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Professional Sports in Birmingham

Blazer85

By Blazer85
in Birmingham

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Blazer85 Hamlet

Blazer85

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New Pro Basketball League for Birmingham... sounds promising. Check out their site if youd like (www.bham-magicians.com). They will be the Birmingham Magicians and they will be in the ABA League (American Basketball Assoc.). Many games will be shown nationally on ESPN, FOXSports, etc. Some games will even have international audiences in Europe and Africa.

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Jaylon Unincorporated Area

Jaylon

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New Pro Basketball League for Birmingham... sounds promising. Check out their site if youd like (www.bham-magicians.com).  They will be the Birmingham Magicians and they will be in the ABA League (American Basketball Assoc.).  Many games will be shown nationally on ESPN, FOXSports, etc.  Some games will even have international audiences in Europe and Africa.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Magicians??? Do these names always have to relate to city nicknames?

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johnnydr87 Burg

johnnydr87

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ESPN? Fox sports?

Yeah right.

Not trying to be rude or anything, but the ABA is a joke.

Where do I begin?

Well, the Arkansas Rimrockers were in the league last season. They had the highest attendance. The best stadium. Etc. But the rest of the league was very unprofessional for the most part.

Examples:

-Teams would not show up to the city they were supposed to be at

-Teams folded without starting the season

-Teams folded in the middle of the season

-There was supposed to be something like 40 games, only around 25 were played before the season was cut short

-Anyone can start a league if they pay the $10,000 fee to join the league. Anyone. That's part of why it's so unprofessional.

-Larry Crain, the RimRockers owner, paid for a "backup" trophy for the ABA Championship last year because he wasn't sure if the ABA would provide the trophy since it had been so sketchy the whole year

-The ABA expanded to 70 teams for the new season, even though there were only 5-6 teams out of 30 that payed their debts and had a decent attendance last season

-A lot of the teams didn't pay their players/staffers and folded last season

- Joe Newman, the CEO, is crazy. He posts regularly on the ABA Yahoo group and attacks anyone for questioning the ABA management. It's kind of sad....you should join the ABA yahoo group..

Oh my god, how could I forget:

-The teams varied so much in their venues. the Rimrockers had Alltel Arena (18,000), a few teams had convention centers/stadiums in the 5000 range, a lot borrowed college campus facilities, and a sizable number used high school basketball stadiums. HIGH SCHOOL! One team even got evicted for not paying rent. Isn't that ridiculous?

-Believe me, they will never get on ESPN. That was promised for many years. They are too crappy.

Luckily, the RimRockers were allowed to join the NBDL, which is the NBA minor league (it's very young right now). It's supposed to develop into the primary farming league of the NBA.

Sorry to crash the party, but if you want more information, just check out this forum: http://www.oursportscentral.com/messageboa...wforum.php?f=10

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Dystopos Whistle-Stop

Dystopos

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Yup, seems dicy. By the way, if you want to try out for the team, bring $150 to the free-agent tryout at the Miles College gymnasium in Fairfield August 13. Good luck.

By the way Blazer, the Magicians press release dropped names, but didn't promise much:

"The league has finalized an international television deal that will reach much of the U.S., Europe and Africa. The national and international exposure for Birmingham will be tremendous. Can you say ESPN, CNN, FOX Sports, and WTBS? Birmingham will also gain national exposure through print and other media."

See? This is how rumors get intentionally started.

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Blazer85 Hamlet

Blazer85

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Yup, seems dicy. By the way, if you want to try out for the team, bring $150 to the free-agent tryout at the Miles College gymnasium in Fairfield August 13. Good luck.

By the way Blazer, the Magicians press release dropped names, but didn't promise much:

"The league has finalized an international television deal that will reach much of the U.S., Europe and Africa. The national and international exposure for Birmingham will be tremendous. Can you say ESPN, CNN, FOX Sports, and WTBS? Birmingham will also gain national exposure through print and other media."

See? This is how rumors get intentionally started.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It doesnt specifically promise Birmingham that, but they did say the league has "finalized an international television deal" so some people's games will apparently be getting national/international audiences.

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Dystopos Whistle-Stop

Dystopos

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It doesnt specifically promise Birmingham that, but they did say the league has "finalized an international television deal" so some people's games will apparently be getting national/international audiences.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We'll see. That might be a deal for one team's games to be shown in Montreal, or for the championship game to go out on an international WTBS feed. It doesn't take much to be "international" (e.g. the Birmingham International Airport)

But I'm not going to come out as a hater. Go Magicians! Beat that Crunk!

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eastsider Burg

eastsider

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We'll see. That might be a deal for one team's games to be shown in Montreal, or for the championship game to go out on an international WTBS feed. It doesn't take much to be "international" (e.g. the Birmingham International Airport)

But I'm not going to come out as a hater. Go Magicians! Beat that Crunk!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! Thanks for posting that link, I live in Charlotte and didn't even know about the Krurk. They started playing last year just outside of Charlotte as the Carolina Thunder. There was an article in the local paper when the team was announced and that was it. No mention at all during their season or the fact that they changed their name and are moving to an arena in town next year.

I'm skeptical about the ABA's "international tv deal", but I guess we'll see. The only time I have ever heard the ABA mentioned on ESPN was when Sportscenter would show a few highlights of Dennis Rodman when he played for that team in Long Beach a few years ago.

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johnnydr87 Burg

johnnydr87

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Haha. Yeah, I heard about that. The Nashville Rhythm were one of the few teams in the league with decent/good attendance.

Some of the better ABA Teams:

Kansas City Knights (they will not be rejoining this season, I believe)

Nashville Rhythm, until they collapsed

Arkansas RimRockers--- no longer part of the league

Long Beach Jam--- no longer part of the league

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  • 6 months later...
where_am_I Unincorporated Area

where_am_I

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Great info! But I wonder how long would it be before B'ham is considered for a major sports team again without the appropriate facilities to accomodate a major sports team. The proposed dome would be great but it seems that domes are not very popular anymore with cities now opting to build state-of-the-art retractable roof stadiums and things. What is the update with the dome for Birmingham anyway? Does anyone know?

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codyg1985 Whistle-Stop

codyg1985

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Great info! But I wonder how long would it be before B'ham is considered for a major sports team again without the appropriate facilities to accomodate a major sports team. The proposed dome would be great but it seems that domes are not very popular anymore with cities now opting to build state-of-the-art retractable roof stadiums and things. What is the update with the dome for Birmingham anyway? Does anyone know?

The dome awaits funding that will never happen. Several proposals have been created to fund the dome, including state funding and increased taxes. Needless to say the latter option did not sit well with residents, and the former option did not sit well from the legislature.

About the only thing that will get the dome moving along would be private investment of some sort. However, I believe that Birmingham could support an NBA franchise if the BJCC arena could be renovated (or a new arena was built).

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kayman Town

kayman

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The dome awaits funding that will never happen. Several proposals have been created to fund the dome, including state funding and increased taxes. Needless to say the latter option did not sit well with residents, and the former option did not sit well from the legislature.

About the only thing that will get the dome moving along would be private investment of some sort. However, I believe that Birmingham could support an NBA franchise if the BJCC arena could be renovated (or a new arena was built).

I would agree. The BJCC Arena needs to be a major renovation or to be rebuilt. I believe Birmingham could definitely support both a NFL and NBA team, but a NBA team more.

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  • 1 month later...
memphian Hamlet

memphian

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The biggest challenge is that Birmingham is a lot like Louisville, KY - too close to other Pro-Team Cities like Nashville, Atlanta and Memphis although Memphis may really be stretching it right now.

How big is soccer down there? If you really want to have a pro team - look to become a pioneer in the soccer world. yeah it may not be today's NFL or NBA but my honest belief is that soccer is the global sport. Who cares if you play against the Hawks in bball or the Titans in football - you could be playing against Argentina or Brazil. Just a thought.

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kayman Town

kayman

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The biggest challenge is that Birmingham is a lot like Louisville, KY - too close to other Pro-Team Cities like Nashville, Atlanta and Memphis although Memphis may really be stretching it right now.

How big is soccer down there? If you really want to have a pro team - look to become a pioneer in the soccer world. yeah it may not be today's NFL or NBA but my honest belief is that soccer is the global sport. Who cares if you play against the Hawks in bball or the Titans in football - you could be playing against Argentina or Brazil. Just a thought.

That's not a bad idea. World Cup soccer does happen to frequently have Birmingham as a stop. It would also help Birmingham become a world-class city. :thumbsup:

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  • 9 months later...
zen509 Unincorporated Area

zen509

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I've always thought an NBA franchise would be the best fit in Birmingham. The demographics of the Memphis MSA and the Birmingham MSA are pretty comparable (I realize Memphis proper has three times the population) and the Grizzlies seem to do well there. IF this EVER goes down, it would be great. It's good to know that after years, the BJCC board is finally starting to consider alternatives to the dreaded dome.

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tic404 Crossroads

tic404

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I think that the NBA here would be a good idea. I just moved here from ATL and one thing that I noticed here, that some of the people and politician still have a "backwood small town" way of thinking..I think that the city would support an NBA team but the NFL would never work here because the people here bleed auburn and alabama so that would never happen but I do think that NBA would do pretty good here.

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