ABA to return to Nashville in 2007

June 15, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA) News Release


Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) announced today that the ABA would return to Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. According to Joe Newman, ABA CEO, "It was inevitable that we would be back; Nashville was one of the best ABA cities and it was sad to have had to take the hiatus. But, those things happen. Tennessee is a great basketball state and we know that the fans of Nashville are ready for the return."

The team will be owned and operated by SukiSports and the Raitari family, the owners of the 2006 expansion Knoxville Noise. CEO Gavin Raitari said, "I think Nashville is a great city for professional sports and the time for the ABA to return to Nashville is right. We believe that we can build a great rivalry between the cities of Knoxville and Nashville. Hopefully we can generate as much excitement as Vanderbuilt versus the University of Tennessee.

Ashley Raiteri, President of Suki Sports added, "Our success in building a team and staff with the great support from Knoxville media and Knoxville fans made us decide to lock up Nashville now. We have always planned to have several teams in the Tennessee and surrounding area and this is just the first step at expanding SukiSports."

"There are a lot of good basketball players in the Nashville area and it won't be hard to field a competitive team," stated Sterling Henton, Director of Basketball for the Knoxville Noise. Sterling was impressed with the talent that showed up for our first Knoxville Noise tryouts. He concluded, "Look for Nashville talent to be just as good if not better; after all, a lot of Vols come from that area."

For more information, email Gavin Raiteri at gavin@sukisports.com or 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.



American Basketball Association Stories from June 15, 2006


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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