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Silverados plan to stay in McAllen

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:48 am
by bdyer
Had a nice chat with co-owner (now majority owner) Dr. Jordan Maswoswe during the Silverados home finale Sunday. He and the front office staff are actually cautiously optimistic about a second season in the McAllen Convention Center. There was a crazy amount of action going on behind the scenes during this tumultuous season. I'll try to put together some of the story soon, but suffice it to say it took quite an effort to finish the season and the ownership and staff seem eager to improve on all aspects of their team's performance.

BTW - I've been posting for some time under a different screen name, but decided to start using my actual name.

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:36 pm
by Minor League Man
So, did you bring up the D-League's Vipers to him? What did he say?

Of course

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:13 pm
by bdyer
He believes the Silverados can be viable regardless of the status of the Vipers. According to him, most of the sponsors appear willing to stick with the team and that there is some untapped potential in the partnership with the Convention Center. There has been some evidence of the latter, since the CC worked with the team to improve the initially unwieldy arena configuration that unnecessarily took up both exhibit hall spaces to a more intimate set up in one hall that can still hold 2500. Attendance has been varying wildly for both valley teams (I can verify that) -- they need to look back and see what worked and what did not. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but the team is only beginning to operate under the direction of the formerly silent partner Maswoswe. As always it will be interesting to see what happens.

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:05 pm
by Aaronhere
[quote=""bdyer""]He believes the Silverados can be viable regardless of the status of the Vipers. According to him, most of the sponsors appear willing to stick with the team and that there is some untapped potential in the partnership with the Convention Center. There has been some evidence of the latter, since the CC worked with the team to improve the initially unwieldy arena configuration that unnecessarily took up both exhibit hall spaces to a more intimate set up in one hall that can still hold 2500. Attendance has been varying wildly for both valley teams (I can verify that) -- they need to look back and see what worked and what did not. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but the team is only beginning to operate under the direction of the formerly silent partner Maswoswe. As always it will be interesting to see what happens.[/quote]

I think there is potential here, but I would love to see a few more teams in that region to build a nice rivalry with Oklahoma and the Silverados....Any ideas? El Paso? Beaumont? Shreveport? Arkansas (Little Rock)? Wichita? Topeka?

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:28 pm
by Pounder
Corpus Christi?

How 'bout a bit of a novel idea: Brownsville. Set up a real bloodbath rivalry.

Mexico?

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:37 pm
by panchess
I'll agree that Ricardo's international expansion ideas are a bit off the wall, but having a team in Mexico not far from RGV (and maybe Brownsville, another area that fits the CBA profile and the D-League is extremely unlikely to touch) would be a good idea if the right person could be found to run it.

Brownsville is an hour from McAllen, just far enough for a good rivalry without undercutting the market. When Albany and Glens Falls were in the AHL together, both teams drew reasonably well and the games against each other were nasty sellouts.

If the rumored merger with the PBL comes through, there would be a team in Arkansas, but that isn't really that close. It's like 10 hours to Lawton from RGV by car, don't forget.

I wonder if any of the former USBL teams (particularly Oklahoma, which was a solid franchise and geographically fits this profile) could be brought in as well.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:38 am
by bdyer
[quote=""Aaronhere""]I think there is potential here, but I would love to see a few more teams in that region to build a nice rivalry with Oklahoma and the Silverados....Any ideas? El Paso? Beaumont? Shreveport? Arkansas (Little Rock)? Wichita? Topeka?[/quote]Beaumont and Shreveport would be the best choices if one was trying to group the team geographically. El Paso is pretty easy to get to by air and has a couple of potential venues that might be priced right -- though there is always the shadow of UTEP to deal with.
Corpus Christi?
That would be ideal -- more specifically up I-37 a bit in Robstown, which has a couple of venues that could work well and whose operators seem eager to fill dates.
How 'bout a bit of a novel idea: Brownsville. Set up a real bloodbath rivalry.
I'd personally love that, but I don't think Brownsville has a proper venue, though I could be wrong since they have built all kinds of crap since I lived there. UT Brownsville currently has no basketball program -- I would have to check if a new gym or similar space is in their master expansion plan.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:51 am
by jjbballfan
what about wichita falls texas? they had a CBA team when the CBA was great and they were represented well.....

maybe

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:11 am
by bdyer
I think Wichita Falls a little too close to Lawton which doesn't have the benefit of other population centers to draw from like Brownsville would in a rivalry with the Silverados.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:18 am
by OKCAVS67
Wichita Falls would be ideal, they have an Air Force base there plus a D-II college, Midwestern State Univeristy.

The Dallas Cowboys had used their facilities for a couple of years.

They have a nice arena - Kay Yeager that is used for a Junior Hockey team.
They even had a Indoor Football team once.

One of the Cavs owners said they were looking at trying to get a team there so they get an Army vs. Air Force rivalry thing going.