The Dream may be over................Alaska's travel deal isn't

[Paul S]

You guys and I have disagreed over Robbie Kendall, but I think his handling of the Alaska situation was really good on 12/11/08 ABA All-Access. He broke a story where the Alaska Dream had a travel deal with an (un-named) airline to ferry the Dream to the lower 48 and the visiting team to Alaska. Turns out the deal was for the Fairbanks summer tournament and not the season.

He started off with...............

Robbie - "Joe, whats the situation with Alaska, whats going on?"

Joes comments are as follows......

"They are having a little bit of a struggle up there"
"they supposed had a travel team with an airline"
"they have some work to do with the airlines, the city of Anchorage or the state of Alaska, its not dis-similar to Hawaii" No 25000 dollar tickets I hope for unsuspecting ticket buyers
"10000 dollar flights to and from" thats the cost of a franchise in this circus
"the jury is still out to see if we can remedy the situation, we are working with Trey Davis"
"if we cannot overcome the difficulty of the flights we will have a difficulty" amoungst many, many others


Robbie then follows up - "Didn't they have a deal in place?" which is what you said earlier Joe

Joe- "I have had 2 or 3 conversations or emails with Trey, and evidently, for what ever reason the deal is not the deal that is happening, it worked well to get the teams up to Alaska for the summer tournament, but its not working right now. "


So the "deal" wasn't. More to come. Joe says.. (Paul S takes a pinch of salt)... anyways, sorry .............Joe says that the Washington Raptors will go up on Monday and Tuesday but after that?

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

Joe told us the travel arrangements were worked out:

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3674598
ABA expands to Alaska
July 5, 2008 - American Basketball Association (ABA)

Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) today announced that the Alaska Dream has been added to its roster of teams for the upcoming season. According to Joe Newman, ABA CEO, "We've been looking at Alaska for expansion for quite sometime. Basketball is very popular there as can be evidenced by the very successful Alaska Shootout. The problem has been transportation. We believe that has been worked out and as a result, we are adding the Alaska Dream to our 2008 schedule.

And so did their owner:

"The state of Alaska and the city of Anchorage, fans and sponsors all want the team here, but the problem has been finding a plan to reduce the cost of travel, and we believe we have accomplished that. It will be affordable for ABA teams to visit here and for us to do our road games on the Pacific coast. A win-win situation."

You mean, Joe didn't KNOW they were worked out, and just SAID they were?

Wouldn't that be, I don't know... lying?

[psbf]

I don't need anyone to remind me what kind of league this is with it's reputation. But if this does not work out for the Dream(I knew it was a long shot) I feel so bad for the supporters who went to cheer them on and who post on the Dream website.

[meyes]

It seems Joe and many connected with the ABA rely on verbal agreements.
The enforceable value of a verbal agreement is somewhat less than a share of ABA stock.
It would be wonderful if we could all conduct successful businesses based on verbal agreements.
Unfortunately we all live in the real world, not ABA-land.

[preeths]

It seems Joe and many connected with the ABA rely on verbal agreements.
The enforceable value of a verbal agreement is somewhat less than a share of ABA stock.
It would be wonderful if we could all conduct successful businesses based on verbal agreements.
Unfortunately we all live in the real world, not ABA-land.

This has been a big problem for a long time. The ABA office does not verify claims made by its teams.

[nksports]

This has been a big problem for a long time. The ABA office does not verify claims made by its teams.

The league, it seems IMHO, has trouble verifying its own claims, much less those of its franchise owners.

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

It won't be long now...
http://www.adn.com/sports/story/624073.html
Alaska Dream cancels season opener

By KEVIN KLOTT kklott@adn.com

Published: December 15th, 2008 02:15 PM
Last Modified: December 15th, 2008 03:35 PM

The Alaska Dream, Anchorage's new professional basketball franchise, canceled tonight's season opener and will instead play an intrasquad scrimmage game, team owner Trey Davis announced this afternoon.

Why? The Washington Raptors, American Basketball Association team the Dream were scheduled to play, isn't coming to Anchorage.

"We attempted to bring the other team up here to play," Davis said. "We tried everything. They just didn't get on the plane."

Davis said he bought a dozen airline tickets from Seattle for the Raptors. He also booked a hotel and transportation for them.

Now that he's been stood up, Davis said he wants to pull the Dream out of the ABA, a league with 37 teams around the country, according to its Web site, www.abalive.com.

"This is very, very unstable for an organization to run this way," Davis said. "You don't wait until game day to find out a team's not coming here."

The 7 p.m. game was supposed to be the Dream's ABA debut and a revival of sorts for pro basketball in Anchorage. The Anchorage Northern Knights played in the Continental Basketball Association in the late 1970s.

Davis said Sullivan Arena cost $6,000 to rent out for tonight's game.

Only about 400 tickets had been sold for tonight's game, he said.

Sullivan Arena is already set up for a basketball game. So instead of a game against the Raptors, it will be the Dream against the Dream -- an intrasquad game.

"It'll still be a good show," Davis said.

Tickets range from $15 to 30.


Dream season opener canceled

by Kevin Wells
Monday, December 15, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Talk about a buzz-kill. The Alaska Dream, after spending months building up their new American Basketball Association franchise, will not be hosting the Washington Raptors in Monday's scheduled season-opener after all.

The game has been canceled because the Raptors decided not to travel. Instead the Dream will hold in intra-squad scrimmage at Sullivan Arena for ticket holders.

It is a cancellation that has wide-ranging effects, and will threaten the Dream's entire existence.

It turns out the Raptors never got on the plane to Anchorage. According to Dream owner Trey Davis, the Raptors needed the Dream to front their travel costs because they received no money from their own canceled home date with the San Francisco Rumble last weekend.

Davis said ABA franchises are not obligated to pay for visiting teams.

"When you spend that much money and they don't even get on the plane, I can't afford that," Davis said. "We have to support our team. I can't support someone else's team."

The Dream were also scheduled to host the Rumble this Friday and Saturday, but that will likely not happen either. Davis said the Rumble may fold before then, and that he will look into moving his franchise to another league.

"We're looking at other options to obtain another league," said Davis. "This is unstable to wait until game day to find out if a team is coming here."
The ABA -- founded in 2000 with the name of the old league that merged with the NBA in the 1970s but sharing little else in common except for a red, white and blue ball with the organization that made Dr. J famous -- has a long history of turmoil.

"We were told this about the ABA," said Dream coach Al Sokaitis. "They assured us management was different, and that teams were going to be more organized."

The ABA itself suspended operations for 2002-03, and cancellations due to teams not traveling to road games became commonplace in 2006-07

Last season nearly 20 teams folded within the first five weeks. According to the online site Oursportscentral, only about 35 percent of games were actually played.

The list of defunct ABA franchises on Wikipedia has almost 140 entries. At least another 25 ABA franchises defected to other leagues.

Now, without the benefit of revenue from games Monday and Tuesday, as well as future games, fans as well as Davis, may be waking up from their dream.

"I'm not going to say it's over," said Davis. "But the ABA is just not right for what we're doing."
Long-term options for the Dream include joining the NBA Developmental League, creating their own in-state league, or traveling to Europe to get tryouts for their players.

Of course, none of these options help the Dream right now.

"I look in their faces, and I think about the amount of work they put in," Sokaitis said. "It's all about these players and how well they would have represented the city."

Such chaos and uncertainty is hardly confined to the ABA -- one need look no further than the soap opera that has been the Alaska Wild indoor football team.

But even more established leagues like the ECHL, home to the Alaska Aces, have problems. The Augusta Lynx folded earlier this year after the start of the season.

Joe is already preparing his Newman-esque rip job of the Dream and its management.

Aren't you, Joe?

Or will you just use the same template you have used for so many others?

[tbayz1]

The Dream are not happy campers! The whole west coast is a joke, San Diego is gone, and now San Fran, Sacramento, and Modesto are all rumored to be on their way out, and even Washington looks shakey. And the LA Push don't even have a website anymore, they don't seem to be in existance.

Sorry to say this Burrell, but the west coast is an absolute joke, just like the league itself. The seasons been going on for what? 2 weeks now, and its a complete disaster.

Best of luck to you though trying to weather the storm out West...

[CHris902]

I assume Newman will just recycle his comments on Andre Levingtson, the Rainmen's owner, since it is a very, very similar sitaution in almost every way.

The D-League is not going to Anchorage. They aren't even willing to travel to Halifax given the current footprint and there are no franchises in the north west and no plan to expand there. The closest opponent would be LA if I'm not mistaken.

I just don't see what sorts of options the Dream have - the PBL and CBA don't have teams even remotely close to the area which would drive travel costs up even higher, and the IBL are not the sort of league that would accept those sort of travel arrangements even with teams like Vancouver, BC in the works. The ABA really was their only choice if they wanted to join a league, unfortunately it was a terrible one.

[TEN]

but....but....but....Burrel is skipping out on road games too....

[nksports]

"Davis said Sullivan Arena cost $6,000 to rent out for tonight's game.
Only about 400 tickets had been sold for tonight's game, he said.
...
Tickets range from $15 to 30."

That's almost the entire ticket sales going to arena rent alone.

To save the Dream -- The Arctic Basketball League: Anchorage Dream, Fairbanks Mushers, Kenai Krunchers, Point Barrow Bears, Nome Nomads and Deadhorse Dog Food.

[Hockey]

Yakima, Spokane, Seattle, Wenatchee, Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Pull players out the GNAC just like the Dream did. Try to play in the college buildings.

[Paul S]

I actually feel really bad for Alaska.

Another example of a rudderless ship. Joe should have figured this out long ago.

He could either
1/ tell Washington to honor their schedule or get out of the ABA
2/ fly up Ft. Waynes' Best or some other travel team on his dime
3/ fly up Minot from the CBA or another ABA team to cover on his dime.

Instead he sits and does bugger-all about the situation and choses the aba all-access to talk about what wonderful and hard working people the Washington Raptors owners are.

The sad thing is the Raptors are going to find out really fast what Alaska has gone through. They will have some sad-sack bunch call them on the day of a game with 400 tix sold that they can't make it.

and what sort of jack-a** business plan does the Raptors have? I mean they can't fly to Alaska to play a game because they have no revenue from the San Francisco Rumble not showing up? HELLO!!!!!! If you are running a business where opening the doors tomorrow is contingent on the San Francisco Rumble showing up today, you are a first class business moron!

C'mon Joe. Be a real leader. Lets hear it from you. What (exactly) are you going to do about the SF Rumble cancelling a game and then Washington cancelling a game? What steps are you going to take against SF and Washington?

Personally if history is any indication NONE. You'll let Alaska leave and that will "solve" the problem.

You could do a wonderful business study on this league and title the book/course "How not to do business"

[preeths]

No ABA team was supposed to be able to get to Alaska on their own dime. The Dream were supposed to pay for every trip up there as part of their being given a market reservation in the ABA. I think that whether one agrees with the Raptors decision or not, the Dream should have had all this taken care of long ago, and the league should have verified the arrangements. Anyone can make a promise, but it's a lot harder to fulfill a promise.

[CHris902]

The fact that they only made the flight arrangements on Saturday does not sit well with me. If course the return flights will be booked the week before christmas.

I think that the way Halifax did it last year was that when they paid for the travel of other teams they simply had the visiting team pay for the flights on a credit card and reimbursed the owner when the team played their games. (Burrell can correct me if I am wrong) The one down side is that it means you can'tverify if tickets were every actually purchased - which is what happend with the Bahama No-Show.

That said, you'd think that the Raptors could have rounded up some local players to fill in for the guys missing work. Other mystery: why were these games booked for mid-week instead of the weekend?

[preeths]

Sullivan Arena is used pretty heavily. I'd imagine the arena was booked over the weekend, and may even have been cheaper than usual during the week.

[CHris902]

Fair enough, Paul.
After watching a season of the Rainmen last year, I really think that you need those weekend dates to even have a shot of making a team work, particularly if you're flying opponents in. They either should have found another venue or pushed for better dates. It looks like almost all their scheduled home games were on Monday/Tuesday which is pretty much the worst time to have them (unless the market is different from every where else). If they only had 400 home tickets sold for the home opener they were pretty much doomed no matter what.

[Sam Hill]

I think that the way Halifax did it last year was that when they paid for the travel of other teams they simply had the visiting team pay for the flights on a credit card and reimbursed the owner when the team played their games.

No way on God's green Earth would I trust an ABA team to reimburse me for anything. Even Halifax. I don't care. You pay for the flights or you can have an intersquad game if the rule is that you pay for the flights, Cochise.

[Pounder]

Just an aside... I believe Sullivan Arena hosts the ECHL Anchorage Aces and Univ. Alaska-Anchorage hockey. (They host the Great Alaska Shootout there, but UAA has a smaller on-campus arena that the AD has proposed to replace with something much larger)

Yes, scheduling is not easy for the Dream. Why they bothered to try that at this time of year shows why Davis was overly optimistic. He has more than the currently shoveled share of blame to go with this.