Brooklyn Kings

[Paul S]

Has anyone actually ever been to a Brooklyn Kings game?

Anyone on here?

Ever???????????

I've never seen a business (until the ABA New Jersey Chapter 11's) that basically didn't care if they ever turned a profit.

This has to be some sort of tax write off for the owner. Apparently (and you can find other apparant entities such as Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster and the Chicago Skyliners) they play in a old movie theatre and the court is on a stage with the audience (if you call 20-50 people an audience) sitting theatre style on one side of the floor.

I mean the website doesn't work, the team forfeits games both home and away seemingly at will and yet it still is listed as a functioning team.

[TEN]

I've been to Brooklyn Kings games in each of the last four years...Actually, I've never had a problem at one of their games and am usually pleasently surprised with their game operations.

Their home court is on the campus of Long Island University and is the home court for the LIU Blackbirds. It is the old Paramount Theatre, but works pretty well as an intimate basketball arena. It has bleacher seating for about 1500 people and is really a pretty good place to watch a basketball game.

Crowds at the games I have been at probably average around 300 to 500 and most times they have some kind of entertainment at halftime that spotlights kids (drum corps, etc.). I know they had a packed house a couple of years ago when Kareem Abdul Jabbar brought his team in. Kenny Charles does a very nice job with what he has to work with and this franchise has made it through five or six seasons. Not bad longevity for the USBL.

As for routinely forfeiting games...I think that they forfeited one a couple of years ago when they had a scheduling problem with Maryland. I know they have not done it the past two seasons.

This year they made the playoffs for the first time and almost beat Pennsylvania in the first round. They had USBL Rookie of the Year Lenny Cooke this season.

They don't have as much overhead as the other teams in the league because of where they are. They can get good New York area players and not pay them very much....don't have to pay for housing like most of the other teams have to...arena rent is reasonable...They probably lose as little money as anybody in the league does.

They don't spend much money on advertising...in New York it would be pretty cost prohibitive.

You ought to go to a Kings game before you post...check it out for yourself.

[Paul S]

Ten:

Your with the USBL, and other than a couple of former AC Seagulls and a certain owner in Texas people in the USBL rarely bash the USBL.

In saying that you're absolutely right about going, which if you read my message is an underlying theme as I intended on going this year and hope to go next but because of a website that wasn't operating I ended up at a Westchester game instead. IE I found zero info as to HOW to go.

An email to the 'contact us' department at usbl.com was basically please contact the team for individual tickets and dates. Oh but I did get an package about the stock and an analysis from donpenny.com on the potential of the stock.

As for the missed games a "couple of years ago" because of a scheduling snafu I think they missed a couple last year as the league had two schedules, one early and one amended and the 2nd couldn't be delivered to the team as they had trouble contacting them.

Bear in mind, I'm a USBL fan and want to see more Dodge City Legends and a lot less Texas Rimrockers. Althought the message the Rimrockers owner posted about the hotel being a ripoff in Westchester or Pennsylvania was hilarious.

[Sam Hill]

Mark was good for a lot of unintentional comedy.

[Crum007]

There have been no forfeits in the USBL since the 2001 season. That was a scheduling screwup involving a former team and a former management personnel that was rather unfortunate. There were no forfeits in 2002 and 2003. The 2004 schedule should be released sometime in early Jan 2004.

[not so fast]

The usbl overall has been pretty stable. I only wish they would get a Chicago area franchise. I think it could work in the Chicago area.

[Want to know]

I seem to remember that the Blueducks tried to fly from Orlando to NYC and drive to Albany the day of a game and missed the game, which became a forfeit? If it wasn't it should have been.

[Crum007]

The game was posptoned due to travel problems that were caused by the airline not the team. The game was made up at the end of the season when the Blue Ducks made their last trip north.

[Paul S]

Well the game was at 7pm and the Lakeland Blue Ducks decided to leave Florida for a game in upstate NY at like 10am the day of the game. There was a problem with the weather and they never made it out.

Rather than going half way they just didn't go or were stuck and went back to Florida instead of continuing on. Of course at least they weren't banned from all US air flights like the Pennsylvania team who countered that US was anti-black because they weren't allowed to board the flight in the hub airport halfway between Pennsylvania and Ft. Myers Fl.

They were trying to save on travel per diems and had to make the game up. The schedule snafu involved a road trip that teams used to take to the NYC area. Basically they played at Atlantic City, Jersey, Long Island and Brooklyn. Problem was they had two schedules and AC (Ira Trocki wasn't big on spending much money on ads or office equipment) didn't have a fax machine to accept the 2nd fax for the revised schedule and didn't even know the game was on in there own gym. The visiting team (Oklahoma Storm?) turned up and the doors were locked. Basically they wandered around the boardwalk on Atlantic City.

[Want to know]

The Sea Gulls also forfeited the last game of the 2001 season vs. Maryland when they sent four players and no coach to the game. As far as being more stable......the USBL just had a team that was the 2003 Championship team fold, then come back this winter. Is that a definition of stable? The same scenario described with Ira Trockci is the reason that Brooklyn forfeited with Maryland. Schedule was changed and Brooklyn wasn't aware of it.

Most leagues also have a travel policy where a team has to travel the day before a game, not the day of a game. The Blueducks played at home on Sunday and the canceled game was on a Thursday, and was it the airlines fault that the Blueducks flew to NYC and not Albany? Why didn't The Blueducks just fly to Atlanta and drive from there?