All it takes is $40 and a dream.

[Mac the Knife]

Well, as team President of Business Operations, I guess the behind-the-scenes operational, get the ball rolling-type guy of this is me. Can I get a promotion to Chief Operating Officer?

First off, Lee - let's wait on the web site until we see what Yzer comes up with. The type of site he put together for my organization will be more than suitable for our purposes: it's flexible, easily maintained with the right software, versatile, and it looks better than what 90% of the current ABA has right now.

Once the web presence is in place we can begin to construct a battle plan for getting this done. There's no need to go bat crazy in an effort to launch a team for 2008-09, only to see it never materialize. If we need a year to do it right, let's take it. No need to get up with "money men" or anything of the sort yet - practical business people will laugh our asses off the planet without going to them sans a comprehensive game (business) plan.

In the meantime, we keep fundraising here through the CCSLC - but through the CCSLC ONLY. Lee, keep accruate records of who contributes what; it'll ultimately go toward whatever arrangement we put in place for the team. In the meantime, I'm going to try and formulate a business plan to serve as a blueprint for everything from a business perspective - that way everyone's on the same page, and those who want to be part of the operational perspective of this know what they're getting into.

One piece of research you can do for me Lee is to find out if the ABA has a salary cap minimum/maximum, and what those figures (if they exist) may be. I have an idea with respect to player salaries that will be revolutionary (and sensible), even by ABA's whacked-out standards.

[Ez Street]

No, the first step is getting the MONEY. We can get the franchise anytime; I'm sure Joe will take the money whenever it's offered.

The ultimate goal shouldn't be to just own a team, but for that team to play. Anything else is pissing money down a hole. Like I've said, anything worth doing is worth doing seriously.

Can I put my "President of Business Operations" (or whatever spiffy title you want me to use) hat on here? Before we all start getting plane tickets to Vancouver, Rochester or wherever the hell this team's going, we need to actually discuss a few things... like how this is going to be structured, who's going to be in charge of what, where (if we get the franchise) it will ultimately play, who's going to handle gameday ops, web site ops, corporate sponsorship ops, ticket sales, and a whole boatload of other things.

Let's not but the cart before Sarah Jessica Parker, people.

Once the site is live, we'll set up dedicated forums. This will be a reality, no matter how much business sense you insist on putting into this.

And Mac, you're right. We do need to sit down with a plan, and quite frankly, since I have little to no experience in anything like this, I need those with some kind of business acumen on my side. I also need those with money on my side, so Streets, keep your contact in the chafing dish, ready to go.

If need be, I could be able to call in a favor from the owner of the company I worked for back in Winnipeg; he was the owner of the old Winnipeg Cyclone (IBA), he might have some advice as well.

Well, my contact is a last ditch, we are in need of capital type thing. Say we have $20,000 but cannot find a way to have enough to cover operating expenses....then I might see if "said" individual is interested.

I don't want to go that route. But it could be an option. I shouldn't even talk about it

[Mac the Knife]

Okay, second off - forget the $20,000 figure. $20,000 is the price of the movie ticket. There's still popcorn, a drink and a box of Snowcaps to buy once you're in the theatre, folks.

[Ez Street]

Okay, second off - forget the $20,000 figure. $20,000 is the price of the movie ticket. There's still popcorn, a drink and a box of Snowcaps to buy once you're in the theatre, folks.

That's my point.

But we can get creative on the other expenses, selling advertisement and such. We can almost sneak in the drink, popcorn and box of snowcaps purchased at Walgreens.

To borrow your analogy.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Reality makes things less fun.

So long as I'm Executive VP (and that can be amended to Executive VP of Keeping it Real), I'm happy.

[Ez Street]

Well, it does make it less fun, but if the right steps are taken, this can still be fun and worth it.

[Ez Street]

This is from: http://www.shunpiking.com/ol0405/0405-SR-AW-theabaisfull.htm

"The salary cap for the ABA is $120,000 divided by 12 (about $10,000 per player)," Newman said. "The ABA is a platform for players. International teams offer the players from $10,000 to $20,000 per month and we encourage their taking advantage of the larger contracts. We do not want to stop any young man from his potential. This is not a bad thing."

Yeah, $20,000 is just a piss in the bucket compared to the operating costs.

[Island_Style]

This is from: http://www.shunpiking.com/ol0405/0405-SR-AW-theabaisfull.htm

"The salary cap for the ABA is $120,000 divided by 12 (about $10,000 per player)," Newman said. "The ABA is a platform for players. International teams offer the players from $10,000 to $20,000 per month and we encourage their taking advantage of the larger contracts. We do not want to stop any young man from his potential. This is not a bad thing."

Yeah, $20,000 is just a piss in the bucket compared to the operating costs.

I don't mean to be Johnny Downer but this is not going to happen. Unless someone here has alot of money to throw around this shouldn't even be stuck up.

[rmackman]

Gentlemen, and the odd lady.

Tonight is a night that will live in ecstasy infamy. Tonight is the night that I announce my intentions to purchase a franchise in the American Basketball Association.

As we all know, any with $20 grand can buy a team. Problem is, this doesn't have $20 grand. This is where the board comes in.

As was pointed out by my close, personal friend DGNow (whose real name escapes me at the moment), 500 boardmembers each contributing $40 each equals $20,000. Of course, to cover Paypal fees, I'd probably need to get more like 510 members to contribute, that or hit up my dad or mother in law, but whatever. The point it, this is a dream that can be fulfilled. Not just for me, not just for the tax writeoff, but for all of us.

I've set up a paypal account for the express purpose of collecting the funds. If this is a pipe dream and all goes nowhere, then any money collected will be cheerfully refunded, less a 20% restocking fee. My ultimate goal in all of this is to own (or co-own) a team which, in a single ABA season, will play in every logical division from the Pacific Northwest (we'll likely be based in Vancouver or a suburb of Vancouver, since this is my idea) to as far southeast as we can go.

Please note that although I am generally a merrymaker, this isn't necessarily a joke. I'm dead serious about this ABA thing, and even if it goes nowhere past the franchise application stage, at the very least, we can all sit back and say that, at some point in our lives, we owned a pro sports team, even if it WAS in the ABA.

To contribute, please send $40 (or, as in my close, personal friend DGNow's case, a 10% deposit on $40) to aba.dreams@gmail.com, via Paypal.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread. I don't have it all worked out yet, but I'm sure that somewhere between now and $20,000, we'll get it all sussed out.

Once I get my MBA this August I could run your team for you.

[Lee.]

This is from: http://www.shunpiking.com/ol0405/0405-SR-AW-theabaisfull.htm

"The salary cap for the ABA is $120,000 divided by 12 (about $10,000 per player)," Newman said. "The ABA is a platform for players. International teams offer the players from $10,000 to $20,000 per month and we encourage their taking advantage of the larger contracts. We do not want to stop any young man from his potential. This is not a bad thing."

Yeah, $20,000 is just a piss in the bucket compared to the operating costs.

The real question is, can we sell contracts to teams in other leagues? If we bring a player along, and he gets an offer elsewhere, can we make money on the contract?

And Island, with that kind of attitude, you'll never get far in the sports entertainment field.

[Mac the Knife]

Okay. I've done a VERY preliminary look at a few things, and there are some problems:

First, the ABA currently doesn't have any teams within reasonable driving distance (200 miles) of Vancouver. That'd be good for getting a franchise, since I know from a prior fling with the ABA a friend of mine was considering that they have a 75-mile operational radius in which no other team can operate. However, it'd be nothing short of horrible to put a team there, as travel costs would absolutely eat whatever finances you had alive in a matter of months. Virtually all the ABA's operating franchises out west are in California, a situation that I don't see changing anytime soon.

Second, British Columbia appears to be unnecessarily complicated a place to set up a corporate entity, business or non-profit. They're also expensive, at least by U.S. standards, to set up.

With these things in mind, as much as I'd like to see Lee's dream come true in Vancouver, the team would drown in a sea of red ink really, really quickly no matter how good the business plan is. Another site - one within a reasonable distance from existing ABA teams - would be preferable. The ability to incorporate within the U.S. is also preferable based on what I've seen with respect to British Columbia incorporation procedures.

[Mac the Knife]

This is from: http://www.shunpiking.com/ol0405/0405-SR-AW-theabaisfull.htm

"The salary cap for the ABA is $120,000 divided by 12 (about $10,000 per player)," Newman said. "The ABA is a platform for players. International teams offer the players from $10,000 to $20,000 per month and we encourage their taking advantage of the larger contracts. We do not want to stop any young man from his potential. This is not a bad thing."

Yeah, $20,000 is just a piss in the bucket compared to the operating costs.

My real question isn't if there's a cap so much as if there's a floor - a minimum salary that the team would have to pay. If not, my concept holds.

[Drew22]

Somewhere with a big airport that makes it easy to fly out of.

[Mac the Knife]

Somewhere with a big airport that makes it easy to fly out of.

Only if you know some guy with a 20-seat puddle jumper he's willing to let you fly you around in free of charge. The ABA is a bus league, at best.

[Drew22]

Somewhere with a big airport that makes it easy to fly out of.

Only if you know some guy with a 20-seat puddle jumper he's willing to let you fly you around in free of charge. The ABA is a bus league, at best.

True. Forgot about that.

[Ez Street]

Hmmmm, can I be head of the location committee?

[Lee.]

Somewhere with a big airport that makes it easy to fly out of.

With the ABA, I'd be much more concerned with access to a 4-lane highway.

As much as I'd like to see the team here, if it's easier to set up elsewhere, so be it. What are the prospects of something in, say, Macon Georgia? Or perhaps a smaller centre like Tallahassee or Ocala, FL?

Streets, Topeka may be, again, too far from any other ABA markets to be viable; the options are (seemingly) New England, Southern California, or somewhere in the South East.

[Ez Street]

Oh Topeka wouldn't support this :censored: anyways, that's not my goal.

I just like finding suitable places....I'll bust out a map later and we can go house hunting!

[Mac the Knife]

Let's see... Atlanta, the Bahamas (Bahamas?), Boston, Delaware, Georgia, Jersey... Macon's probably out, but the mid-Atlantic region (say, from DC to Charleston, SC) could work.

[Drew22]

Somewhere with a big airport that makes it easy to fly out of.

With the ABA, I'd be much more concerned with access to a 4-lane highway.

As much as I'd like to see the team here, if it's easier to set up elsewhere, so be it. What are the prospects of something in, say, Macon Georgia? Or perhaps a smaller centre like Tallahassee or Ocala, FL?

Streets, Topeka may be, again, too far from any other ABA markets to be viable; the options are (seemingly) New England, Southern California, or somewhere in the South East.

The Georgia Gwizzlies are in Macon. Maybe Jacksonville or Savannah?