The Magician
03-31-2007, 12:29 PM
Wildcats look to rebound after hectic first year
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/31/sports/professional/23_49_753_30_07.txt
By: BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer
If a San Diego sports team plays an entire season and almost no one either knows or cares, did it really happen?
On the broad spectrum of minor-league sports ventures, it's difficult to imagine anything more minor than the San Diego Wildcats, an expansion franchise that recently completed its first year in the American Basketball Association ---- itself a pale imitation of the 1970s league famous for Dr. J's afro and red-white-and-blue basketballs.
On March 14, the Wildcats played the first postseason game for a San Diego pro basketball team since the old ABA's Conquistadors in 1974. The site of this momentous occasion wasn't the ipayOne Center or Cox Arena, but the creaky gymnasium at San Diego High. The opponent was the Outlaws from that basketball hotbed of Gallup, N.M. The ticket cost was $1 (yes, you read that right). And the crowd that night for the Wildcats' high-flying 133-106 win was generously estimated at 350 people.
"I have to say they scaled down," said Robert Vera, 52, a Clairemont resident who attended the game. "Other teams played in the Sports Arena. But I guess you have to start somewhere."
The Wildcats bowed out of the playoffs the next week with a 100-97 loss to a traveling team from Beijing. Then again, owner Anthony Lacey considered it a major victory that the Wildcats survived the season at all.
A retail sales executive at Pearson Ford, Lacey paid close to $50,000 to buy the team last November when it stood on the verge of an early collapse. But he couldn't secure a single sponsor or a loan from any of the four banks he approached, forcing him to spend another $150,000 simply to keep the team afloat during the season.
"Eighty percent of San Diego doesn't even realize we have a basketball team," Lacey said. "I don't have the means to get a commercial on TV. I don't have the means to let people know we exist."
Most ABA teams play in college arenas, but that wasn't possible for the cash-strapped Wildcats. Lacey couldn't even meet the asking price of their original home at Eastlake High ($1,300 per game), and the team ultimately rotated among various high schools, including Mission Hills and Cathedral Catholic. San Diego High didn't charge for the playoff game because Lacey donated a 15-passenger van to his alma mater.
Ray Johnson, who coaches the El Camino boys basketball team, doubled as the Wildcats' coach the whole season despite not receiving a penny of the $60,000 promised him by Lacey. General manager Matthew Allison, who's in his early 30s but looks like he could be in college, is a volunteer, along with most of the team's employees.
Running the Wildcats is essentially a one-man show. Lacey, tired of exorbitant cleaning costs, began washing the players' uniforms himself near the end of the season. On the night of the home playoff game, he arrived two hours early to heat the nacho cheese and fill the Gatorade coolers. The contact phone number listed on the team's Web site is his cell number.
"I own 85 percent of the team, but 85 percent of nothing is nothing," Lacey said. "I want to do it right, and next year we will."
Only 10 days after the season ended, he is beating the bushes for sponsors and says he is close to securing the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in La Mesa as the Wildcats' facility for next season.
For Lacey, failure is not an option.
"I think basketball can survive in San Diego," he said. "We just have to take little steps. I'm here for the long haul."
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/31/sports/professional/23_49_753_30_07.txt
By: BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer
If a San Diego sports team plays an entire season and almost no one either knows or cares, did it really happen?
On the broad spectrum of minor-league sports ventures, it's difficult to imagine anything more minor than the San Diego Wildcats, an expansion franchise that recently completed its first year in the American Basketball Association ---- itself a pale imitation of the 1970s league famous for Dr. J's afro and red-white-and-blue basketballs.
On March 14, the Wildcats played the first postseason game for a San Diego pro basketball team since the old ABA's Conquistadors in 1974. The site of this momentous occasion wasn't the ipayOne Center or Cox Arena, but the creaky gymnasium at San Diego High. The opponent was the Outlaws from that basketball hotbed of Gallup, N.M. The ticket cost was $1 (yes, you read that right). And the crowd that night for the Wildcats' high-flying 133-106 win was generously estimated at 350 people.
"I have to say they scaled down," said Robert Vera, 52, a Clairemont resident who attended the game. "Other teams played in the Sports Arena. But I guess you have to start somewhere."
The Wildcats bowed out of the playoffs the next week with a 100-97 loss to a traveling team from Beijing. Then again, owner Anthony Lacey considered it a major victory that the Wildcats survived the season at all.
A retail sales executive at Pearson Ford, Lacey paid close to $50,000 to buy the team last November when it stood on the verge of an early collapse. But he couldn't secure a single sponsor or a loan from any of the four banks he approached, forcing him to spend another $150,000 simply to keep the team afloat during the season.
"Eighty percent of San Diego doesn't even realize we have a basketball team," Lacey said. "I don't have the means to get a commercial on TV. I don't have the means to let people know we exist."
Most ABA teams play in college arenas, but that wasn't possible for the cash-strapped Wildcats. Lacey couldn't even meet the asking price of their original home at Eastlake High ($1,300 per game), and the team ultimately rotated among various high schools, including Mission Hills and Cathedral Catholic. San Diego High didn't charge for the playoff game because Lacey donated a 15-passenger van to his alma mater.
Ray Johnson, who coaches the El Camino boys basketball team, doubled as the Wildcats' coach the whole season despite not receiving a penny of the $60,000 promised him by Lacey. General manager Matthew Allison, who's in his early 30s but looks like he could be in college, is a volunteer, along with most of the team's employees.
Running the Wildcats is essentially a one-man show. Lacey, tired of exorbitant cleaning costs, began washing the players' uniforms himself near the end of the season. On the night of the home playoff game, he arrived two hours early to heat the nacho cheese and fill the Gatorade coolers. The contact phone number listed on the team's Web site is his cell number.
"I own 85 percent of the team, but 85 percent of nothing is nothing," Lacey said. "I want to do it right, and next year we will."
Only 10 days after the season ended, he is beating the bushes for sponsors and says he is close to securing the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in La Mesa as the Wildcats' facility for next season.
For Lacey, failure is not an option.
"I think basketball can survive in San Diego," he said. "We just have to take little steps. I'm here for the long haul."