from ABAlive - ASK THE CEO -- CRITICS?

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

30-Jun-2005
Question from KR in Cleveland, OH: "If the ABA is so good, why do you
have so many critics?"

Answer: KR. This is a tough question and really hard to answer. In
fact, I wasn't sure I was going to answer it. Oh well. I'm not sure
why the ABA has so many critics. I think it comes from disappointment
more than anything else. When we restarted the ABA, many mistakes
were made and as a result, in spite of good intentions, some teams
were not successful. Perhaps it was the screening process for
ownership, perhaps it was the business model itself (salaries, venue
costs, travel costs, marketing plan, etc.) that made being a
successful business difficult. It was necessary for us to do some
serious introspection (similar to what any business experiencing
problems would do) and see if we could come up with solutions to the
problems. We addressed the salaries, venues, travel, marketing,
screening and made substantial changes. We developed new standards
and requirements of our ownership groups as well as re-working our
basic business model. Hopefully these changes will work and we will
change the perception of many who have criticized the league. It is
important to keep in mind that during all of this process, the ABA
did provide an opportunity for hundreds of players and coaches to
play and coach, for hundreds of refs to ref, and for tens of
thousands of fans to enjoy exciting, fast-paced professional
basketball at affordable prices. While much of the criticism was
justified, it is up to us to do the things necessary to satisfy the
critics. We will. And we believe it is better to have critics and
people who care than not to have interest at all.

:roll: Who wants to go first? :roll:

[meyes]

Another summer rerun. We have read all that before. I do agree with the last sentence. For whatever reasons, enough people do care about the ABA, from Joe Newman to the detractors, to have kept it going this long.
It does appear that progress has been made. There are more teams active right now than there used to be at mid-season. A number of franchises really seem to have necessary, capable staff organized and working. There are also a number of "teams" listed that haven't produced any evidence I have seen that they actually do exist. In the next week we should have a much better idea of how many teams will actually start this next season.

[BasketballCoach]

The ABA season opens in four months with training camps and what I like so far are the teams pushing and moving forward with sponsorships and ticket sales. Other teams who dont have a nickname, logo, color, etc. should be pushed to the side in favor of the teams that are ready. I mean for christ sake, you are within 120 days of your season and waiting last second will fail you and thus the league.

Like I said, there appears to be several teams on the home front that have a true idea of what's going on. They have (I hate to use the word experienced) folks in the front office with NBA names and possibly some decent financing. Joe needs to formulate a schedule with the teams that are ready. Each team was league mandated to have available dates by June 1 as well as an arena by that date. I am sure some have failed and are being alloted more time to find a place. Hell you have to have a place before you can allot dates, dont you?

I think the ABA is in a critical point of their life. I still predict a league to start up in the southeast region that will coincide with the regular basketball season. I predict the Fayetteville Patriots among other failed projects in those areas will be a part of the new league. The CBA is a money losing nightmare (ask the eastern champion Great Lakes Storm), the NBDL has shown their intentions of moving westward and then you have the ABA where anything is certainly possible. And it is possible if they falter in the southeast, people will be pleased to clean their mess up with a new league.