Finally, Raptors Basketball on a Canadian Broadacaster (kudos CBC)

Flash, your friends tell you about the ABA franchise starting up here in November in Halifax? The Rainmen?
Just wondering if you knew...

 

Sweetheart, check out the history of the ABA ... it has about as much credibility as ... well ... try to figure out where I'm going with that.

 

Hey Flash can't blame this one on the fans. The Grizzlies were one of the worst run franchises ever. This was also around the time of the .62 dollar The Attendance when they left was still in the middle of the pack and it was actually higher than it was the second year in Memphis. This franchise was doomed from the start with the ridiculous ownership and management decisions. The fans were shit on by players, management and the owners.
Does anybody even in th States watch the ABA?

 

Yeah but I remember the Grizzlies wanting to market the game outside of the Lower Mainland. They couldn't figure out why they couldn't drum up interest in the Interior or even the more northern regions such as Prince George and Terrace.

The Canucks? Easy to market, it's hockey. But selling basketball in those blue-collar areas is a lot more difficult.

Now, the ABA. They're special. They announce expansion into 10 different cities at least three or four times in the off-season. A lot of those franchises never get off the ground. And the ones that do in Canada? Well, I got to live through the Drillers debacle.

 

The Drillers?

What fine city had that franchise?

 

Intercourse, Pennsylvania?

 

Calgary ... I think the players went two or three months without a paycheque ... and the league cared so much. Think they may have maxxed out attendance at 25.

Yeah, 25. Not 2,500. Twenty-five. One more than a 2-4.

Stellar.

 

From wiki:

The Calgary Drillers were an American Basketball Association team in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The team participated in a portion of the 2004–2005 season and then suspended operations in February 2005. The president of the team was Allan Howell, past president of the CFL Ottawa Roughriders, who went on to found the Niagara Daredevils, another ABA team that lasted three games in 2005 before folding itself.

 

Just a few less than at an SFX game.

 

Oooooh, now dem's fightin' words!

The OC typically sells out for hoops, mister.

Now if you were talking about football ... you might have a point.

 

I guess I shouldn't mouth off since the Xmen beat you know who last Saturday.

 

Don't worry ... those of us in the know are aware how rare that is.