These numbers will amaze some, most of you already know

[a1sports]

Past week I have made calls to 29 ABA teams, it would have been more but some have the number disconnected or there is no answer. I asked simple questions, as in, whats your venue charge? How many staff do you have? How many sponsors? etc etc. By working the numbers backwards it was easy to see that this league has owners with NO money and the owners get into this on the promises Joe makes that you will make money if you follow his model. Here is what I found:

24 teams have no operating budget. They used cash from there jobs, credit cards, savings accounts or borrowed money. They had no money set aside to run a professional team of any sorts.

14 Teams did get sponsorship money but it was gone by the 4th - 7th payroll.

20 Teams had no front office staff that is on a payroll. They would do this part time as volunteers or get some cash as payment. Some "team phones" would ring at there house or there church !!

22 Teams had season ticket sales of under 25 fans !!!!!

When asked what the biggest expense was outside of salaries, 15 said, paying for their website.

If the owners do not have money, they can not follow any model.

Now everyone thinks that putting up a $50,000 performance bond by each team would insure that the team makes all its road games. Check back on Joe for the year 2001 and see what Joe did with a performance bond from an ABA team, thats right, he cashed it and used the money. Only with the threat of going to court did he return SOME of it.

Doesnt matter how great a spin Joe puts out there, if you dont have the money to invest you wont succeed.

[preeths]

20 Teams had no front office staff that is on a payroll. They would do this part time as volunteers or get some cash as payment. Some "team phones" would ring at there house or there church !!

This I can attest to. Anyone who has tried to track down scores a day later, or several days later, can tell you just how tough it is to get anyone on the phone sometimes. Several team phone numbers ring through to an owner or coach's cellphone.

[heavesrock]

Why would they tell you all this?

[Fells]

This I can attest to. Anyone who has tried to track down scores a day later, or several days later, can tell you just how tough it is to get anyone on the phone sometimes. Several team phone numbers ring through to an owner or coach's cellphone.

As can I. When researching a story awhile back, it took me four phone numbers to get through to one team to get simple background information.

[jamesaba]

its a made up story to justify his figures....

no way he could get through to that many teams, and no way they would be that candid.

Like 24 teams are actually going to say "i had no budget...no money whatsoever to run a team. i used my credit cards"!!!

Anyone knows bigger expenses outside of salary are travel and venue - so why would 15 teams say their website is the 2nd most expensive item - when most don't have expensive or well put together websites in the first place????

try again.

[panchess]

..one of my jobs at work is to run our small business development class. As part of that class, we have an exercise where we encourage people to talk to existing business owners in the same industry.

Most people find out a lot, relatively easily. It is surprising what some things cost.

I am guessing most ABA van-pool it to games, with the coach driving or renting a big van to move the team. Maybe individual players drive themselves. The venues largely seem to be high school arenas where it's probably like $100 to $200 a game, or in some cases, maybe they can trade for other things, like a kid's clinic.

Websites, on the other hand, require hard cash.

[sportsguy12]

..one of my jobs at work is to run our small business development class. As part of that class, we have an exercise where we encourage people to talk to existing business owners in the same industry.

Most people find out a lot, relatively easily. It is surprising what some things cost.

I am guessing most ABA van-pool it to games, with the coach driving or renting a big van to move the team. Maybe individual players drive themselves. The venues largely seem to be high school arenas where it's probably like $100 to $200 a game, or in some cases, maybe they can trade for other things, like a kid's clinic.

Websites, on the other hand, require hard cash.

at least getting them up and running. I still don't know why teams would tell a total stranger how they operate.

[LASportsFan]

The ABA at one point claimed they were going to take care of all team websites, but they obviously didn't. Try to find an active website for the Hollywood Fame. Good luck. There are many other teams without websites or they have websites that haven't been updated in months. The Houston Takers website still has the old name (Undertakers) and doesn't list a roster or other team information.

For a majority of teams to claim that their website was their #2 cost is absurd, and I do not believe it based on the quality of the websites around the league or the complete lack thereof!!!

[sportsguy12]

The ABA at one point claimed they were going to take care of all team websites, but they obviously didn't. Try to find an active website for the Hollywood Fame. Good luck. There are many other teams without websites or they have websites that haven't been updated in months. The Houston Takers website still has the old name (Undertakers) and doesn't list a roster or other team information.

For a majority of teams to claim that their website was their #2 cost is absurd, and I do not believe it based on the quality of the websites around the league or the complete lack thereof!!!

Big shock that he didn't follow through. I read that in an article somewhere.

[bdaly]

Big shock that he didn't follow through. I read that in an article somewhere.
Yup, it ties into the whole Space150 thing and the alleged non-payment for their web development. The Ripknees owner owns that company, and he of course opted not to participate in the playoffs. I wouldn't be shocked if they are a fleeing team. They began working on a format for all teams that is similar to their team website:

http://www.ripknees.com/

But, sure enough, the website magically reverted to its old format and now allegations are being tossed around. It's unfortunate, as the idea was a good one....

[jamesaba]

..one of my jobs at work is to run our small business development class. As part of that class, we have an exercise where we encourage people to talk to existing business owners in the same industry.

Most people find out a lot, relatively easily. It is surprising what some things cost.

I am guessing most ABA van-pool it to games, with the coach driving or renting a big van to move the team. Maybe individual players drive themselves. The venues largely seem to be high school arenas where it's probably like $100 to $200 a game, or in some cases, maybe they can trade for other things, like a kid's clinic.

Websites, on the other hand, require hard cash.

Really??

All the teams I saw this winter which was about 10 all traveled by motor coach (big bus) except 1 which rented vans.

And only 2 out of 10 played in high schools.

How much does a website costs - 2,000 grand? Even if you rent a van for each road trip thats an average of about 300 x 18 = 5,400 plus gas and tolls and that's only with 1 van. If a team rented 2 their costs would be nearly 15,000 a season for vans. Buses cost between 2,000 and 3,000 a trip which equals around 60,000 for the season.

Both are alot more than a website.

Oh and by the way, they don't require cold, hard cash! Check out www.strongislandsound.com - its not the greatest site on the planet but its better than 85% of ABA teams' sites...and guess what its practically FREE! Hometeamsonline.com offers free sites for teams....yes they obviously paid for some upgrades but we're talking a few hundred bucks a year...total.

[jamesaba]

Yup, it ties into the whole Space150 thing and the alleged non-payment for their web development. The Ripknees owner owns that company, and he of course opted not to participate in the playoffs. I wouldn't be shocked if they are a fleeing team. They began working on a format for all teams that is similar to their team website:

http://www.ripknees.com/

But, sure enough, the website magically reverted to its old format and now allegations are being tossed around. It's unfortunate, as the idea was a good one....

The funny thing is that for 250 grand, I dont think the Minnesota's site is even that good! I think the free site at www.strongislandsound.com is better!!

[besl]

The funny thing is that for 250 grand, I dont think the Minnesota's site is even that good! I think the free site at www.strongislandsound.com is better!!

You can spend a bunch to have someone design a website that looks good, but if you don't have the content to keep it fresh, it's going to be crap. Stong Island's is pretty good, but since it was free it redirects you to a different URL which is kind of weird.

If you know a little bit about web design, you can make a really good site on the cheap. Hosting costs will only set you back $20-30 a month plus $10 a year for the domain name. The Bellingham Slam's website (www.bellinghamslam.com) was built that way and I think it's one of the best in the league. Flashy graphics are nice to look at, but good content is what people will keep coming back for.

[bdaly]

I agree that it comes down to content. I think the direction of Minnesota's page is strong, including a nice, clean statistics page. I'd suspect (or hope) that much of that dollar figure went into developing something that is more or less modular and could be deployed throughout the league. As we saw for a while, there were versions of that format for each team; they just weren't really ready to go live.

I'd take a less clean, but updated site anyday. I'm not sure I'd say I like that format better, but if a team isn't loaded with cash, they should definitely go down that route and focus on content. There's no excuse for any ABA team not to have a website of some sort and provide updates after each game. These team websites aren't difficult to update. Strong Island has one of the more consistently updated sites in the league, and kudos to them for that.

[Sam Hill]

And, once again, a1 drops something in, then gets out of the room while we all talk about it.

I still haven't figured out the guy's motivation or how much of what he says is just bollocks.

I have no doubt lots of ABA teams are run on shoestrings - that's a major part of the problem. I doubt very seriously they'll tell you that so candidly...unless they know who you are.

Which is more than we know.

[TheHulk]

The ABA at one point claimed they were going to take care of all team websites, but they obviously didn't. Try to find an active website for the Hollywood Fame. Good luck. There are many other teams without websites or they have websites that haven't been updated in months. The Houston Takers website still has the old name (Undertakers) and doesn't list a roster or other team information.

For a majority of teams to claim that their website was their #2 cost is absurd, and I do not believe it based on the quality of the websites around the league or the complete lack thereof!!!

ARE YOU SERIOUS...THE TEAM WAS CALLED THE UNDERTAKERS? OMG! Unless the owner was the real WWE's Undertaker....that has got to be one of the most retarded nicknames in sports.

[Fells]

The funny thing is that for 250 grand, I dont think the Minnesota's site is even that good! I think the free site at www.strongislandsound.com is better!!

Darren has a great site. The Sound's and Heaves are the two best in the ABA.

[Fells]

And, once again, a1 drops something in, then gets out of the room while we all talk about it.

I still haven't figured out the guy's motivation or how much of what he says is just bollocks.

I have no doubt lots of ABA teams are run on shoestrings - that's a major part of the problem. I doubt very seriously they'll tell you that so candidly...unless they know who you are.

Which is more than we know.

He seems to know a hell of a lot more than most of us do combined. What I wouldn't give for sources like that!!

[Sam Hill]

He seems to know a hell of a lot more than most of us do combined.

And he's not afraid to tell you that.

[Fells]

And he's not afraid to tell you that.

In my business, we KILL for sources like that.

[Sam Hill]

And in your business, you're not supposed to fawn sophomorically over the home team, as you do with the Heaves.

Just sayin'.

BTW, TheHulk? What's worse is that when some people were offended (I guess) by the name, they shortened it to just "Houston Takers."

THAT was even dumber.

[Fells]

And in your business, you're not supposed to fawn sophomorically over the home team, as you do with the Heaves.

Just sayin'.



BTW, TheHulk? What's worse is that when some people were offended (I guess) by the name, they shortened it to just "Houston Takers."

THAT was even dumber.

I call them like I see them. If the Heaves did something wrong, I would be the first to call them on it.

[TheHulk]

And in your business, you're not supposed to fawn sophomorically over the home team, as you do with the Heaves.

Just sayin'.

BTW, TheHulk? What's worse is that when some people were offended (I guess) by the name, they shortened it to just "Houston Takers."

THAT was even dumber.

Hey, let's not forget the Fayetteville Fantastics. LMAO!!! It sounds like an alternative lifestyle party of men in comfortable shoes. I guess the teams colors are the rainbow. *wink wink

[indy legend]

ABA action is FAN-TASTIC.

[TheHulk]

ABA action is FAN-TASTIC.

That's a real hot one, Indy legend. ROFLAO!!!!

[Sam Hill]

I call them like I see them. If the Heaves did something wrong, I would be the first to call them on it.

That doesn't even it out. You're not supposed to fawn. You fawn. You must be young.

[Fells]

That doesn't even it out. You're not supposed to fawn. You fawn. You must be young.

I hardly fawn, and I am far from young. Just ask what is left of my knees; I am FAR from young.

Hey, if there was something wrong with the way the Frost Heaves do things, I would mention it. The thing is, they haven't.