If I were the COO of Minor League Basketball.

[utahstarsticketholder]

Having read this thread for the past two years plus, it makes me sad to think that minor league basketball is in a state of decline. So in the spirit of real discourse, here is your challenge.
How can minor league basketball be salvaged in America? By this I mean taking as a whole how can the ABA, CBA, PBL, USBL etc. become similar to the minor leagues in baseball?
Hopefully,this thread can spur real discourse and not the same depressing, although sometimes amusing, rants about what is wrong with the ABA.
Remember our troops, jack and cheryl.

[nksports]

First, I don't think there is a one-size fits all solution. Every market is different. The culture of basketball in the US is geared high school, college and NBA. I don't want to break that for either high school or college basketball. Go to any high school or small college gym around here on a Friday or Saturday and it's what pulls a community together.
So the question becomes, is there room for more?
Unless you have a local star on your team that can draw the local fan, you average minor league fan is a basketball junkie. That fan is usually a purist who wants to see "old timey" basketball. All the little rules the minor leagues try to throw in usually turns that fan off. On the other hand, your casual fan — mom, pop, the kids all packed in the mini-van (the ones you want to try and get because they spend more money) — they like the bells and whistles, the promotions, the silly contests, etc. Those are usually the ones who come on givaway nights, free ticket nights (I know that makes a lot of owners and marketers cringe) and so on.
It takes a lot of marketing to reach those fans. Then you have venue questions (do you spend big rent money for a venue or go to the local high school or college, where it may be cheaper, but you are long down the list on the scheduling priority), what time of the year works best for what market and how do you win over the local media, especially if there have been a long trail or team failures in the past?
The other big question is (especially in the minds of NBA owners) what is minor league basketball for?
One look at the D-League as it is shows the NBA isn't sure. It is player development? Then you have the LA Lakers-Defenders model where the minor league team is almost run like the MLS Reserve League (which is modeled after European soccer). The Lakers don't really seem to care if any fans show up. They don't seem to be selling tickets very aggressively except to tell season ticket holders they get in free. Most of the Defender home games are on the afternoon of Laker night games.
Other teams, especially those where the owners are not NBA owners, seem to be in the more traditional model, where the marketing of the team is important.
Right now, the D-League is treated by the NBA like AA baseball, where teams are sticking prospects (granted late bloomer prospects) to season them for a year or two.
Back in the 70s and 80s, when the CBA was at one of its heights (and they were more closely aligned with the NBA), that league was more or less like AAA baseball. It's where the NBA used to plug a hole or two in the lineup. It was back in the heyday of the 10-day contract. They'd either fill an empty spot due to an injury or they'd give a guy a look for a week or two to see if he could cut it.
It's a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of risk and maybe not my first choice for investment when I win the $245 million Power Ball this week.

[oldfatguy]

A couple of opinions:

First, the NBA only has 12-15 roster spots to fill. As it is, their draft is really 3-4 good players and a bunch of filler. If you're not among the top few overall picks in the NBA draft, you're (relatively) nobody. For instance... without looking it up, who was taken third in the NBA draft this year? Once you get past the first couple college studs, there's just not that many players who actually make it, or that many roster spots to fill.

Also, the majority of players with any sort of 'name' have guaranteed contracts and pretty much guaranteed roster spots. So realistically, any minor league system that's affiliated with the NBA is to do what the NBDL does, just stash a guy or call up an injury fill-in.

To develop a 2 or 3-tiered minor league system to plug in one or two players a year just doesn't seem to be worth the expense, at least not to me. And if those players are just guys who really have no shot at the NBA, it's tough to sell the players, as the NBA has done for 30 years now.

As a franchise operator, you have to sell the team and the experience of being at the game, and that's counter to what the 'major' league of basketball does.

In baseball, there are 25 roster spots to fill per team, and injuries are much more common. Baseball rosters seem to be about half-and-half veterans with guaranteed contracts and younger, more interchangable players, making the minor league system much more valuable.

NBA teams are filled with guaranteed contracts - I think it was the Knicks a couple years ago who had 12 roster spots and 16 guaranteed veteran contracts. They gave Mutumbo something like $40 million just to go away, and the same for Allen Houston. How could a minor league basketball player hope to get a spot there?

Also, in basketball, by the time you hit your early 20s, you are pretty much a player or you're not. You don't see a lot of late bloomers in basketball, whereas baseball teams will stick with a guy into his mid-20s. You'll often see football players who just didn't have much in their early 20s really blossom as they get older as well. Witness someone like Priest Holmes, who was pretty decent with Baltimore but really shone with Kansas City as he got older (before he got hurt, of course).

It really makes much more sense for football to develop an affiliated minor league system than for basketball or even baseball. With the amount of injuries in football, and the number of players who need a year or two of seasoning, at least a AAA-level NFL minor league makes much more sense.

Anyway, that's my thought on basketball minor leagues.