ABA announces four expansion teams

[meyes]

ABAlive has the details about new teams in Pittsburgh(Hardhats), PA; Portland, OR; Little Rock, AR; and Louisville, KY. Included is a link to a newspaper article about the Hardhats.

[Dan K]

The mention of the Pittsburgh Hardhats team brings to mind two "phantom" team names from the ABA's off-season in the summer of 2002--the Pittsburgh Patriots and later the Pittsburgh Golden Flames. I think the team was planning to play at the Community College of Beaver County (Golden Dome). I don't know what happened to this effort, but the ABA later decided to sit out the 2002-03 season.

[Sam Hill]

What happened was Wayne Butler was involved. And then he denied he was ever involved. Despite having given an interview to the Pittsburgh paper about the team. I guess he figured people in Philly don't ever hear what gets printed in the Pittsburgh papers.