNOX100 and the 2028 runway arrive.
Roadmap
Prototype in 2026, build depth in 2027, peak in 2028.
The project should feel staged and cumulative. JAX50 teaches the team what to sharpen. 2027 creates the soul. KNOX100 and the LA28-adjacent window create the larger cultural moment.
Validate Cade inventivity through a compact but cinematic pilot event.
Prototype sponsor placements, content capture zones, and audience flow.
Capture learnings for production timing, weather backup, and event staffing.
Start documentary filming in January with origin stories and embedded training blocks.
Focus on 3-5 hero arcs, with broader athlete and coach voices as texture.
Build a repeatable editorial engine for feature footage, trailers, and vertical cuts.
Stage KNOX100 as the flagship visual event and cultural tentpole.
Capture the emotional run-up to LA28 right before or around the Games window.
Release the film and related commerce experiences with strategic partner support.
Prototype logic
JAX50 is where production, atmosphere, and partner assumptions get tested before more capital and complexity are committed to KNOX100.
Visually, the pilot can borrow from the destination-pool magic of Arribas Sintra and Balmorhea while still keeping the execution grounded in a testable 2026 format.
Colab expansion lanes
Swim is the heart. Tri and tennis widen the platform opportunity.
The initial emotional truth belongs to swimming, but the operating system can expand into adjacent personalities and categories that fit the Colab brand.
Use the documentary to earn attention, then convert that attention into recurring audience relationships and high-affinity product behavior across more than one sport lane.
Origin stories from summer league to elite performance
Coach legacy, family sacrifice, and Olympic runway
Premium swim gear and collectible storytelling moments
Budget posture
The comp-informed base case likely lives below $1M.
These ranges are directional, but they are now framed closer to independent-documentary comps: prototype cheaply enough to learn, then add event spend only where the visual and emotional payoff justifies it.
$350K-$550K
Works if JAX50 stays lightweight, KNOX100 is captured without a large temporary-build ambition, and the hero cast stays disciplined.
$550K-$900K
Most defensible from comps: enough for embedded filming, real post, and a flagship event weekend without pretending this is a streamer-scale package.
$900K-$1.4M
Only makes sense if the event footprint expands materially or the finish and launch package needs a noticeably more premium execution.
The smartest path is still to use JAX50 to de-risk visual production, partner behavior, and event operations, then let the 2027 story build and the KNOX100 weekend earn the heavier spend.
Decision asks
The concept comes down to four approvals.
If those land, Colab can move from abstract documentary idea to an actual multi-year event and media platform strategy.
Confirm JAX50 in 2026 as the prototype and KNOX100 in Knoxville as the flagship event expression.
Lock Sadoski as director, Burch as producer, and the documentary tone as a love letter to swimming.
Choose the primary athlete and coach arcs rather than trying to weight every voice equally.
Decide how aggressively to connect the film to commerce across swim, tri, and tennis personalities.
Recommended opening position
Prototype JAX50 in 2026, start documentary filming in January 2027, package Sadoski and Burch early, and let KNOX100 become the emotionally loaded centerpiece that feeds film, audience, and commerce on ColabSports.com.