ABA introduces prize money play
December 29, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA) News Release
Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) today announced that it will be providing prize money for selected regular season games as an added incentive for the players and to make individual games even more exciting. According to Joe Newman, ABA CEO, "The idea came from Dick Tinkham, co-founder of the ABA and one of the co-founders of the original ABA. We were sitting at McDonalds one day and Dick mentioned the excitement of professional golf tournaments that provide prize money for each match as well as NASCAR, Formula One and IRL races that provide prize money for each race." Dick said, "Wouldn't it be interesting to award Prize Money for individual games during the season?" I said, "Great idea. Why not? The winners can get X and the losers of the game Y. Let's try it out."
The ABA will select four games in January and designate them as PRIZE MONEY PLAY games. Each player and coach on the winning team will be awarded a cash bonus; each player and coach on the losing team will be awarded a smaller cash bonus. "We will select games with two evenly matched teams to test the concept and the games will be announced in advance," added Newman. "If this works, it will be our goal to have additional PRIZE MONEY PLAY games in Feburary with a target of every game in 2007 as PRIZE MONEY PLAY games. Afterall, we are the ABA - where innovation in sports has found a home."
For more information, visit www.abalive.com.
Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.
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