Seize Opportunity
USBL is ready to tip off its 18th season and looking for an alliance with NBA.

By Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

MILFORD, Conn. -- Gasoline prices are pushing $2 a gallon. War with Iraq
may be just around the corner. The sagging stock market has "Deep-Sixed"
more than a few 401k-retirement portfolios.

If you want to find unbridled optimism though, have a chat with Dan
Meisenheimer, Founder/Commissioner of the United States Basketball League.

High Hopes

The USBL is a few weeks away from the tip off of its 18th season.

That's ancient by sports industry standards. The sporting landscape has become one big burial ground for more than a few failed leagues.

To be able to see another day at that age is cause enough for celebration.

W hat has Meisenheimer feeling bullish is not the Wall Street performance of the USBL's publicly traded stock, which sells for about 65 cents a share.

Instead, it's the conviction that despite the uncertain times, season No. 18 will be the best ever.

"Looking at 2003," Meisenheimer said, "I think we're in great shape for a
great season, head to toe. All of our teams look solid. We're bringing back
great players, maybe even better than last year. Coaching looks solid and
marketing is already underway."

We're not envisioning a lot of headaches, although you might want to check back with us in about a month," Meisenheimer admitted. "I'm convinced that this will be the best year we've ever had."

The USBL will field nine teams, down one from last year, when the season
tips off on Apr. 17.

Among them are seven returning squads, namely the Adirondack Wildcats,
Brevard Blue Ducks, Brooklyn Kings, Dodge City Legend, Kansas Cagerz,
Pennsylvania Valleydawgs, and defending champion Oklahoma Storm.

They'll be joined this year by the expansion Westchester Wildfire and Texas Rim Rockers.

Another new team, in Cedar Rapids, IA, is slated to be up and gunning next year.

Missing from last year's lineup are Florida, St. Louis, and St. Joseph.

No Second Stringer

Dubbing itself "The League of Opportunity", the USBL postures itself as the
second best basketball league on the planet (after the NBA.)

"We have the best talent in the world outside of the NBA," said Meisenheimer. "We take players from the NBDL (National Basketball Development League), from foreign countries, and we take former NBA players who've maybe have been out of the game for a season or so."

The timing of the USBL season has its advantages.

" We're off-season, and because we have the ability to take any and all of these players, and weed out the ones who aren't as good, we have the best players in the world outside the NBA. The players say it; the coaches say it, and European people who've seen us play, say it."

Meisenheimer may get an argument from the NBDL, whose two-year-old
existence as an NBA adjunct has been at best, a mixed success.

That league's eight teams draw an average of 1,400 fans per game, numbers virtually identical to those reported by the USBL.

Still, while the NBDL owns a big league pedigree, Meisenheimer says the NBA would benefit from a tie-in, however loose it might be, with the USBL.

"We'd like to formalize a relationship with them," he said. "Whether it's
for player development, referee development, whatever the case may be. We're for that, have had dialog with (NBA commissioner) David Stern, and have made some progress. But not a much as I'd like."

Over the years, more than 130 NBA players have cut their professional teeth
in the USBL, 130 reasons, Meisenheimer says, why Stern and Co. should build an alliance with the USBL.

"They're taking our players," Meisenheimer said, "and it's a freebee for
them. What's in it for them is what they're getting already. We'd like to
tell them, 'guys, you've got this zillion dollar operation. We can enhance
what you're doing.'"

Player development is one reason for the USBL's existence, but selling
tickets is their bread and butter. The USBL is not beyond pulling out a few
marketing tricks.

The league has made great hay out of allowing stars from other sports to
moonlight as USBL players. The likes of Roy Jones, Jr., Randy Moss, Terrell
Owens all have scratched their basketball itches in the league.

"That has given us a lot of publicity," Meisenheimer said. "But even more
than that, those guys go back and tell their friends how much fun they had playing in the USBL, and how much tougher it is to play than it looks."

Difficult or not, Meisenhemimer said that Owens will be suiting up for
Adirondack again this year, at least until he has get back to his "day job"
with the San Francisco '49ers.

Will Owens be bringing a supply of felt-tipped pens with him to Glens
Falls?

"We've already got a 'Sharpie Night' promotion in the works," said Meisenheimer.