Maybe we shouldn’t worry about one of our most globally attractive entertainment commodities, our ballers, being controlled by foreign entities. But frankly, I expect better from American entrepreneurs. I say that rich investors should be jump starting a basketball league in Los Angeles. Yesterday preferably.
There are plenty of billionaires looking to throw money at professional sports in these mega-cities, and this might be the biggest opportunity developing right now. LA would be a fantastic place to start a league because of all the pieces already in place. LA is home to 2 NBA teams, and 2 NBA ready arenas judging from Anaheim’s serious stalking of the Sacramento Kings this spring. LA is also one of the most attractive cities for athletes with lots of high quality trainers and cutting edge medical facilities (read: clubs and beaches). As soon as it becomes clear that the NBA will lose at least half a season (similar to the 1998 lockout) players will be looking for a way to fill that time, and a league with a short schedule will not only attract athletes, but fans. It would salvage the lost season, but it would also generate its own life.
“¨But would a basketball league work without the NBA’s tradition, teams, expertise, and branding? A million times the answer is yes. More than any other team sport, the NBA is built around stars. People come to see the stars play, and stars are on the open market. Tradition is a big pull, but in basketball it is overpowered by brilliant talent. Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks are imposing brands through which a huge portion of America views basketball, but they are not the frame the world uses. Even the general public knows that Dwayne Wade and Lebron James are more important than the Miami Heat. And the expertise that makes those teams run is on sale as surely as the stars are. Managers, trainers, cameramen, sales executives, and countless others are out of a job if the NBA isn’t playing. It is a buyer’s market, and a small league can demand the best if it moves quickly and puts the cash down up-front.
Here is where the rich people come in. Philip Anschutz’s soccer fixation has seen him dropping ungodly cash on the MLS for a decade, so there is no reason he cannot plop 50 million down on a brilliant business opportunity if he sees it. The Anaheim group was willing to put down more than that for the Kings, and they should pony up for this. Kobe should have that kind of money, but I’m not going to pencil him in as an investor knowing his spending habits. A few more primaries and the group can front 250 million to get a seriously new and innovative league off the ground in record time. What exactly is this thing going to look like? Of course that is up to the enormously rich who pull it off ultimately, but here is how I see it going down.
5 teams, 1 city. A single entity league that pays all costs and salaries. Call it the Los Angeles Basketball Association. Give it a stylized logo playing on the overlaid LA the Dodgers (and the 60’s Angels) use, but with key colors purple, gold, red, and blue. Stick it on a website and start cranking updates with a vengeance. 5 million guaranteed signing bonus to the first all-star who signs the contract. 1 million to the first NBA coach who signs an agreement. You only need 5 coaches and 60 NBA players to make this work. Make it news as the snowball starts rolling and huge news whenever they land Rose, Wade, Durant, or Lebron. Make it news when the league rejects a player for not being good enough for LABA even though he started for the Cavs. Start building the draft day hype as soon as critical mass is near, and start selling tickets. Let each team have a home court to build inter-city rivalry and give the teams an identity instead of an exhibition feel. Roll them out with simple location names instead of logos. Promise artist/player/fan collaborations for uniforms when the teams are set.
1 team can have the Fabulous (and Formerly Great Western) Forum which is desperate for clients and probably cheap. Let’s call this team Westside. If the fans want to vote on a nickname, let them at it. I personally like Westside Riders. Let them be red, but make sure to play down the Bloods connection with neutral color bases. I can almost guarantee Flea will be the marquee fan of this group, giddy with representing Inglewood. Denzel will be there too, the face of classy Brentwood Hills money. That is the great thing about “Riders” as a nickname: they could be Santa Monica surfers, Venice Beach Skate Bums, or Wilshire Boulevard Bentley Cruisers.
1 team can have Staples, which is what makes Anschutz’s AEG such an amazing partner to have. Call them South Park, with the possible nickname Survivors. None of this shiny Downtown image, instead build connections with the people who live just under the 10 freeway in the urban wasteland. Let them be black. It would be extremely interesting to have the glitzy center of LaLaLakerdom turned into the home of the little people’s champion. Jack might not fit in, but I bet he tries.
1 team can have the Long Beach Arena, with all the whales painted on the outside to give the cameras something to look at during time outs. Yes, 13,000 is a little small for the superstars the LABA should be able to attract, but you can put a Jumbotron on Rainbow Harbor and charge tickets for booze boats (autograph session with Metta World Peace after the game!) Snoop will be the main attraction, representing the LBC even if they call themselves the Pharoahs (because of the Pyramid, duh). Give them gold regardless.
1 team can have that spectacular and NBA-coveting arena in Anaheim, although I recommend calling the team the Rio Santa Ana Royals. This team should appeal to the broader swath of Southern California crossed by that concrete river under the stadium on Anaheim’s border. The group looking to take over the Kings already locked up the classic Royals name and trademarked it, so they might as well use it. The Royals can choose blue or purple. No one will know if there are any celebrities showing OC pride, but everyone will assume that someone hiding behind the huge sunglasses is on the C List.
The fifth team will be stuck in the Inland Empire, at the Citizens Bank Arena (which unfortunately seats less people than Long Beach) and will of course be the Ontario Emperors. Someone please find a better name. Hopefully in December the smog will roll away and the Ontarians can show off their mountains. Soon everyone on the East Coast will want to move to Riverside or San Bernardino. The Emperors would also look good in blue or purple. Now, if they can get all their fans to drive an hour and a half into the desert they can take advantage of Indian Wells like the Phoenix Suns have been doing for the popular NBA Outdoors exhibition. Then you probably would see some celebrities fresh out of Betty Ford.
As fans start to buy season tickets based on seeing the signed up stars multiple times in their own backyard, the enclave pride of Angelenos will build anticipation. The marketing muscle should be working overtime to sell the draft day to a national TV audience. I see this as a combination combine and schoolyard humiliation. The stars are put through a gauntlet of speed and shooting trials, then lined up in front of a national TV audience as the five coaches pick their teams. Donald Sterling couldn’t mess up that marketing pitch, but thankfully he will be on the outside looking in. Frankly, people should support this idea just to see Sterling lose his monopoly of non-Laker LA basketball… he might throw a tantrum.
Once the teams are set, LABA can rest assured that ESPN will lather itself into a 24-hour news cycle comparing the new teams and their weaknesses. The other networks will also have basketball time to fill with programming, so LABA should be able to get a great deal for televising it’s games. Meanwhile, the teams can practice while basketball people from around the country flock to LA for the jobs. Again, if LABA moves fast they will have the pick of the talent and the leverage to keep salaries low. The teams can also reach out to the communities (one of the under-reported stories of the NBA lockout is how not having the association on their backs means fewer players will use their wealth and influence for community building) in order to build a fan base and generate connections with the team. I would be excited to see NBA stars embracing innovative techniques for cross promotion and fan involvement. LABA should capitalize on the food truck boom in the city, along with the numbers of young hungry artists and designers in new and interesting ways.
Advertising should be done, but if the league has moved fast and secured the big names it needs they will not be worried about filling the arenas. Rather, the advertising should be based on generating oversees excitement and creating an online environment that showcases the league and possibly even delivers content for a profit. Putting together vacation packages for rich basketball crazy Chinese and Filipinos would be a savvy move. See all 5 teams (plus Disneyland!) during 3 nights in Hollywood! The idea is to leverage Los Angeles’ entertainment capital of the world status into a global phenomenon without the associated costs of a traditional national sports league.
Besides eliminating travel costs for the league, it simplifies administration and organization. More importantly, it allows a certain newness to be attached to this league. All the star wattage packed into one city will redouble anticipation and hype, and thanks to the media outlets that hype will be seen worldwide.
Playing a regular double home and home round robin tournament would produce 40 total games, 16 games per team. If the season started in late September or October, we could be enjoying high quality playoff intensity basketball just at the end of the year when people will be missing the NBA the most. Of course that would be the end of the short term plan, but the beauty of the set-up is that if the NBA continues to make a nasty mess the LABA’s position in the driver’s seat becomes stronger.
If the lockout is still in effect when the trophies are being handed out and one corner of Los Angeles is celebrating, the players could be immediately signed to an extension for an overseas tour. Now is when the early seeds planted come ripe for a massive payoff. Wherever fan interest is the strongest, the 5 LABA teams go. Manila and Hong Kong seem like easy lay-ups, but Shanghai, Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok, and even Istanbul could be huge events. The Filipino extravaganza in July was an unmistakable sign of the drawing power of NBA stars. The LABA owners can actually make this tour a revenue generator, because at this point they will be holding all the cards for the negotiations with the players during sudden mid-season unemployment. Not that the players won’t make a killing, but the owners should make money out of a situation where they set the terms.
If the owners can move together quickly, I do believe they can create a small league that will generate positive brands with worldwide reach and positive connections to the Los Angeles area. If owning that kind of brand does not interest them, then I will remain sadly disappointed. What a huge victory for fans, players, and the general economy this could be.