Any thoughts on IBL?

[Marshall Benjamin]

The IBL is another trash league, I deal with a lot of overseas scouts and acouts here in the US and they all said they would not recruit any players from the IBL they do not play a good brand of basketball and nyway who would play for $150 a game what kind of money is that to live on and take care of a family.

[preeths]

You're obviously not going to try to take care of a family on that. For all but the very young, it is a part-time job, and that's it. For some, it has the potential to turn into more, but no one can expect to make a career out of it.

[one way]

here is a thought about the IBL. It is not a selling point to say that your league does not have time-outs. Real basketball fans know the importance of a time-out and it can save a ball game. The problem with the IBL is that they have bad coaches (volunteers from the local AAU), a high school gym, a high school arc, and people are not paying money to watch guys that they see working 9-5 at the grocery store. No professionalsim = no bucks

[sportsguy12]

I don't have any vested interest in the IBL, but they have to be more professional than the ABA and even USBL, which have had teams fold throughout the season. (NOTE: The ABA is far worse than the USBL).

The point of the IBL (in addition to trying to make a buck) is to showcase players. At least these players are getting paid something, which isn't the case in the ABA at times.

The IBL, though there is changeover in teams, seems to be more organized than other leagues and seems to have the geographical cluster thing down to a science.

[AConcernedCitizen]

What's really wrong with this league then? Here's a question, how is the quality of entertainment on the game day? Do the people who attend seem pleased by what they saw?

There are many, many more hundreds (actually there are thousands) of guys who graduate Div I and Div II every year who can't find a place to play in Europe or South America. Thousands went to see them in college but they suddenly aren't good enough to play?

This league provides entertainment. What I would like to hear is how that entertainment rated not to someone who compares it to the Lakers but on its own merits.

[Ballfan]

I dont really think the league is a trash league as one poster put it. It is a new league and growing. All leagues that start have ups and downs. I follow this league and it seems as if alot of guys (atleast 10 I think from reading USbasket.com) have gone overseas and gotten really good deals with D 1 Europe, South America, & Middle East teams. I read atleast one guy went to a NBA summer league last summer and then signed overseas after playing in the IBL last season so thats not a bad thing. I think the IBL will just get better once the growing pains subside. You cant make alot of money in this league but its the opportunity to get exposure and it is a developmental SUMMER league and it must work because of the guys who played last year that are all overseas now. As far as atleast making $150 or more a game thats really not bad part time money when you play two/three games a week and hardly have a practice to attend. The whole point is to get exposure and develop and I think it is working so far. I think its a pretty good summer league. Its nice to see former NBA players coming on also.

[Aces2007]

So far so good - the leagues seems to be off to a good start and has had some 1000+ crowds. We'll see how the USBL does.

[abie10]

has anyone ever seen the franchise information for this league?

there goal is entertainment. the guide shows you how to run a team from hiring staff to trading services. doing everything on the cheap. ibl players don't make a lot of money, but i think (personally anyway) that entertainment is their main goal and not showcasing players. they say in the manual that paying your players $60 for a home game is a good starting point for smaller teams, and not to let ANYONE quit their day jobs. for smaller teams they recommend getting the head coach as a volunteer position. looking for someone that is trying to get known and builld their resume.

they have the right ideas for minor league basketball. play in smaller gyms 1200 people in a 5000 seat arena isn't as impressive as 1200 in a smaller gym. they tell you to hire minimal staff, use interns, trade services for advertising.

they have a great business plan for prospective owners to run teams cheaply and successfully. i know cheap is a bad word but i'm tired and can't think.

i think the ibl will be successful not in the form of promoting players or even having the best teams, but in terms of providing great basketball for low prices to small and mid size markets...

[Shootmaster_44]

Originally Posted by abie10

has anyone ever seen the franchise information for this league?

there goal is entertainment. the guide shows you how to run a team from hiring staff to trading services. doing everything on the cheap. ibl players don't make a lot of money, but i think (personally anyway) that entertainment is their main goal and not showcasing players. they say in the manual that paying your players $60 for a home game is a good starting point for smaller teams, and not to let ANYONE quit their day jobs. for smaller teams they recommend getting the head coach as a volunteer position. looking for someone that is trying to get known and builld their resume.

they have the right ideas for minor league basketball. play in smaller gyms 1200 people in a 5000 seat arena isn't as impressive as 1200 in a smaller gym. they tell you to hire minimal staff, use interns, trade services for advertising.

they have a great business plan for prospective owners to run teams cheaply and successfully. i know cheap is a bad word but i'm tired and can't think.

i think the ibl will be successful not in the form of promoting players or even having the best teams, but in terms of providing great basketball for low prices to small and mid size markets...

I read through it and thought it was a good plan for a fresh market. The only problem with a team in an established market with a smaller budget is that the fans are expected what the previous team did. If you don't deliver that, they will be turned off. I remember that was slightly the case with the Canadian Baseball League. I went to one of their games, here in Saskatoon, expecting the same sort of game day things the Prairie League and NCL did. Unfortunately, they did not do that, I mean how hard is it to put together a lineup and scorecard for a baseball game.

So I'm thinking fans of basketball in Saskatoon will expect the IBL to put forth the same effort as the WBL and NBL did. If Troy Burns and company doesn't put forth that same effort, I'm not sure the fans would come back. What the IBL seems to believe is that people are coming solely for the on-court play and in minor league sports, that isn't the case. What people come out for is entertainment and the on-court play is only a portion of that.

If there's no professional cheerleaders, gimmicks on the scoreboard or prize giveaways, you will lose a portion of your fanbase. Some might argue this is a good thing to drive away the fairweather fan, leaving only die-hard basketball fans. But in reality the bottom line is the game itself is irrelevant, what is more relevant is getting people through the door. If it means having a local celeb in a dunk tank or giving away a free trip to Florida, so be it. Unfortunately, those who choose to run their franchise the frugal way won't have a franchise for very long unless they are in a small town.

The other problem the IBL will incur is if they expand to larger Canadian cities, fans will expect what the CBA and the old WBL and NBL did in terms of fan entertainment. So to do this owners will be forced to use the bigger business plans and thus the teams in small town America, that could get by on the frugal business plans would suffer. If Saskatoon is throwing around large sums of money and Vancouver, WA isn't, well then the more talented players will follow the almighty dollar and the league will be dominated by the larger cities. What the IBL needs to do is institute a salary cap, so that everyone can only spend a certain amount of money, that way the more frugal teams don't end up going 0-20 or 3-17 or whatever because they cannot afford the better players.

My other cursory thought on the IBL is why does every team seem to play a different number of regular season games? If the IBL claims that all 249 games scheduled were played, then why isn't the schedule balanced? In fact, why was there 249 games scheduled in the first place? Wouldn't 250 or some other even number divisible by the number of teams be a better idea?

All in all, I am excited about the Saskatoon team, in fact my dad's already talking buying season tickets. But I have a few slight worries about the league and how it will translate at the box office in the larger Canadian cities.

[BreakersFan]

Originally Posted by Marshall Benjamin

The IBL is another trash league,.

A big city's trash is a small city's treasure...

I think the IBL will do quite well in smaller markets (such as Elkhart) but it will srtuggle in larger metro areas that are accustomed to high-level minor sports.

The USBL is clearly the highest level of spring ball, but the IBL is much more stable and doing a better marketing job.

If I had to invest money in one of those leagues, I'd put it into the IBL before the USBL anyday....