The great free agent camp debate

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

Now that the pro winter basketball leagues are well into their seasons, a question begs to be answered: Are free agent camps a productive means of recruiting talent?

My opinion:
Free agent camps can be a productive means of recruiting talent depending on the league's level of competition.

How's that for not going out on a limb? :wink:

[Big Chris]

The only free agent "tryout camps" in ice hockey and inline hockey have been scams in recent years. However, many minor league baseball teams give so much back to you just for trying out at their open tryouts that they probably lost a little money on it. (In baseball at the indy level this is generally a fun public relations stunt giving the fans a chance to play on the same field as their team.) Now sometimes they find a diamond in the rough and he makes spring training but it isn't considered a serious talent search.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

I guess this guy is blowing it for everyone by charging too much: :)

http://www.newsok.com/article/1275047/?template=sports/main

...well, at least everyone who uses these so-called camps to raise a quick buck. Free agent camps ANYWHERE have always made me go, hmmmmm! :?

There are a lot of leagues that hold a lot of free agent camps that charge a lot of money. Are ANY of these camps legitimate in any of these leagues? Why is it the Gary Southshore Railcats of the Northern League (independent baseball) can hold a free agent camp and not charge a dime, while basketball teams are charging $150? To ensure only serious people participate? Wouldn't $25 serve that purpose? Of course, one could always do like the Gary Southshore Railcats and send the mass of pretenders home with the first cut...free of charge.

[Houston Caldwell]

Ken, I'd like to know what the article you're referencing is about, but I'm not going to PAY a newspaper I never read to look for it. What was this article about?
I think I know you well enough to trust you, and I'll accept your "paraphrase".

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

At the time I inserted the article, there was no registration. Now there seems to be one.

Nope, I wouldn't pay to access a newspaper article either. The article is about how the Native American owner (owner?) guy freely admits that he is holding several camps (at $200 to $300 a pop) to raise money for the franchise fee. Skeptics who were interviewed felt that the team was already picked in advance. Others doubted whether this guy was actually Native American.

[Houston Caldwell]

Ah, yes, I believe that I can identify the character in question (he is now being mentioned in Arizona Republic news stories as well).
I am beginning to look upon the ABA as a test of the ideas of Social Darwinism. There was a popular theory in my youth that if you evenly distributed all of the world's wealth and resources among the world's population, that within one generation, all of the wealth (and corresponding poverty) would end up back in the same hands.
The ABA expansion has provided a unique opportunity for those who have always wanted to own a sports franchise (that is, if they knew Joe Newman); with a $10,000 franchise fee, anyone who knows Joe Newman, if their career had brought them merely moderate success, could be a sports team owner. This has attracted a complete spectrum of management groups; some are legitimately qualified and hard-working (Nashville's management falls in that category, and I'm going to guess that there are about a dozen expansion management groups that belong in this group); then there are some that are able and sincere but underfunded, some that are sincere but clearly incompetent, and a few that are out-and-out hustlers and crooks.
Joe Newman now has a challenge to make his dream a reality; he needs to put together a coherent schedule for the franchises that are doing things right, without ripping off the groups that are clearly not-ready-for-prime-time. Persons like myself, South Atlantic, and others have advanced ideas for doing this on this message board. It is time for Joe Newman to listen and act.
I know for an absolute fact that Nashville GM Dan Bucher spends a good deal of his time cultivating relationships with independent pro and semi-pro basketball teams. Why? Dan wants to ensure that his season-ticket holders and sponsors get the proper value for their money, and the proper value is 18 entertaining and credible home games. He is very intelligent to do this, but if the proper monitoring of the progress of expansion franchises were being done at the top, this wouldn't be necessary.
Dan is an illustration of how stereotypes are often wrong (Dan is 24 years old, an out-of towner from Indiana, and a relative of the manager of the rock singer who owns the team); yet I haven't seen him make a wrong move since he touched down in Nashville. He has anticipated every problem well ahead of the time when he needed to do something about it. You never know.
I want the ABA to succeed, because we need minor-league pro basketball that is national, rather than regional in scope ( I love the CBA, but it is a regional league of the industrial Midwest). But this is going to take some tough-love, and those of us who want the ABA to succeed need to administer it.

[cndndnballer]

At the time I inserted the article, there was no registration. Now there seems to be one.

Nope, I wouldn't pay to access a newspaper article either. The article is about how the Native American owner (owner?) guy freely admits that he is holding several camps (at $200 to $300 a pop) to raise money for the franchise fee. Skeptics who were interviewed felt that the team was already picked in advance. Others doubted whether this guy was actually Native American.

poll= i answered #wun...
Native America wants $200 us only. however when i exchange my dollar into US its already adversity that i have to overcome and i didnt even pick my basketball yet. i pray everynight that i am given a excellent opportunity to showcase my talents. thereafter upon making this team, i can try-out for team canada and represent my native canadian heritage on that international level. the 2008 olympic games is my major goal with basketball playing in the aba is just a small fraction of that. wish you guys luck and god ble$$. WUN!

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

I would think the Rockford Lightning, October 23rd free agent camp was an ABA run operation if I didn't know any better. First, the Rockford website (complete with misspellings) lists the free agent camp location as a place called East Chicago, IL. East Chicago is in Indiana on Gary's western border. Second, according to the Gary Post-Tribune, this Rockford free agent camp has been moved to downtown Gary, Indiana (less than a block away from the Genesis Center where the Steelheads play). How tacky! :roll: