ASK THE CEO

Fill out the form below to ask our CEO, Joe Newman, a question:

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“Mr. Newman. You keep making such a big deal about the diversity in the ABA. Why is that so important? What does it matter who owns a team?”

Answer: GW. Thank you for the questions. I didn’t know I was “making such a big deal” about the diversity in the ABA. But the fact is that it is something we are very proud of. Exclusion because of race had been a part of sports ownership for many years. Only recently have leagues like the NBA, NFL, MLB and others opened ownership opportunities to minorities and that still represents only a very small percentage of ownership. And many of the owners/part owners like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Jay Z, Usher and others get the opportunity because of the fame and money. But, at least it has opened up.

Diversity of ownership was one of our primary goals. Today, over 70% of the ABA teams are owned by African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women. That is a big deal. There’s another professional sports league that built itself recruiting “white owned” ABA teams (if you can believe it) and there’s a sports website that is filled with bloggers who constantly attack the ABA with racist undertones. We find both the league and the website and its bloggers to be repulsive. That is a big deal. We think the subject is an important one. We think diversity is important. And we think it does matter who owns a team.

“Mr. Newman. I see that your expansion is very big again this year. When are you planning to stop adding teams for next season? Seems like we have a dozen teams in Texas.”

Answer: Thanks for the question. You are correct; we do have record setting expansion for next season.
The ABA League Meeting is in Indianapolis on Friday, June 11th. At the meeting, we will present the final divisions and all of the expansion teams. Several teams have not yet been announced so we will be adding to what is currently being shown on the ABA website, including additional teams in the Southwest Division.
And we’ve already added three teams for the 2011 season.

At the meeting, we will look at the progress that all of the teams scheduled to begin this December are making, and if they or we decide that they are not ready to start and complete the season, we could move a few teams to 2011. The ABA is the fastest growing professional sports league in history because it is easier to own and operate an ABA team than any other. And when the ABA business model is followed, it can be great fun and very profitable. And yes, you will probably have a dozen teams in the SW Divison this year. The variety should be great.

“Mr. Newman. Have you read the blogs on Our Sports Central about the Black America Historical Museum? What do you have to say about them?”

Answer: Kenneth. Thank you for the question. I’ve received many emails and calls about the comments being made on Our Sports Central about the museum. I understand that many (not sure if all) of them are very negative. I do not log onto OSC because the overall attitude of the website is very anti-ABA and virtually any and everything we do is ridiculed by a small group of meanspirited bloggers (cyber bullies) who hide behind anonymous email addresses, some of whom are employed by a competitive league.

The Black America Historical Museum is not about me. It is not about the ABA. It is about creating something very positive that celebrates the great contributions made by African-Americans in the past, the present and the future to the arts, religion, politics, sports, culture, education, healthcare, music, business and other things. It will also celebrate the great contributions of non-African Americans who helped champion the cause of inclusion, civil rights, non-discrimination like the Kennedys, Branch Rickey, and others. How anyone can find anything negative about this, I do not know.

And anyone who knows me knows that thiis not something new or unusual for me to be involved with. My life has been one of support for equality and I have been heavily involved in minority causes for over 40 years; my walls are full of plaques and awards recognizing my firm commitment to non-discrimination and inclusion. It is no fluke that the ABA is the most diversified professional sports league in history; it was designed that way. And of the thousands of African-Americans I know and have interfaced with, I know of NONE who feel that I have exploited them or taken advantage of them or done anything to gain personally or professionally from the efforts. Bottom line, Kenneth, the bloggers on OSC should be ashamed of themselves. From what I understand, the blogs are Racism 101 and Paul Reeth, the owner of OSC should be ashamed to have them posted on his website. And, finally, as you can see, I have forwarded a copy of this to Paul Reeth at OSC.

I doubt that he will post it. Thanks for the question.

“Mr. Newman. With the announcement of the new ABA team in Indianapolis – and all of the controversy relating to the CIB and the Indiana Pacers – do you have any opinions on this subject?

Answer: Larry, this is really a good question, a tough question. First, there is no doubt that we want the Indiana Pacers to stay in Indianapolis and to be successful. The Indianapolis DRIVE will provide area players with a chance to play professional basketball and give fans a chance to watch exciting games at affordable prices. Tim Hicks’ team can certainly co-exist with the Indiana Pacers. The question is, “should the city of Indianapolis pay $15,000,000 a year to keep the Pacers here?” The Pacers’ ownership group just offered $3.2 billion dollars for a bankrupt shopping center corporation (turned down). The Indianapolis Public School system has had to close special ed, sports/art/culture programs, and layoff teachers and adminstrators because of a shortfall in revenue and it looked like Indianapolis might have to close six public libraries because of the shortfall of revenue. Having the Indiana Pacers here means a lot to the community in the form of additional revenues and prestige, no doubt about it. The positive economic impact to the community is tremendous. But, should the city be forced to commit to $150,000,000 to keep a private business here? I don’t think so. I believe that there must be a compromise somewhere. If the Pacers are losing so much money (and they are), perhaps they should look at the entire Pacer operation and make changes there to reduce overhead by the $15,000,000 per year they are asking for. I don’t have the answer. Again, we don’t want to lose the Pacers. A good start might be trimming payroll by $15 million dollars.

When you look at the payroll of the Kansas City Royals or Minnesota Twins or Tampa Bay Rays vs the payrolls of the NY Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, or Boston Red Sox, you see a difference in tens of millions of dollars and yet the Twins and Rays are competitive. Perhaps that might be part of the answer.

I hope this answers your question and I hope you attend some Indianapolis DRIVE games.

ould you be willing to accept teams from the xxx league into the ABA? And second, is there any truth to the rumor that several xxx teams will be in the ABA next season?

Answer: LK. Thank you for the email and questions. You are not the only person who has asked these questions this week. Not sure where this is all coming from. I’ll answer the second question first. It is the firm policy that the ABA does not recruit teams from other leagues. If teams from other leagues are interested in the ABA, they must contact the ABA first. There are no exceptions. There are other leagues that do not have this policy and regularly recruit ABA teams. Like you, I have heard the rumor about teams from xxx coming to the ABA next season. I cannot comment on rumors. OK? As to whether we would be willing to accept teams from the xxx league into the ABA, there are four teams in the league you mentioned that would be acceptable if they met ABA requirements; the remainder of the teams would not be acceptable to the ABA under any circumstances with the reasons being stated in previous Ask the CEO questions.

LK (and others). Please understand that the US is the world’s greatest democracy and the backbone of capitalism is the free enterprise system. As I have stated many times, competition is a vital component to the free enterprise system. The competition between McDonalds and Burger King, between Lowes and Home Depot, between Wal Mart and Target, between Pepsi and Coke, between CBS and NBC, between
Verizon and T-Mobile, between Century 21 and ReMax, etc is very healthy and vital to our economy. Having multiple basketball leagues is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. And it makes everyone work harder and smarter and provide more to players and coaches and fans. The fact that xxx has targeted the ABA and has been so abusive is very ugly and wrong and they will have to deal with that themselves. Perhaps one day they will wake up and do some introspection as opposed to all of the negativity that has been created. The ABA will continue to try to provide the best quality sports and entertainment at affordable prices. Based on our growth, it is obvious that the ABA has much to offer. We enjoy and appreciate good competition. I hope this answers these questions.

“As long as you brought up the meanspirited blogs, do you know who is doing them and why they are doing them?”

Answer: Robert. Thank you for the email. Your response and questions were very quick. First, there are not that many detractors. Many of the blogs are done by the same people using multiple anonymous email addresses; we’ve traced them back to employees of other leagues, former ABA team owners who were suspended for reasons of character, the owner of a sports website and a couple of attorneys of questionable ethics. The nasty blogs are not fans as presented but primarily people with an agenda. As to why they do them, it is hard to see inside their minds. The definition for jealous is a sense of discontent or jealousy about a desire for another’s advantages, possesions, etc. and the definition for envy is resentful and envious of someone’s attainments. It could be jealousy and envy. The motive of some of the bloggers is to use the materials in an attempt to recruit ABA teams to their leagues by badmouthing the. ABA.

Professional basketball should be about character, ethics, morality, sportsmanship, honor, decency, concepts these bloggers do not understand. We do.

As written previously, the ABA is not perfect. And criticism is welcomed and oftimes deserved. We want to be better. No company, no organization is devoid of problems – especially not in these difficult economic times. But there should be some restraint, some sense of fair play, some sense of decency – and these bloggers don’t seem to get it. We do not respond to them. We do feel sorry for these cyber bullies as we find their obsession with the ABA to be pathetic and cowardly. And as you know, “Bullies are Cowards.”
Hope this answers your question.

How do you feel about the negative blogs that are being posted on some websites about the ABA?

Answer: Wow, what a question. How do you think I feel about them? Not good. Some of them are pretty meanspirited and very nasty indeed. They’re written by a small group of people who have nothing better to do I guess. There’s a term that describes this type of activitity – cyber bullies – and they’re really not any different from the bullies that have infested our schools. And because they hide behind anonymous email addresses, you could say they are basically cowards.

The ABA is not perfect. Criticism is good. We are always trying to improve. But the ABA is the largest professional sports league in the country, a league with the most diversified ownership group in sports history. We have made inclusion a mission as no other league before us. The ABA gives hundreds of players and coaches and referees a chance to do what they love to do – play, coach and ref at the professional level – and it gives fans a chance to see great basketball at affordable prices. Our teams give so much to their communities in mentorship, leadership and money. And now, with ABA Global, we’re helping to create a new internatiional bond through basketball. These are good things.

This is America. There is freedom of speech. So, while we don’t like the meanspirited, angry, bitter blogs, there’s not too much we can do about them other than to feel sorry for the people who write them.

“I wanted to know does the ABA have open tryouts, and if you do, may I have that information please?

Answer: Thanks for the question T. This is one of the most frequently asked questions via phone and email and the timing is right to answer it as many of our teams are scheduling their first tryouts now. The primary objective of ABA teams is to find good players that have played within the area where the team is located – in high school or college – or if they played in college elsewhere, have returned to their home state. Attendance is increased greatly when there are a lot of home area players on the team. Many of the tryouts are posted on the ABA website and on the teams’s website – and are also announced in local newspapers and on the local radio stations. If there is a team of specific interest to you, the best thing to do is to call that team and ask specifically when they will be holding tryouts. We recommend that a team holds a spring and summer tryout – and then, if they need to fill out a roster, possibly a final fall tryout looking for one or two players that will help make them competitive.

What we have found is that there are thousands of really great players in the US and internationally. With only 300+ seats on NBA teams available, there is a myth that the best players are in the NBA or NBA Development League. Not so. We have challenged both to dispel that myth; have not had a response. But if you’ve seen ABA games and the extraordinary talent the league has, you know you are seeing great players competing for all of the right reasons – the love of competitition, the love of the game – and they are good.
And you get to see them at affordable prices. And that’s why so many ABA players get lucrative international contracts following the season – and why so many international players from ABA Global are being added to ABA teams.
Good luck to you.

What is the objective of ABA Global and how will it affect the ABA teams in the US?

Answer: Roger, thanks for the question. We will be coming out with a series of announcements shortly about all of the exciting initiatives of ABA Global so we do not want to scoop ourselves too much. I’ll give you a brief overview however. International teams will be coming to the US to play a series of games with ABA teams including the first series that starts at the end of April. There will be a player exchange program that will put international players on many ABA teams throughout the US. And, there will be several international teams playing in the US as part of the regular ABA season similar to what the Beijing Aoshen Olympian has been doing. There are several other initiatives relating the media, apparel, international tours and teams that will also be announced. ABA Global will affect the ABA teams in the US very positively and provide fans domestically and worldwide with an opportunity to experience the ABA’s exciting brand of professional basketball with the addition of great international players. Please check the ABA website regularly for the announcements.

What is the criteria a prospect needs for ownership of an ABA team? And a follow up. Where do ABA owners come from?

Answer: Gary. Interesting question. Obviously, the first thing is an interest in basketball. You should have a real passion for the sport. But, beyond that the key thing is a good business background. In spite of loving basketball, owning an ABA team is a business. And having a successful business is critical to having a successful basketball organization. There are many things that go into having a successful ABA team including marketing, community relations, press/media relations, merchandising, human resources and leadership skills as examples. If a potential owner can combine his love of basketball with good business skills, owning an ABA team can be great fun and very profitable. The ABA provides a complete business plan, a model that covers every possible element in running an effective sports organization. We believe it is the best program in professional sports and when the ABA Keys to Success are followed, it works. From a financial standpoint, it is easier to own and operate an ABA team than any other as it requires minimum investment, minimum risk, great profit potential.

As for your follow up question, I assume you mean what careers do ABA owners come from rather than location. We have former NBA, NFL, MLB players among our ownership group, attorneys and physicans, clergy, not-for-profit executive directors, businessmen and women, former military and law enforcement people, coaches, former ABA players. The ABA is the most diversified professional sports league ever with 70% of our teams owned by African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women – so we draw from a very wide spectrum. All have two things in common – the interest and passion for basketball and the understanding of good business techniques. Hope this answers your questions. Thanks again.

I see that the ABA is expanding very quickly. Can you tell me what your future expansion plans are?

Answer: Thanks for the question Larry. The ABA is expanding very quickly because we have the best business model in professional sports and it is easier to own and operate an ABA team than any other.
We’d also like to be in Columbia SC and are under discussons with a group there. Our goal is to have 120 teams nationwide in ten different divisiions with ten teams in each division. Right now, we have Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, North Central, South Central, Southwest, SoCal, NoCal and Pacific Northwest, a total of nine. We hope to add Plain States, Desert (also southwest) and Rocky Mountains and are talking with potential team owners including former NFL, NBA and MLB players who are interested in team ownership. We will be announcing a former NBA player/owner and his new team shortly. Other prospects include not-for-profits, attorneys, physicans, coaches, businessmen and women. In anyone is interested, please complete the Reserve a Market form and we will get back to you shortly. You didn’t ask why such large expansion. But I will answer it anyway. There are many outstanding ballplayers that want to play professional basketball and the ABA provides great opportunities for them, plus we like what our owners do for the fans and their communities – quality basketball at affordable prices – and mentorship and leadership for youth in their communities. All good things.

Why did you stop doing the Ask the CEO feature on the ABA website?

Answer: Good question. When I stopped doing it, I received hundreds of emails asking the same thing. Basically, I thought we could cover everything with the news releases. I was wrong. Questions keep coming in every day. So, we thought we would bring back the feature and once again give fans a chance to ask their questions. So, here’s another one to start.

We’ve had three teams in Nashville and all of them have been very good teams. Why do you think they have not been successful?

Answer: Like you Billy, I am puzzled also. Nashville is truly one of the entertainment capitals of the world.

The sports fans there are tremendous as shown by the support for Tennessee Vols basketball and football, the support for the NHL Nashville Predators and certainly high school sports. A great sports city. It is certainly not the city of Nashville or its fans that have caused the lack of success there. Perhaps too much emphasis was put on the quality of the teams there (and they have all very very good), and not enough on the marketing and community involvement. We’ve had three excellent owners there – Tony Bucher/Sally Anthony, Scott Lumley and Tony Chase, people with great backgrounds and successes in their other businesses. We believed all three would be successful with ABA basketball. We know the ABA product is tremendous; we’ve never heard a negative word about the excitement of an ABA game, and the price is always very affordable. We have not given up on Nashville by any means. We believe that with the proper marketing and community involvement, using the ABA Business Model, that Nashville can be a great success. We are looking for the right ownership group. And we are definitely truly sorry that it did not work out for Tony/Sally, Scott or Tony Chase; they really worked hard and provided fabulous teams. If you have a question, please email conniejoenewman@aol.com.