If I Were The Benevolent Despot of the CBA

[Pounder]

Given the lack of stability... really only one team in this league is a long-term survivor, and though they report good attendance, their ownership situation causes any number of doubts...

...since I tend to think the lack of stability stems from costs, especially travel costs, and inability to sell sufficient numbers of tickets...

I think things have to be broken up. If I were Richardson, I'd let the west go. They'll probably be gone soon enough anyway. The eastern teams would have the opportunity to absorb the possible breakaways of the ABA and create a good regional league a lot closer to the original region. Hopefully, a well-conceived western league could be born from the rest, with a few possible additions in the right places.

[wellington]

I was thinking on the same lines as well. The league is too spread out at the moment and travel costs have got to be killing the teams with most of the teams being a long way from major airports where airline tickets are a lot cheaper. With a more regional league not only would travel costs be reduced substantially, but teams would have an opportunity to develop regional rivalries that would hopefully kindle fan interest.

[DazedAndAmused]

If you could plug in 4 to 6 of the best ABA teams left, and 6 to 8 of the best PBL clubs, with the top 8 CBA clubs, connecting the dots relative to travel wouldn't look so bad, and there might be the basis for a strong minor league outside of the NBDL. (I believe it's fairly obvious who would make the cut described above and who wouldn't.) Then, have a nice spring league relationship with the IBL that would include various cooperative efforts and perhaps this ship gets turned around.

[psbf]

I'm not sure if you forgot, Wellington, but the league has that discount agreement with Global Airlines which is supposed to help with travel costs.

[DazedAndAmused]

Tough to gain any ground on travel costs with oil at $100 a barrel unfortunately.

[FrontOffice]

CBA has cut ties with Global and Yakama Travel is handling everything again... I guess thats what you get when you go with the lowest bidder and they can't come through

[psbf]

Cut ties with Global? When did this happen and why?

[FrontOffice]

Global was one of the most unreliable companies to deal with. In some cases, travel was not booked until the day of and some of the roadtrips lasted well over 12 hours, which included 3 different plane rides as well as multiple bus rides. After numerous complaints, I was told Global was not the contact anymore and I have seen itineraries from Yakima Travel over the last week.