exactly whom do we blame?

[WHAFAN]

Its obvious that Joe has his hands full with all of the lies, broken promises and what not. Let me ask you this. If I go out tonight and buy a $70,000 Mercedes Benz, drive it for a month and figure out that there is no way in hell I can keep up with the $1200 a month payment, who do I blame? Is it the salesmans fault? Do I blame him for selling me something I can't afford? Is it his fault I wanted to be a bigshot, even though I have shallow pockets? He sold me what I asked for.

As much as I hate to defend Joe, if these underfinanced owners continually try to be big players in the world of pro sports, and they fail, it's their own tough luck. You don't get a steak dinner for $8.00. You can look at a $75 steak on a menu, order it, eat half of it, then the check comes.........now what??

[a1sports]

ABA is a public company, therfore under corporate law, the CEO is responsible. He is suppose to make sure those that enter the ABA have the funds. HE DIDNT. Then he uses public money that no shareholder will ever agree to him using. This is NOT over by any means. As I posted in another thread, when the investors meet and vote, it will be all over for the public company ABA. There is nothing to stop Joe from going back to a private company and keeping the scam going. Oh wait there is, FRAUD charges by the investors !! There is a GOD !!!

[bdaly]

I still believe it comes back to the league. How come these problems don't run rampant in pretty much any other professional league? How come out of all the other minor leagues I follow here in Rochester, only the ABA has these problems? Due diligence is done by the other leagues, and they require some sort of franchise fee. The USL found out a team lost an investor, so they cut them off before the season began--that's as close of an example as I can find to an issue occurring in any of the other leagues.

Again, I can foot $10,000, and I've been to business school so I put together a good business plan. But, the reality is, I'd be in trouble as soon as bills start coming due because I don't have the capital to foot the losses that should be expected after a year. That's what happens to many owners; how else do you explain the Baltimore Pearls? They don't have a few hundred thousand to play with. Of course, a good business plan includes best case, expected, and worst case scenarios and the owner has the capital to make it through any of them initially. So a good business plan includes capital considerations.

Clearly, the ABA is willing to "grow" at all costs. If the ABA were to show some patience and make sure it's slotting in the right owners, it would be fine. The ABA can only blame itself for letting in undercapitalized owners, or even letting in owners that they claim are of questionable character.

[besl]

Its obvious that Joe has his hands full with all of the lies, broken promises and what not. Let me ask you this. If I go out tonight and buy a $70,000 Mercedes Benz, drive it for a month and figure out that there is no way in hell I can keep up with the $1200 a month payment, who do I blame? Is it the salesmans fault? Do I blame him for selling me something I can't afford? Is it his fault I wanted to be a bigshot, even though I have shallow pockets? He sold me what I asked for.


Your Mercedes analogy is a pretty good one. But if you buy a car and can't afford the payments, wouldn't you say the buyer (ABA team owner) as well as the person who approved the financing (Joe Newman) equally share the blame?

[TheStandard]

the blame is the owner for not really thinking if this is you can afford it or not. You get suckered in its your fault. You can only blame yourself for getting in and not thinking and doing things right

[Fells]

I really don't think all of the blame is on Joe, but a significant amount is.

What the league needs is solid organization and it plain does not have that right now. When a game is scheduled to be played, play it. If a team doesn't show, there need to be repercussions. The playoff system as it stands now needs to be revamped so disasters like this year do not happen.

As far as franchises, I will say this until I am blue in the face.....Due diligence must be performed on prospective owners. Bank accounts, financing, arena deals, radio deals, PR plans, etc MUST be in place before awarding a franchise. A prospective owner has to know what they are getting into, and it is the responsibility of the league to ensure that. What this does is to weed out the owners who don't have a clue, and it protects the investment of the league and its shareholders. It is looking at the big picture instead of the small.

One other thing the league needs to do is to not only improve its website, but training on how to deal with the media I think is crucial. I can say this from a personal point of view, as there are guys like Alex Wolff who understand how important the media is to the success of a team. Alex returns phone calls, issues releases, and is very accessible. What this does is to help promote the team and its players. We are more willing to cover a team if we are treated like human beings. Be straight with us, don't call us every name in the book, and simply return phone calls and e-mails. If we get a response like I got to my article on the Miracles, does that accomplish anything? No, all it does is to get people angry. Criticism will come, but for those who handle it with class are ones we will tend to give the benefit of the doubt to.

Just my two cents,

Fells

[Pounder]

My recently devised mantra (good for another 4-5 months):

"We all suck!"

In the Mercedes analogy (hey, Mercedes danced for me that night in Vegas errrrrrrr you have no proof), at least the buyer knows the payment schedule, apparently. With the ABA, we're not sure Joe Newman has given a true picture of costs... or, worse, doesn't care.

On that note, if the buyer/owner doesn't ask, he (or she) is twice the fool.

If the owner/buyer plays the "I can do it better" card, some times they win, most times they're twice the fool of the non-asking owner.

After all this, we keep insisting on spelling the CEO's name correctly, mostly because we seem to want to keep that "moral authority" over those insane press releases. We've done our part. I particularly suck.

SO, cue the imperial march. af2 has begun, and Boise has a road win. Go figure...

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

Its obvious that Joe has his hands full with all of the lies, broken promises and what not. Let me ask you this. If I go out tonight and buy a $70,000 Mercedes Benz, drive it for a month and figure out that there is no way in hell I can keep up with the $1200 a month payment, who do I blame? Is it the salesmans fault? Do I blame him for selling me something I can't afford? Is it his fault I wanted to be a bigshot, even though I have shallow pockets? He sold me what I asked for.

As much as I hate to defend Joe, if these underfinanced owners continually try to be big players in the world of pro sports, and they fail, it's their own tough luck. You don't get a steak dinner for $8.00. You can look at a $75 steak on a menu, order it, eat half of it, then the check comes.........now what??

To extend your analogy - how, exactly, did you pay for the car in the first place? At some point, the finance company would have done some sort of check on your net worth, income, etc. to validate what you could spend on payments.

There is no such review in the ABA; only the initial $10K has to pass inspection (i.e. - not bounce).

If your monthly income and credit rating were too poor, the Benz dealer would have sent you down the road to Al's House of Cars ("$99 drives it away!!).

Honest question - how many potential owners do you think Joe has turned away (for reasons other than maybe a market dilution - two teams in the same market)? How many people have clicked that link and received a rah-rah email from Joe that "<insert market here> would be a great place to support ABA basketball, and would fit into our regional set-up blah blah blah?"

How many have ever received an email up front that said "Thanks, but no thanks" to their bid before ponying up $10K?