Pro Youth Basketball League Overtime Elite Sues Atlanta Arena Developer, Claiming Deficient Construction

A youth basketball league designed to prepare high school-aged players for a possible career in the National Basketball Association is suing a Las Vegas concert stage and temporary structure developer for failing to complete its indoor arena at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta.

Overtime Elite sued AG Light & Sound Inc., AG Production Services Inc. and their sole owner, Andrew Gumper, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for breach of contract and conversion of dollars intended to pay off subcontractors for the work on the 103K SF basketball arena at 230 17th St.

Overtime Elite, through its attorneys Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders associate Wheaton Webb and partner Jason McLarry, filed suit against Gumper and his companies Oct. 17 claiming deficient work on the arena resulted in the youth league needing to pay nearly $13M in damages, including $2.3M to complete the stadium Gumper is accused of abandoning and more than $5M to pay subcontractors Gumper was supposed to reimburse.

“On Nov. 19, 2021, Andrew Gumper left Atlanta without paying Defendants’ subcontractors and prior to the completion of the project. Less than a week later, all of [the] defendants’ remaining employees had abandoned the project and [the] defendants’ trailer was removed from the project site,” Overtime Elite’s attorneys wrote in the suit. “Neither Andrew Gumper nor any of [the] defendants’ other employees returned to the project site.”

But Gumper told Bisnow in an interview last week that the dispute stems from an organization that continually intervened and made revisions to the stadium’s design, incurring further costs. Gumper claims Overtime Elite is using him and his company as a scapegoat for cost overruns to its investors. 

Gumper said Overtime Elite still owes him $3M more in expenses, and he plans to file a counterclaim.

“We delivered a finished product that exceeded their expectations on opening night and they still use it,” Gumper said.

Gumper declined to say when he planned to file a counterclaim and didn't identify his attorneys.

Officials with Overtime Elite declined to comment, and their attorneys didn't return calls seeking comment. 

Founded by CEO Dan Porter and President Zack Weiner, Overtime Elite takes in talented high school basketball players to prepare them for a career in the NBA while forgoing college basketball. Players are paid at least $100K a year, plus bonuses, Sporting News reported. 

Gumper said he was brought to Overtime Elite’s attention by Hines, which owns Atlantic Station, after successfully constructing a temporary 72K SF concert arena for DirecTV’s Super Saturday Night Foo Fighters concern during Super Bowl LIII in 2019.

After agreeing to the project, Gumper said Overtime Elite wanted to aggressively move to build the arena in time for its opening night, six months later. 

"I was hired by them at the last minute to build them the stadium. Normally a project like this is two to three years, start to finish," Gumper said, adding that he also had to work through supply chain issues for materials during the pandemic. “The fact that we actually pulled this off and had a venue in six months is unreal.”

Overtime Elite also alleges that Gumper took a more than $44K check that was to be used to pay a subcontractor and instead deposited into his personal bank account, a charge Gumper denied.

“Nothing ever went into my personal accounts,” he said. “I don’t know where they got a $40K number from. I guess [they] pulled that out of their ass somewhere.”

Gumper counters that he was continuously approached by Overtime Elite officials to change the design of the stadium “up until opening night,” which caused project development costs to skyrocket from $10M to $30M.

“It was a combination of their inexperience just not understanding the process and also the rushed timeline of the project,” he said. “I think they’re just trying to explain to their investors [about cost overruns]. And they’re trying to explain that and they’re blaming it on me.”