Have a Listen ...

[The Magician]

to ... http://www.audiosportsonline.net/ABA/AllAccess.htm?abalive

Saturday, February 3rd
ABA All Access Show # 27 (58 Minutes: 41 Seconds)
2 Segments with ABA CEO: Joe Newman
ABA "Around The League" News

It's nuts I tell you, just nuts!

Oh yes ... And you will get a chuckle out of Joe Newman's mention of the msg boards here at OSC!

[Chuck the Writer]

Oh ... my ... gawd.


9:00 - The winning slam dunk, by Donnie Beacham, who should be in the NBA, all my guys should be in the NBA..."

As you can tell, Unca Joe's already sniffing the airplane glue.


36:00 - We are the most diversified professional sports league in the history of the world. Over 60% of our teams are owned by blacks, Hispanics, Asians or women. No other league ever has had that kind of diversity ... many of the teams that have not been able to make it, because so many of our teams are minority, that sometimes they might not have the economic staying power, but it's the first time they had opportunity and it's the first time diversity has been sought, not accepted. ... I've told many people, you measure people not by their money, but by their character - to a person, I would put up the ownership groups of the ABA teams with any of the world.

Funny, he never said that about Denise Pulphus in the end...

(in talking about the CBA's Utah Eagles) Any time a business folds, it's not a happy time. I'm very much a capitalist, free enterprise system, and I believe that Target is strengthened by Wal-Mart ... It is always discouraging when competition goes away, because competition makes you work harder at what you do. I don't particularly like the management and the ownership of the CBA ... I don't understand why the ABA is under constant attack, but never before ever have you ever seen the ABA say anything negative about anybody - even though I did say something negative about the ownership of the CBA ... three of their teams have been recruited from the ABA with special incentives. I don't consider that to be moral or ethical, but I think that the owners of the teams that left have to make a considered judgment as to whether it's best for them. I don't know why we're under attack, other than there's a lot of jealousy because we do what we do. What we do and why we've grown is that we do not charge the franchise fees that the other leagues charge. The other leagues do that and they put their teams in a hole from day one.

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what Unca Joe's talking about, professional sports teams have to post a letter of credit and pay a franchise fee to join a league. It's not just with basketball leagues; I remember when my hometown had a professional soccer franchise (the New York Eagles of the American Soccer League, 1979, 1981). In the first year of the Eagles' existence, their owner, a NY real estate developer named Prenk Curanaj, had trouble paying the team's bills, including the stadium rent, the player's salaries, etc. The league called in his letter of credit - not so much to punish Curanaj, but to protect the other teams in the league who would lose money if that franchise disappeared in the middle of their teams' road trips, or if that team didn't show up for their home games, there would be no income for those games. This is extremely important, and every league (except the ABA) has one. A sports league does not exist in and of itself. It's essentially a cooperative. Everybody puts in for the benefit of all involved.

This is why every season the ABA goes through this turmoil. Unca Joe starts with (let's say) 50 teams. 5 teams fold in the first week, now the other 45 teams have to scramble to fill lost arena dates. Some of them weren't expecting this added expense to their budget; others are ordered to play games outside their district to fill gaps in the schedule caused by a folded franchise. This causes other teams to give up the ghost. By the end you're down to maybe 35 teams. Then you have relocations, you have franchises that don't pay their rent on the high school gym they're using, they won't go to road games because it costs too much for gasoline for the minivan, they'll take a few weeks off (with no punishment from anyone) just so they won't have to pay the players for two weeks. Now you're down to maybe 27, 28 teams. Then Unca Joe starts throwing some ownerships under the bus (whining about the coverage in Halifax for the ASG, grumbling about the perceived absentee ownership of the Hollywood Fame, ripping his own commissioner John Salley apart for being an absentee commissioner), and people get sick of it and decide there are other opportunities out there. So now you're down to maybe 24 teams. And since 24 teams go to the playoffs...

We're the only league that does not charge any fees or dues or assessments, so that 100% of the revenues these teams earn, they keep. It's a formula that the other teams don't have. I would venture to say that the CBA teams are like our teams, but if one McDonalds charges one dollar for a hamburger and the other McDonalds charges eight dollars for a hamburger...

But if you're talking about the $8 CBA hamburger, you're guaranteed that you will see both teams show up with clean uniforms, with a stats package that is accurate up to that moment, with media coverage with the Associated Press and the like. The $1 ABA hamburger, you'd be lucky if they added a bun and mustard.

I have been the victim in many cases of name-calling and profanity and other things that I find just not dignified and not proper, and I've asked many people to keep it on a business level, people don't understand, I'm 69 years old, we have 6 children, 11 grandchildren, I have about 40 nieces and nephews, they're all computer literate, they all go on the website and they go on to Our Sports Central and others, and they see some of the nastiness that's written, and I get Dad what did you do, Grandpa what did you do, Unca Joe what did you do, they don't see me as CEO of the ABA, they see me as grandfather or father or uncle, and they get concerned with the harshness of it, understanding that all we try to do is that we try to bring fan-friendly basketball...

See, here's Unca Joe at his finest. He now plays the doting paterfamilias when his offspring come up to him and say, "Unca Magpie, why aw dey sayin' mean things about you on da inta net?" And he says to them, "Listen, little ABA06er and A1sports and BasketballUSA and barkley34/chuck43 and Corning Tax Payer, it's all good. I'll get 25 new suckers - er - franchises tomorrow and we'll just continue on. Now go on upstairs and play nice with that boy you found on the Myspace page..."

And this was the prize - when Unca Joe talked about what the lasting benefit of the ABA was, that its teams went into schools and YMCAs and Boys' Clubs to help spread basketball...

58:30 We should get some sort of a giant presidential citation for the contriubtions that these ABA teams make to their communities.

And that, friends, is Unca Joe "Magpie" Newman.

[panchess]

..if that's true, why does Joe even care about three teams that left for the CBA? Wouldn't they be beneath him?

[nksports]

This is extremely important, and every league (except the ABA) has one.

The NIFL seems to not require one.

[The Magician]

to ... http://www.audiosportsonline.net/ABA/AllAccess.htm?abalive

Saturday, February 3rd
ABA All Access Show # 27 (58 Minutes: 41 Seconds)
2 Segments with ABA CEO: Joe Newman
ABA "Around The League" News

After listening to the show ... Move over to this thread to see what Bullsno1 has posted:

http://www.oursportscentral.com/boards/showthread.php?t=4724

[bomp]

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what Unca Joe's talking about, professional sports teams have to post a letter of credit and pay a franchise fee to join a league. It's not just with basketball leagues; I remember when my hometown had a professional soccer franchise (the New York Eagles of the American Soccer League, 1979, 1981). In the first year of the Eagles' existence, their owner, a NY real estate developer named Prenk Curanaj, had trouble paying the team's bills, including the stadium rent, the player's salaries, etc. The league called in his letter of credit - not so much to punish Curanaj, but to protect the other teams in the league who would lose money if that franchise disappeared in the middle of their teams' road trips, or if that team didn't show up for their home games, there would be no income for those games. This is extremely important, and every league (except the ABA) has one. A sports league does not exist in and of itself. It's essentially a cooperative. Everybody puts in for the benefit of all involved.

Oh Chuck! You just made my day. I remember the NY Eagles. I was at a match at that terrible little stadium in Albany. I guess they couldn't find a recording of the national anthem so the PA guy started to sing it. If you have ever tried to sing the national anthem, you know that it is not easy to sing. By the end, the crowd was laughing as this guy couldn't reach the high notes. That is one that has stuck in my memory for almost 30 years. :mrgreen:

[psbf]

Not to change the subject, but I think the National Anthem is pretty easy. I know the words to that and the Canadian Anthem(I just don't have the voice for the music).
Anyway, back to the topic.