Does anyone even follow all these leagues that exist? Wouldn't it make more sense to combine some to expand and strengthen membership and exposure...and especially respectability?


Here are a few of the existing "minor" leagues:



NBDL:
Asheville Altitude
Columbus Riverdragons
Fayetteville Patriots
Greenville Groove
Huntsville Flight
Mobile Revelers
North Charleston Lowgators
Roanoke Dazzle


Eastern Basketball Alliance:
Westchester Wizards
Morris Revolution
Delaware Express
New York Prime Time
New Philadelphia Firedogs
Harrisburg Horizon



CBA:
Albany Patroons
Dakota Wizards
Gary Steelheads
Great Lakes Storm
Idaho Stampede
Michigan Mayhem
Rockford Lightning
Sioux Falls Skyforce
Yakima Sun Kings


ABA:
Atlanta Vision
Baltimore
Bellevue Blackhawks
Bellingham Slam
Birmingham Magicians
Boston Frenzy
Buffalo Rapids
California Eagles
Charlotte Krunk
Chattanooga Steamers
Columbus
Detroit Wheels
Florida Pit Bulls
Fresno Heatwave
Gallup Talons
Harlem Strong Dogs
Hawaii Mega Force
Indiana AlleyCats
Inglewood, CA
Kansas City Knights
Kentucky Colonels
Lake Erie
Las Vegas Rattlers
Long Beach Laguneros
Los Angeles Aftershock
Louisiana Cajun Pelicans
Maryland Nighthawks
Mississippi Stingers
Montreal
Nashville
New Mexico Style
New Orleans Blues
Newark Express
Niagra Daredevils
Norfolk
Northeast Pennsylvania Breakers
Ohio Aviators
Orange County Buzz
Orlando
Pittsburgh Xplosion
Reigning Knights of Georgia
Richmond
River City Ballers
Rochester Razorsharks
San Francisco Pilots
San Jose Skyrockets
St. Louis Flight
Strong Island Sound
Tacoma
Texas Tycoons
Tijuana Dragons
Toledo Ice
Valley Legends




Anyone agree that some of these leagues should just merge?

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NBDL also has teams in Little Rock, Tulsa, Austin, and New Mexico.

I'm not sure you want to get me started.

First off, the ABA is at best a Ponzi scheme. There might have been two franchises out of 30-something that even averaged 4 digit crowds last year. Arkansas was so thrilled that they bolted at the first sight of a wanting NBDL errrrr the now-NBADL. Nashville was built on a house of cards that collapsed when one of their owners hired a player for 2 games for $10,000 (way above the average) behind the back of the primary owner, who rather publically fired the young female coach (who had done a good job, really) right on the floor. I do believe there was some Xanax involved among other things. Someone else is now attempting ABA in the Nashville market, and I think the "fans" now know better.

The now-NBADL... Mobile and Greenville died two summers ago, Charleston scooted to Southwest Florida last summer, while Asheville, Columbus, and Huntsville are now replaced by the markets SportsKC mentioned plus Fort Worth. Can you tell that they're somewhat short of stability here?

Does the EBA draw any better than, say, the USBL? I don't know anything about them.

There's a new version of the IBL, although it has a spring/early summer schedule, and chooses to stay so small for now that it's probably not worth discussing. 20-game schedules don't create as much excitement as you think they might.

So...

Can you make one league with the CBA and NBA D-League? Those are the only two leagues that are anywhere close to viability... and both now have travel issues, especially since the CBA decided to go back to Albany.

It would be nice to build tidy regional leagues. However, I think the NBADL is proving that you can't find enough willing markets in a tidy travel arrangement to make it work. The only way I see anything positive coming out of this is when the NBA decides to go to an arrangement with one farm team per NBA team... and that's not likely. There aren't enough people gathering for any old team in any old league... outside the Dakotas, it seems.

I think the best way to do a minor league system is what Pounder said, have one farm team per team in major markets ala like this:

Pacific
Tacoma-Seattle
Vancouver-Portland
San Jose-Golden State
San Diego-Clippers
Anaheim-Los Angeles Lakers

Southwest
Las Vegas-Utah
New Mexico-Phoenix
Oklahoma City-Dallas
Tulsa-Houston
Little Rock-San Antonio

Midwest
Kansas City-Sacramento
St. Louis-Chicago
Omaha-Denver
Des Moines-Minnesota
Nashville-Memphis


Southeast
Southeast
Birmingham-New Orleans
Jacksonville-Miami
Tampa Bay-Orlando
Raleigh-Durham-Charlotte
Richmond-Atlanta

Central
Cincinnati-Milwaukee
Columbus-Cleveland
Grand Rapids-Detroit
Louisville-Indianpolis
Pittsburgh-Philadelphia

Atlantic
Albany-New Jersey
Baltimore-Washington
Buffalo-Toronto
Providence-Boston
Hartford-New York

Where I'm going to differ with you, and eventually punt, KC, is as follows:

"Major" markets (San Jose, San Diego, Anaheim, Kansas City, St. Louis, Tampa, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and maybe Buffalo) are not going to work, generally. One or two exceptions at most... PROVIDED the NBA wants this league to pay some of its own way. It costs too much to market in these towns, PLUS the media will ignore them while covering the major league teams that exist in those markets.

I almost included Tacoma on that list... and frankly, with the facility they have available, because it's too large, that won't work, either. Technically, as this stands, I didn't lump Tacoma in with the previous bunch, but it goes to the same end.

Las Vegas, New Mexico, Raleigh, Columbus, Louisville, and perhaps Hartford are also bad ideas, because the college teams in each town dominate.

That leaves Vancouver (which you could probably put in the first category), Oklahoma City (which you could easily put in the second category since Norman is basically a suburb), Tulsa (whose college team is known to have decent pull half the time), Little Rock, Omaha, Des Moines, Nashville (as long as the Predators and TItans are around, forget it), Birmingham (which doesn't strike me as a good place for a team), Jacksonville (Jaguars), Richmond, Grand Rapids (who has watched CBA die there a couple times), Albany, and perhaps Providence (the Friars have some Big East history anyway).

These are two of the reasons why the CBA and D-League are arranged the way they are. Places with limited competition are the prime markets to consider. Leagues trying to target "major non-NBA markets" fail for fairly simple reasons. The model doesn't work this way.

That being said, if the NBA can somehow make the money work better, this could happen. However, I suspect what you'll see is more like the reserve league MLS started this year, where teams either play in the same building as the first team or in a smaller location with less rental cost attached.