Making The Case For The NBDL

Although saving Roberts Stadium is my main concern, I believe the Roberts Stadium situation is a three pronged battle. The three prongs are...

1. Saving Roberts Stadium & finding a proper use for it that will keep it intact and satisfy everyone involved.

2. Finding the perfect location and design for the ball fields to make sure they are the best fields in the U.S. I believe Kleymeyer Park is the best location and these are the best fields: http://www.bigleaguedreams.com/replica-fields

3. Making sure the new arena has the proper amount of dates filled to make it profitable. I also want to bring the best teams and events possible to the new arena. If Roberts Stadium is kept as an events center where it would host events like the Tri-State Home Show, the Circus, and other events that need more parking lot space or more staging space than the new arena, I pledge to find enough teams and events to fill the empty dates in the new arena vacated by the events that would be staying at Roberts Stadium. (at no taxpayer expense).

I've talked and talked and talked about the first two prongs of this battle on this blog, but I haven't dove into just what I'd like to accomplish at the new arena.

When I made the post "An Open Invitation to the Mayor and City Officials," I said I would like to get...

1. The Bluecats back
2. USI to play some games downtown
3. NCAA tournament games
4. A NBDL team

It should seem pretty cut and dry why I'd like to get the Bluecats back, bring the NCAA tournaments to town, and bring USI downtown for some games, but what is the NBDL and why am I so passionate about bringing it here?

For those of you that don't know, the NBDL, which stands for National Basketball Developmental League, is the newly formed league that is the farm league for the NBA (National Basketball Association). It is basketball's version of what AAA,AA, & A baseball is to MLB, and what leagues such as the CHL (Icemen's league) are to the NHL. The league consists of drafted and undrafted players who are trying to work their way up to the NBA.

We are fortunate to have a Purple Ace in the league as well.


http://gopurpleaces.com/news/2010/3/16/MBB_0316105816.aspx

Shy Ely was the runner-up in voting for Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2009, and the University of Evansville's first NABC All-District selection since Andy Elkins in 1995. His outstanding senior year (18.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg) caught the attention of pro scouts, landed him a try-out with the Chicago Bulls, and eventually earned him a earn a place in the NBA Development League.

Not only does the NBDL have former UE standout Shy Ely to bring fans out to NBDL games, but the NBDL also has several players from schools around Evansville that I believe would bring fans into town for a game.

The following are players that I believe will draw fans from around the region...

http://www.nba.com/dleague/players/school.html

Ball State - Kent, Anthony
Evansville - Ely, Shy
Indiana - Smith, Jamar
Indiana - Wilmont, Roderick
Kentucky - Patterson, Patrick
Kentucky - Stevenson, Perry
Louisville - Gaines, Reece
Louisville - Smith, Jerry
Notre Dame - Zeller, Luke
Purdue - Grant, Keaton
Purdue - Kramer, Chris

Unfortunately, the NBDL season overlaps with the Evansville Icemen's season so we will have to be creative with scheduling. This conflict has caused a few city officials to tell me that there aren't enough open dates for the NBDL. I disagree with this notion because if you look at the NBDL schedule ( http://www.nba.com/dleague/gameline/20101119/ ) you will notice that most teams only play 3 to 6 home games a month. In fact, if you look at most of the arenas in the NBDL you will see that most of them have both a NBDL team and a hockey team ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NBA_Development_League_arenas ).

Although I am thrilled to death to have the Evansville Icemen and minor league hockey here, Evansville is a natural fit for basketball and must have the NBDL here as well. We are in the perfect market for the NBDL being that we are in the middle of Louisville, Indiana, and Kentucky which are basketball crazed areas.

There are three business models in the NBDL for us to choose from. A. A local investor would own the team B. A lot of NBA teams are starting to buy their NBDL teams or C. NBA team runs a few teams jointly with a local owner.

We are lucky that the NBDL already has Fort Wayne, Indiana which would create a great rivalry. Also, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants are affiliated with the Bulls, Pistons, and Pacers so the NBDL would be able to take one of those affiliates and give it to us. Obviously, I think we would be a natural fit with the Indiana Pacers and I think it would be best that Fort Wayne sticks with the Pistons because before they were the Detroit Pistons they were the Fort Wayne Pistons.

As I said in my open invitation to city officials, I am willing to personally go with the mayor and/or any city official who wants to go to the NBA World Headquarters in Secaucus, NJ to let them know that Evansville is open for business for an expansion team.

We need to bring the NBDL to Evansville!