The state of minor league basketball

by Dennis Justice
October 12, 2006 - International Basketball League (IBL)

You need a program just to keep up with all the league changes and foldings of minor league basketball teams this offseason. For purposes of avoiding confusion, we won't go over the American Basketball Association as mentioning this league makes me break out in hives and I'm out of Benodryl.

It seems the trend for minor league basketball is to follow the mad switching of leagues that is plaguing minor league hockey and especially indoor/arena football. For the life of me, I don't understand how in the long run this is helping anyone.

The D-League really shouldn't be pulling any other teams from any other league, unless they were straight out merging or buying out the Continental Basketball Association. Of course, they made the commitment of cash to buy themselves in the market no matter the cost so they can get away with it. As far as developing players, they are doing exactly what they are wanting to do, so they get props there. Every NBA fan has a right to expect they should have a D-League team for each NBA city. They will finally get their own all-star game at the NBA All-Star Weekend to which I say, "Thank God."

However, the D-League plays almost the exact same NBA game, with the exact same number of time outs and other ways they elongate the game and make it boring to watch. I'll say the same thing I've been saying for years: The D-League should have started playing in high school or small college gyms until they built up crowds to justify playing in arenas. It's not like they are going to lose more money doing it, and frankly, fans would be more likely to get involved in games in more intimate venues.

The famed artist Meat Loaf played to huge crowds, crashed, and basically built his way back literally by playing small clubs, working up to small arenas, and eventually got back on top. David Stern should reevaluate how he's approaching this. Is it going to kill him to admit the approach is wrong and look at the smaller venues in the cities the D-League plays?

Exactly how many excitable crowds has anyone ever seen in a D-League game? I followed the Asheville Altitude for four years, and even with two national titles the answer for me is zero. It would not be an understatement to say I was the loudest fan there most nights. Yes, at times the crowd was quite loud, but I'm talking a general, excitable crowd. To me, half the fun of a sporting event is the crowd. To be fair, this is a problem for almost every league. Fans are more to blame as they ultimately should decide to get more involved. Something needs to wake them up. It isn't louder music, or playing music all the time at all. For the D-League, it's very simple, play in smaller venues, play music at a reasonable decibel and only during breaks and critical times of the game, and do things to speed up the game.

The video of the Elkhart Express team found on International Basketball League's website (www.iblhoopsonline.com) was very encouraging. A high school gym of easily 3,000 and the crowd was shown at various times very much into the action. That's what we need to see nationwide. If fans started seeing videos of this in other cities, it might dawn on them, "Hey, it's okay, make a little racket."

The International Basketball League has been quiet on message boards this year, but they steadily have grown to at least a solid status. Note I did not say great status, there were some no-show games this year and that cannot be accepted by ticket-paying fans. On the whole, they do appear to be addressing those issues.

They had the highest scoring of the minor leagues, and while they have a 22 second shot clock, their leadership has stated that is not the primary reason for the higher scores. Two critical rule changes do more to speed up the game and bring the flow back into the game. One, only one timeout per quarter, no carryovers. Two, immediate restarts. No more coddling of whiny coaches and players. This is has done a lot to bring offense back and games are usually in the 100's and under 2 hours. (David Stern take note, as Stern said officials are going to crack down on whining of NBA players. I am certainly for it, seeing is believing, but doing immediate restarts in the NBA would kill 99% of whining in a New York minute.)

Right now, the biggest problem I see is the insane number of teams that are bolting for other leagues. While the D-League can get away with it, other leagues from the CBA, USBL, IBL, WBA, and the upstart United Basketball League are fighting for other league's teams and defending their league from raiders. To me, this is upsetting as a fan because how in the world does inheriting other headaches helping your product? "Ooh, we have this team from this troubled league so we're legit." If a team was willing to leave a league, the problem was from the league and/or the team. That never seems to occur to anyone.

The obvious comparison is indoor/arena football. The "American Indoor Football League" curiously changed its name to the "American Indoor Football Association," claiming the AIFL was dead. I'm sure the summary judgment against the AIFL over the whole Carolina Ghostriders debacle had a lot to do with it. To me it's just rearranging chairs on the Titanic as Andrew Haines, who founded the AIFL, is allowed to be involved with this "new" league. Even the most casual fan won't buy this charade. Indeed, the World Indoor Football League basically is marketing as the "solid" teams that left the AIFL who won't associate with the bad apples that screwed up last season. The usual "we're solid, they weren't" line. Frankly, it's understandable when you have little choice, but it's not a sign of strength in itself. Proving arena leases, solid marketing plans, etc., speaks volumes on that, and to the WIFL's credit, they have done so and in short order. Maybe they'll buck the trend. But they frankly should look for new markets from here on out.

Minor league basketball is already way behind the curve on this. The United Basketball League is set to announce within a week. Well, from my experience, if a team isn't nailed down by now with a league, a venue, marketing plan, etc., it's already too late even for next spring. Their primary plan, you guessed it, build off the purging of the IBL's Akron team and try to build from there.

In my development of my own business plan for the 4 Man Basketball Association, I have made the following determinations:

1. I will only have a confederation of regional leagues, unless it really takes off and I can have a national league several years down the road. But "A" level leagues should not be traveling past it's region. If it ever was built up to "A," "AA," "AAA" levels and so forth, they will not play outside their own classification. It isn't worth it.

2. I will not recruit or accept owners or teams from other leagues. They made their bed and they should help that league or find something different to do. We DO need to compete, but not like that. We'd have more frank and open relationships between leagues if we all did this.

3. I will have a sub-league (or a house league) for each minor league team. This increases activity in my gym, revenue, awareness of my minor league team, player pool, etc. Teams will represent local communities and not have stupid names. Frankly, I'm working on a test league next summer on this concept first (and to see if a 4 on 4 pro style game with other interesting rule changes will even work). My plan is to build the house leagues in different cities while I develop the 4MBA. I'm perfectly content to plan five years if necessary.

4. Give credit where due. The idea for starting a 4 Man Basketball Association is from Rob Ryder, who was the basketball coordinator for movies like "Blue Chips" and "White Men Can't Dunk." Most of the rule change ideas are his. He tried to build a league on his own but tried to go national from the start and it didn't work out. The idea of the immediate restart rule and the one time out a quarter is from the IBL. (Maybe I'll give two timeouts in the 4th period.)

5. I won't associate with people in minor league sports who have embarrassed other cities. Period. They know who they are. I'll be very careful on who I allow in my league and have absolute ability to kick the bad apples out at anytime.

6. My websites will be updated at the end of each game day. Even if it's just scores, fans at least need to know what's going on. Not having updated websites hurts every minor basketball league not named the "D-League." It's frankly embarrassing. I'd even expel teams who don't give me information every game night. Time to crack down on this.

7. I will not play music that deafens the fans and all game long. Only at breaks and at critical times in the game. Fans should be the ones generating most of the noise. Can I get an "Amen?"

8. NO FREEBIES...EVER! I don't mean special discount rates, and I don't mean a kid's day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I mean giving out free tickets to pad the attendance figures. If you would play in smaller venues you wouldn't have so many empty seats to begin with. Also, when people know there are free tickets around, why do they need to buy any? Unless there's a specific reason for a comp ticket don't give one.

9. Report the honest attendance. If 5 PAID and show up, report 5 showed up, if 500 PAID and show up, report 500 showed up, if 5,000 paid and show up, call the National Guard.

I don't mind if you are not interested in 4 Man Basketball. I don't even mind if you think I'm insane. These are things that should be done nationwide for minor league basketball in general.

Wouldn't it make more sense to acknowledge that one league has a city and just focus on building teams in other nearby cities? Or simply find a way to merge leagues? Minor league basketball will never grow to the level of minor league baseball if we don't start finding ways of building solid leagues in smaller markets instead of pillaging off each other. It would be nice if these leagues could form a loose confederation, pick the areas they are allowed to have teams, otherwise they can market and have whatever rule variations they want. Baseball found a way to do it and there has been little movement and real stability for decades. But, as with indoor football, just like the Tears For Fears song, "Everybody wants to rule the world..."

Get a grip. It's MINOR league basketball. If you're not the D-League, or even the CBA, you have no claim to a "national" league. It costs too much, you won't make enough revenue to be successful, you'll not be as careful in who you allow in your league, and you'll only recruit the same pillaging that has hurt this market to begin with. It's time for these leagues to come to some understanding that regional is the way to go.

We should be working on building a larger pie for all instead of stealing the stale crumbs of what's left.

Dennis Justice runs wncsport.com, a regional sports website. He is the Founder and Commissioner of the 4 Man Basketball Association, and President of the Western North Carolina Sports Alliance. For more information of the 4MBA, visit www.4mba.net.

International Basketball League Stories from October 12, 2006

• The state of minor league basketball - OSC Original by Dennis Justice

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.