OwnMyTeam Blog

The United States Basketball League is a summer league that has suspended operations for the past 2008 summer season. It was a great league for players coming back from Europe or playing after their winter season ended. The USBL had a draft and they were a pretty legit league. Over the past few years basketball has changed. Several leagues have folded and even the longtime NBA feeder in the CBA was run into the ground. The CBA still exists today but is a shell of its former self. Hopefully they merge with the PBL so their history continues. Ideally if they merge their season could begin in December instead of November or January as is the current case of the two leagues.

The USBL only lists 5 teams on their website, and one of those teams has already came out and said they no longer wish to continue to own the franchise. That means the league has 4 teams at best but after missing a year of play that is just a guess. Why is the USBL failing and the IBL flurishing? One major problem for the USBL is overall yearly expenses per team. Basically, the IBL teams have figured out how to operate at a much lesser expense. This is credited to the Commissioner’s one flight guarantee and cluster setup. For a expansion team to buy into the league it would cost them (or us) $100,000 just in intial league fees. With the IBL around nobody is going to pay that. The USBL might still have a few teams in Kansas and Oklahoma that might make a great cluster someday. Maybe they should consider expanding in the IBL.

The USBL is taking a page out of our book in trying to create a pipeline of players from outside the USA to their league. Below I will post an article that explains why they are scouting in Korea. I’ve been trying to get our scouting video collection started so that we might start scouting prospects from Europe. Asia and South America are basketball hotbeds that we should look into as well in the future. With all the league fees I’m not sure how a USBL team could afford to fly a player over and provide housing as well. The IBL teams with a strong budget could do this, but that is only because of a solid fanbase and low expenses.

I will focus exactly on how we can create a pipeline from Europe (and South American/Asia) to our IBL team and possible future teams in a post soon to come. For our first year in operation we likely will be counting on quality game tape to scout the various leagues, but in future years we could possibly send someone out to scout the players we are interested in. The USBL actually hired a scout to spend the entire winter season scouting the Korean Basketball League. No offense, but that doesn’t sound very efficient. At OMT, we’ve got a lot of leagues to watch as April will roll around in no time.

Click here to read about the USBL’s scouting in South Korea.

We are pleased to announce that game tape can now be uploaded directly to your private member forums. By joining OMT you can upload your favorite player’s video to our forums which is the first step to getting a player signed by our organization. Just like the fantasy basketball draft OMT members sign the players they want to sign. There are no specific requirements or criteria other than that the members believe the player would be a good fit for our organization.

Currently OMT is looking for game tape of several leagues in Europe. At the top of our list is game tape from last season in Vardar, Macedonia. We also are interested in game tape from several other leagues, because our season starts when many European leagues are finishing. For players, agents, and members interested in learning more about OMT and the IBL season please click here. Our season is set to kick off the first week of May. Maybe your favorite player will be in uniform? It is only possible if YOU make it possible. Join OMT and upload video today.

About the IBL

The International Basketball League is a fifth year basketball league featuring two rules that reduce dead time: 1) one timeout per quarter 2) an immediate inbound. The result is an athletic game that is very fun to watch. The IBL scoring average per team in its first three seasons was over 126 pts per game. The IBL also is based on affordability for an owner. IBL owners get very efficient schedules–owners are guaranteed a maximum of one trip that requires air travel. This efficiency of schedule means that once a team is founded, that team will survive and then thrive.The IBL works closely with the USBA to create exposure camps for IBL players. This camp is the first ever camp with guarantees for players; the camp guarantees 20 overseas teams will be present. 10 American teams will be there as well.

The IBL is an exposure league that is designed to do just that. IBL players are exposed to both domestic and international scouts. Top IBL players have gone on to play in the NBA Summer League, NBDL, other minor leagues, and to sign with top teams in Europe. The IBL also has a non-exclusive agency. They represent talent like Darius Pope, Cedric Moodie, Jared Bledsoe, and Blake Walker. Average salaries in the IBL range from $30 to $200, but a select few players make more than this per game. The IBL is a spring/summer league set up so players from Europe can come over after their season is completed. Our IBL season will begin roughly around the 4th of May.

About OwnMyTeam.com

OwnMyTeam is a community of basketball fans that take part in owning and operating a real IBL basketball team. The IBL and OwnMyTeam plan to tip off in early May, 2009. OwnMyTeam will focus its scouting efforts on the minor leagues in the United States as well as top basketball leagues internationally. Our goal is to find talented players with a strong work ethic, character, leadership, sportsmanship, and a focus on team unity. As an OwnMyTeam player you would be expected to stay after games to sign autographs and conduct yourself as a professional on and off the court.

OwnMyTeam also has an opportunity for talented basketball players that aspire to blog. If you have a solid command of the English language we would like to discuss a revenue sharing program with you. To learn more about becoming an OwnMyTeam/IBL player or blogger contact brent@ownmyteam.com. Agents, if you have a client you believe is a good fit for OwnMyTeam, then please contact brent@ownmyteam.com.

Questions about OwnMyTeam are handled at OwnMyTeam.com. Please visit our contact us page to be directed to the right executive member.

Click here to visit OwnMyTeam.com

La Crosse, Wisconsin is a city along the Mississippi River and the southern Minnesota/ Wisconsin Border. La Crosse is a slightly longer drive to Chicago when compared to Dubuque, but it sits on Chicago and Milwaukee’s doorstep as well. Either city is well within driving distance of the entire midwest cluster of teams. Like Dubuque, La Crosse has a regional airport. Flights from La Crosse land in both the Twin Cities and Chicago. The Onalaska and La Crosse Metropolitan areas combine for a total of around 127,000 residents. The community is ideal in size for an IBL basketball team. The Catbirds (of the CBA) played in La Crosse starting in 1985 and basketball finally left La Crosse when Isiah Thomas had finished running the league into the ground in 2001. A study was conducted several years ago to predict fan turnout (ticket sales) for a community based on their population size. The study suggested that La Crosse has a 70% better fan turnout for basketball than other communities the same size.

The Catbirds were coached and run by Flip Saunders who has coached for the Timberwolves and Pistons of the NBA. Several talented players were on the roster including Elliot Perry, Kenny Battle, and Andre Turner. Turner was selected in the 1986 draft by the Los Angeles Lakers and was born in 1964. In the 1990-91 season the “Little General” averaged 5.9 points and 4.4 assists in 70 games for the 76ers. After the NBA, Turner took his game to Spain and still plays as of 2008. Could this 44 year old point guard return to the Catbirds of the IBL this spring?

The Catbirds played in the La Crosse Center which still exists today next to the Mississippi River in downtown La Crosse. The capacity of the arena is 10,000, but how it is currently set up the arena holds 8,000 for basketball. In the picture below you can see the unused space that could be turned into floor seating. For basketball the arena might be able to seat 9,000 plus?

La Crosse has a local low-power TV station (in addition to NBC, Fox, CBS, and ABC) that serves the community. Currently it broadcasts high school sports. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume the IBL and this TV station would make great partners. The community also has several AM and FM stations as well.

Great cities like Dubuque, Coeur d’Alene, and Newberg have been discussed previously, but none of these cities has the rich basketball history that La Crosse has. These cities do support their local amateur teams, and that is why they made the list. However, you know what you get with La Crosse. La Crosse offers the opportunity to play in a big arena. They have past evidence of high ticket sales. Overall, the community was a basketball Mecca in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2001 the community has been trying hard to bring a professional basketball team to La Crosse. A deal died a few years ago to bring the NBDL’s RimRockers. Since then the basketball rumors have gone quiet, but you can be sure it won’t be long before La Crosse has a pro team again.

Is OMT and La Crosse the perfect match? Maybe. After extensive research I’ve identified five communities that I see as best fits for the next IBL franchise. This includes three northwest cluster cities (Newberg, Oregon, Longview, Washington, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho). The best two midwest cluster cities are likely Dubuque, Iowa and La Crosse, Wisconsin. Each city could be the best fit for us, but it all depends on the parameters. If locating close to the IBL offices in Portland becomes the most important issue, then locating in Newberg or Longview would make the most sense. If we have a large budget our first year, then locating in La Crosse might be wise. There are a variety of factors that have to play out for us to know which location is best. Locating an ideal facility and lease is one key component. These issues may eventually rule out some cities. Finding title level sponsors at the $10,000 level is another key component. If those can’t be found, then that would likely rule out a city. La Crosse has a strong history of supporting sponsors and fans in the community.

In what situation would La Crosse be ideal? La Crosse would be ideal for us if we have a sizable IBL budget for the 2009 spring season. Remember, the local community is basketball savvy, so the roster has to be top-notch. We are talking about recruiting the best players from the PBL, NBDL, CBA, ABA, and overseas and signing them to our IBL roster. That would mean having one of the largest player salary budgets as well as playing in the largest arena. La Crosse already has a team name and logo in the Catbirds. I’m not sure if that is available or if we would have to purchase it. La Crosse is kind of like Seattle in that the next team that locates there would be wise to use the name and logo the city identifies with. That means OwnMyTeam wouldn’t get to create a new logo right away, but they would be able to make the 1985 jerseys look modern. The plus side to this is that the merchandise sales would be a lot higher than in other communities. Also, locating in an arena not school related means beer sales.

La Crosse basically has the potiental to be a great minor league city for any minor league basketball program. If OMT decides to locate in La Crosse they better be on their game. That means high quality entertainment at the level of former Catbird greats Flip Saunders and Elliot Perry. Are you up to that challenge?

Elliot Perry

Welcome all new OMT members and perspective members. Together we are going to start an expansion IBL franchise and you are going to run it. These past few days we have been discussing potiental locations for our new team in the member’s forum. Newberg, Coeur D’Alene, and Dubuque are three cities that have been brought up in this blog and in the forums. We look forward to your feedback and viewpoints on several potiental IBL locations. The best location for us will be a city that supports us through sponsorship and ticket sales.

Other recent topics include currently available shooting guards from around the world. We also are discussing the season ending dates in Europe and how that relates to signing players for our team. Currently we are scouting and discussing several players. Also our voting portal and video are 100% operational for our members. To become part of the first fan run professional basketball organization all you need to do is join OMT. Why throw away money on fantasy basketball when you can bring a real professional basketball team to a real city?

Below is a list of recent blogs for everyone catching up on OMT news.

Click here to read about Newberg, Oregon.

Click here to read about Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Click here to read about Dubuque, Iowa.

Click here to read about potiental OMT theme songs.

Click here to get an inside look at running an IBL franchise.

Click here to read about OMT on Ball Don’t Lie

Click here to read about OMT founder Clyde Warman’s take on minor league basketball.

The Premier Basketball League (PBL) announced that the Battle Creek Knights, headed by ownership group LN King Entertainment LLC, have been accepted into the league for play in the upcoming 2008-2009 PBL season. THe Knights have played the past four seasons in the International Basketball League, and subsequent to the conclusion of their season, were looking at alternatives to best benefit their organization. PBL President and CEO Thomas E. Doyle stated: ‘we are impressed with their vision to continue to grow their basketball organization. Battle Creek is a terrific market, and…

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Newberg is a suburb of Portland, Oregon and has a population of around 20,000 residents. The community is also home to George Fox University. The University’s Wheeler Sports Center has a basketball venue with a capacity of 2,750. George Fox has a Division III NCAA basketball program. The closest competitor would be the Portland Chinocks if they decide to continue in the IBL. Click here to read the OMT blog that discusses this.

Newberg is a growing community that likely could handle an IBL franchise. The median family income for the community is over $51,000 so that is a positive. IBL season tickets would be very affordable for these families. The local paper is know as The Newberg Graphic. It is a weekly publication owned by Eagle Newspapers.

Another positive about this location is that it is near the IBL league offices in Portland, Oregon. Locating close to IBL headquarters might be a smart move for our fanchise. To discuss Newberg and other potential locations join OMT today!

Downtown Portland

Dubuque sits on Chicago’s doorstep and is right on the Mississippi River. The population is 57,000 in the city and 92,000 throughout the greater metropolitan area. The city also has two casinos including a riverboat. Dubuque surprisingly has several facilities that could host an IBL franchise. The Five Flags Civic Center holds over 5,000 basketball fans and the city has 5 colleges in the area. Loras College has plenty of capacity and is an excellent facility with the deeper three point line. The youtube video below is of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

The city also has the Dubuque Regional Airport that hosts several daily flights to and from Chicago. Dubuque has over 22,000 registered businesses within 40 miles of the town center. The top ten companies are Deere & Co., Mercy Medical Center, Eagle Window & Door, Medical Associates, Finley Hospital, Woodward Communications, Prudential Financial, Barnstead/Thermolyne, McKesson Corp, and Quebexor World. Some other companies with a strong presence include The McGraw-Hill Companies, Diamond Jo Casino, ThermoFisher, A.Y. McDonald Mfg., Nordstrom, Alliant Energy, Swiss Valley, The Metrix Company, and Cottingham & Butler. Dubuque’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the nation. In 2005 Dubuque had the 22nd best job growth rate in the nation.

Dubuque is within driving distance to all IBL teams in the midwest and is a very short trip to the Elgin Racers, Windy City Soliders, and Gary Steelheads. In addition to the colleges around Dubuque, the state of Iowa has several universities to draw players from including closeby Northern Iowa University, The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Indian Hills Community College (Corey Hightower, Ernest Brown), and Drake University.

IBL appears headed for Corvallis

By Tony Shick

The Portland Tribune

After being involved with International Basketball League franchises in both Vancouver and Portland, Terrence Dickens has turned his attention to Corvallis.

Dickens, coach of the IBL Portland Chinooks and head of league operations, wants to own a franchise.

Dickens visited Corvallis on Thursday, attempting to contact the mayor as well as several businesses and media outlets. He went to share his intentions and gauge how a professional team might fare in the shadow of Oregon State University.

“I haven’t spoken with the mayor yet, and I’m waiting on some contacts at Oregon State, but I should have a decision by the end of the month,” he says. “I was pleased with what I saw.”

Both Dickens and IBL Commissioner Mikal Duilio believe Corvallis is a good option for the league.

“Our studies have shown that teams do very well in smaller towns; they can generate a lot of revenue,” Duilio says. “In Portland, the people who knew them loved them, but there were very few people. It’s hard to reach that size of population. The team gets lost in the shuffle of hundreds of other things to do.”

The 2008 regular-season ending recently. The league had teams in smaller cities such as Salem, Bend, Everett, Bellingham, Tacoma and Lewis County, Wash.

“The league product is getting better every year,” Duilio says. “The next step is for teams to find the right market, and that’s a real winner.”

Dickens seems sold already on the Corvallis market.

“Based on what I saw yesterday, I’d say there’s a 100 percent chance there’ll be a team in Corvallis next year,” he says. “I just want to wait to hear from the people first.”

Dickens says he enjoyed his time with the Chinooks and wishes the franchise the best of luck, but most likely he will not be returning to them next year.

“This was something I needed to do for myself,” he says. “I have the experience of a few teams, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, and I wanted to challenge myself.”

And though the future of the Chinooks is uncertain, a venture into Corvallis would have no bearing on it.

“These are going to be separate franchises. Moving the Chinooks was not at all what we were thinking about,” Duilio says.

The future of the Chinooks depends on whether owner Terry Emmert chooses to keep the team. After owning………

Link

The IBL League Commissioner and another League official traveled to several potiental IBL cities to gauge the interest of the community. One city they looked at was Corvallis, Oregon a city with around 50,000 residents. Media coverage of an IBL team is very important, and the Corvallis Gazette Times actually covered the scouting trip by the IBL (which is great news). The IBL was looking for an interested community, businesspeople ready to invest in sponsorships, and they are focusing on finding the right venue.

The IBL’s basic response was that it will take some title sponsors to turn Corvallis from a pipe dream to reality. I have to agree with their assessment. Their official label for this is title sponsors which will run a company $10,000. Compared to the ABA (which has sponsorship packages of $100,000) this is a bargain for businesses. I think it is smart to pick three locations and then evaluate them the same way the IBL does.

1. Does the location have title sponsors?

2. Is the venue the right size for our franchise?

3. Is the community interested in the IBL? (this includes the media)

The best way to figure this out is to talk with the various colleges and convention centers in the area. Figure out if the venue is the right size and affordable. On top of that work with the Chamber of Commerce to locate a few title sponsors. Also check in with the local media to gauge their response.

Beyond looking for title sponsors (at the $10,000 level) I suggest going after a primary sponsor. A primary sponsor could have a large presence on our website as well as their logo on our warmups and even our jerseys. They could also be on the cover of our game programs and have a large banner up in our venue acknowledging them as the team’s primary sponsor. With title sponsorship at the $10,000 level I will let your imagination run as to just how much a primary sponsorship could be.

Costco Wholesale Corporation is a discounter business based out of the Northwest. They are known for having low prices and paying their employees a fair wage. Costco would make sense for OMT as a primary sponsor because they show a high level of ethics and responsibility in their business decisions. I would highly suggest contacting this company to develop a multiyear primary sponsorship contract.

Primary sponsorship is very popular in Europe, but it has never been done here in the USA. It is not allowed in the NBA, but you see it taken to a whole new level in Nascar. I’m not suggesting turning our jerseys into a Nascar jersey, but I am suggesting puting a company’s logo on them. To my knowledge this has not been done in minor league basketball before, however there isn’t a rule I’ve heard of in the IBL that prevents this. We should consult the IBL before we actually sign a primary sponsor.

Below is an excerpt from the Corvallis Gazette Times. Click here to read the entire article.

Minor League Basketball Checks Out Corvallis

By Brooks Hatch

International Basketball League considers putting a franchise in the area

An official of the International Basketball League was in Corvallis on Thursday, investigating the city as a possible site for an expansion franchise for the 2009 season.

Terrence Dickens, the coach of the IBL’s Portland Chinooks, met with officials from the mayor’s office, local businesses, and other concerns to gauge possible interest in a team in the four-year-old league, which last season had three teams in Oregon, nine in the Northwest, and 18 overall, according to the IBL founder/commissioner Mikal Duilio of Portland.

“Terrence’s idea was to get the word out and to hear what people’s responses were, if they had the right demeanor and attitude about new things” such as the IBL, Duilio said Friday. “Some (cities) are ‘hater’ communities where people just aren’t interested in anything new.

“Terrence was putting his ear to the ground and listening. Everywhere he went people were positive and energetic.”

Duilio and Dickens worked together in founding and operating the IBL’s Vancouver, Wash., franchise. Dickens has also coached the Portland Chinooks.

Duilio said the league will begin searching for title sponsors, in the $10,000 range, within the next several weeks. If one or more are located, that “moves the team from a pipe dream” to reality.

“We’ll know before November for sure” if the venture is a go, he said. “The big X factor is (can Dickens) find at least one solid, title sponsor. We know we can get small sponsors, sell tickets, and get the walkup sale but the X-factor is, ‘Are there at least one or two businesses in town that would really like to get behind this?’

“Historically (IBL) teams do better in the smaller towns, 25,000 to 80,000, that’s where teams like this belong. They get lost in a major metro area because there are hundreds of other things to do. Our product is refined; we just need to be smarter where we place it.”

The team needs a 94- or 87-foot court and adequate spectator seating for its home venue. The Salem club played in the Salem Armory; the Bend team plays at Mountain View High School and the Eugene team, which took this past season off, played at Northwest Christian College.

Dickens did not meet with Oregon State or Linn-Benton Community College officials about possibly renting their gyms. The courts at Corvallis High and Crescent Valley easily hold more than 1,000 spectators, but are only 84 feet in length.

“If it came down to an 87-foot court it could be done but it wouldn’t be ideal,” Duilio said. “The ideal situation over time is to sell sponsorships, court-side seating and play at Gill, but there are quite a few things that make that difficult, beside the rental price.”

Duilio said team budgets run between $45,000 and $250,000. Most of the West Coast franchises are in the lower end of that range, he said. Players receive up to $400 per game, but most earn far less and some earn nothing beyond the $20-30 per diem.

“Corvallis would be a very efficient budget model, but a low-budget team would not affect the quality of play at all,” Duilio said. “The entire city doesn’t have to be on fire (with interest) for the financial model to work. “We just need a moderate amount, maybe as few as 10 sponsors and 200 or 300 fans.”

Tickets are generally $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Teams……..