Fells ABA Story

[dbaproball]

Fells,

Your story seems to be a very accurate account of the state of ABA affairs.

I would have made have mentioned or commented further in two areas:

1. "market reservations as product lines" - you mention the behavior of almost encouraging teams to come and go to grab another 10k from the next guy, but this is not only behavior. this has been institutionalized in ABA policy as described in their SEC filing. it's the difference between making a mistake and correcting it, and making it policy to make mistakes.
2. the 3k performance bond - this is frankly almost an insulting number and adds no value; it is an order of magnitude too low to be effective for teams that should have 150k to 400k annual budgets to survive, market depending. at best, this could be described as at least a step not in the wrong direction, but in reality, it is token. Teams that are folding are accruing debts much, much higher and not paying them. i'd also like to know how many of the 40 to 50 teams that will start next year have actually put them (the bonds) up.

just one guy's opinion.... Still, nice job. The story needed to be told in a credible way and you clearly did that. Thanks.

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

A lot of nice stuff about Brad.

Looking forward to reading it on the league website, with the parenthetical Joe comment at the end commending the writer for a god job.











You may now remove the sarcasm filter...

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

http://www.abalive.com/news/releases...=2007072506004

ABA News

PALM BEACH IMPERIALS OWNER/PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ON LIVE BROADCAST

25-Jul-2007
West Palm Beach, FL -- Today, Imperato for President 2008, the official Presidential Campaign Committee for Daniel Imperato, the owner of the ABA Palm Beach Imperials, announced they would be holding their seventh live broadcast tonight, Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 8 pm EST.

Mr. Imperato is currently an independent candidate for the office of President of the United States of America and is seeking the nomination from the Libertarian Party.

During the broadcast, Imperato will further promote his plan to unite America to take a 3rd party to the White House, a 33 million Man and Woman e-March. In addition, he will ask those 33 million Americans to embrace the idea of having an independent in the White House.

He will also be announcing his call for voter questions to be submitted via www.studentpipeline.net, to host an online question and answer session between voters and himself.

Imperato's last broadcast was streamed live across the world via the i1tv broadcast network ( www.i1tv.net ) and powered by i1search ( www.i1search.com ). He is the first candidate to introduce regular live broadcasts to his campaign. To listen to the broadcast, please visit www.imperato2008.com tonight. Viewers can also dial in to the audio broadcast by dialing (88 776-3766, access code 8706685.

For more information, visit www.palmbeachimperials.com.

I know Joe has self-promotion of his businesses listed on the site as well, but other than mentioning the team name in passing, there is no relevant league news.

[a1sports]

Nice story, written very well.
Lets keep one thing in mind. Joe is no dummy. Doyle wanted to bring a guy in as VP of operations that had 20 years of minor legue sports experience. Salley wanted to bring in a guy with 8 years of working in the NBA office...who does joe get? someone he can CONTROL !!! SO untill someone else cuts the checks to brad...Joe will pull the string. NOTHING will change.

PS the 3K "bond" is a joke. IMO this is how Joe will do it. OK team "A" doesnt go to play TEAM "B". Joe gets team "A" to team "B" FOR $ 350.00. Joe keeps the difference.

Remember what happened to the bond that the Long Beach jam had????

[Fells]

Thanks for all of your kind words. It should be interesting to see if anyone else picks this up, or if I get a nasty gram from Joe.

I have to tell you guys, Brad really is a good guy. I have spoken with him quite a bit and not only does he have great ideas, but he is a no BS person. If he tells you something, you know it is true, and I give the man major bonus points for his candor and honesty. I just hope Joe has the sense to listen to someone who obviously has the league's best interests at the front of his mind.

[a1sports]

In talking with a person who knows the Buffalo owner well... here is an example of Brad at work ( yes he is a NICE guy BUT this is business). There was some meeting in Chicago last spring with the board ( doyle joe tingham et al) and Brad was there. JOE didnt listen to a thing the board suggested and Brad, during the 3 hour meeting, said NOTHING !!

this should shed light on whats going on here..Brad is Mr feel good, Ill do what I can, lists the problems and nothing changes. What can you say to a guy that acknowledges problems and wants to fix things? you cant say a thing. BUT the underlying fact is, nothing can be done without Joe saying ok.

Time to move beyond Mr feel good answers...and see the real puppet master at work

[Fells]

Originally Posted by a1sports

In talking with a person who knows the Buffalo owner well... here is an example of Brad at work ( yes he is a NICE guy BUT this is business). There was some meeting in Chicago last spring with the board ( doyle joe tingham et al) and Brad was there. JOE didnt listen to a thing the board suggested and Brad, during the 3 hour meeting, said NOTHING !!

this should shed light on whats going on here..Brad is Mr feel good, Ill do what I can, lists the problems and nothing changes. What can you say to a guy that acknowledges problems and wants to fix things? you cant say a thing. BUT the underlying fact is, nothing can be done without Joe saying ok.

Time to move beyond Mr feel good answers...and see the real puppet master at work

After talking to Brad at great length, I just don't see that in him. I don't think he is a "puppet master" at all. He is doing what he can with what support is given to him by Joe. Brad again has these tremendous ideas, and if given the support, they can work. The problem in all of this is that Joe and Dick control everything, and the best of ideas can't be implemented without their approval. There of course is the issue. Brad is someone who is willing to do the work, willing to create new ideas, and is willing to deal with people and do so in an honest manner. This is something Joe just cannot see and remains almost a dictator in the running of this league.

[one way]

with all of this info out there- why do people sign up for this league? Then I remember, they have no money. NBDL budget 1.2 million dollars. CBA budget 800 thousand. ABA budget 10,000 dollars. What a joke. You have to have money and lots of it to run a reputable team in a reputable league. All of these ABA owners are living in a dreamworld. First they invested in this nonsense and then they think that they can make it work.

[meyes]

Based on my experience with the Indiana Legends for nearly a year, if Joe does listen to Brad and gives the go-ahead to do anything Brad suggests, the OK will come too late for Brad to execute his plan and he will not receive any support ($$$) to do what needs to be done.
Some things good could happen, though, as Joe, very reluctantly, did fire the Legends GM at the insistence of Ricardo Richardson, the newly hired Assistant GM, when Ricardo was able to make it undeniably clear to Joe that the current GM was not performing in a way that was beneficial to the team.

[Fells]

I wonder where ABA 0'Chichester is in all of this.....I would have thought he would have spouted off by now.