Published Saturday June 4th, 2011
New league | Gauging interest in Fredericton
B3 By BILL HUNT
hunt.bill@dailygleaner.com
Kelly Lamrock is "bullish" on the idea of a Fredericton franchise in the soon-to-be-launched National Basketball League of Canada. He's looking for some investors who share his vision.
Lamrock, the former Liberal MLA and provincial cabinet minister, says there are a group of 10 investors on board now and "we're looking to double the size of that group," with the idea of bringing minor professional basketball to the provincial capital in time for the 2012 season.
That would be the second year of the league, which owners of the Saint John Mill Rats, Halifax Rainmen and Quebec Kebs are trying to launch from the ashes of the Premier Basketball League.
The three Canadian entries withdrew from the PBL over disagreements with the structure of the league and threw their impetus behind a league they envision as having as many as eight teams by the time the league launches in November. Mill Rats owner Ian McCarthy was in transit from the United States and unavailable for comment yesterday.
The league website lists Moncton, and Ontario centres London, Oshawa, Kingston and Barrie as "pending teams" in the circuit.
Lamrock says he is "very serious" about putting Fredericton on the basketball map.
"In this marketplace, it's going to be a challenge," he admitted. "It's far from a sure thing. But I do think there's real potential in this league, and I think Fredericton can support professional calibre basketball."
Lamrock attended most of the Mill Rats games at their Harbour Station home last season. He would very much like to duplicate the product here with regard to the calibre of basketball and the "fan experience."
He said the Mill Rats, transplanted from Manchester, N.H., before last season, "had worked very hard to connect and build community roots. That's one of the league's strengths, and that would probably be our ownership policy."
He believes the ownership structure that would succeed in Fredericton is "a community-owned team with a number of different partners who really have one thing in common, that they love basketball and want to see a new sports option in Fredericton. It's the kind of league where you can have a community-owned team, and I think that's the strongest model. In minor league sports, over time, that's where it seems to work best."
Lamrock has faith in Fredericton as a sports town, despite the failure of two American Hockey League clubs in the past.
"I'm not discouraged by the experience we had here, quite the opposite," he said. "When we had good teams here, we supported them. Both AHL chapters ended, not really because the community turned away from the team. The Express was a corporate decision about placing a team closer to its parent. The Fredericton Canadiens had a very good run here and, in many ways, the AHL kind of outgrew them."
Lamrock said if the new league remains faithful to its current financial model, "we can make it work with from 1,900 to 2,100 fans...that's doable. But we've got to make sure the venue is right, the fan experience is strong. And we've got to make sure that, right from the very first exhibition game, that fan experience is something that keeps people coming back."
Lamrock though, is targeting November 2012 rather than the league's inaugural season.
Next season, he plans to make a regular pilgrimage to Saint John to watch the Mill Rats.
"I'll be encouraging people to go down and have a look at just how good this league is," he said. "This is, in many ways, the best basketball New Brunswick's been able to offer. I think the more people who see that, the more excited they'll be about the possibility that Fredericton and Moncton can be in this league too."
He hopes the community embraces the Fredericton franchise the way Saint John embraced the Mill Rats. In fact, he said the success of the franchise will depend on it.
"Ian (McCarthy, the Mill Rats owner) did everything right, from having minor league teams warm up with the players to retiring Norm Seeley's number to make those connections with Saint John...the local business support was huge. That's the biggest part we've got to see here in Fredericton.
"If we can build this product, will we see the kind of local support like businesses making sure the players have places to live and go, the kind of sponsorship...will city council get behind it the way Mayor (Ivan) Court did? He was at almost every game. If there's that level of enthusiasm, this market can work. When you're in a market of 60,000 people, anything less than complete enthusiasm and you're not going to make the market work."
Lamrock wants to have the ownership group - as many as 20 investors - and a local board of directors assembled by the end of January.
"We've got to be in position to have a stable ownership group and hit financial numbers we need," he said. "At that point, the goal would be to go to the public and see if we can have a season ticket drive that would see us have 1,000 to 1,500 fans get a deposit down on being a part of the season."
Lamrock sees lead time as "very important" in laying the groundwork for success.
"If you're running out in March and April, you're slap dashing a logo, you're not making a local connection with teams, you're scrambling to find players, then suddenly you've got a team that's 2-18, you're in a half-empty venue...that's not a fun place to be, it's not a fun product to watch.
"In any year, if we're thinking we're going to be on the court in October, we've got to sell tickets in January and be ready to go in March," Lamrock said. "You've got to be running pretty fast to start in February and put a Mill Rats calibre product on the floor in October."
Lamrock said the remnants of the PBL and its forerunner, the American Basketball Association, that survive as founders of the Canadian League "have always been better than the leagues they've been in. Now is their chance to deliver a league that is worthy of that kind of confidence.
"The only reason I've moved from being in the third row cheering to exploring, to getting serious about it is I think these guys know what they're doing and are committed to a level of professionalism that, so far, I'm comfortable with. I'm looking forward to watching the first season in Fredericton."
The league is operating on the basis of a season schedule "in the high 20s," said Lamrock. If there were an Atlantic or Maritime wing of the league in place, with teams in Halifax, Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John, it might lend itself to a longer schedule.
"That's a fantastic model, and it's one where the travel costs aren't a killer," he said.
Source: Daily Gleaner -
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/s...rticle/1412408