Rapids float upstream

This is the first story in a two-part series.

Unlike its big brother league, the NBA, many American Basketball Association franchises feel the strain of running day-to-day operations on tight budgets.

For the expansion Buffalo Rapids these struggles are all too familiar. So far, in its short lifetime, the team has fought through bad ownership and an eviction from its original home venue. Even though the Rapids made it over these initial obstacles, with only four games remaining in its 2005-2006 schedule, there is uncertainty surrounding its future with the ABA and with Buffalo.

"We're still in the decision process of going forward next year, and we'll make that decision by the end of the season," said Rapids owner Todd Wier.

The original ABA was once a proud forum for basketball but became unable to prove itself in the business world. In 1976, the league merged with the National Basketball Association, as the Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and New Jersey Nets moved to the NBA and the rest of the ABA shut down.

It came back into existence in 2000 under the direction of Richard Finkum, a lead attorney in the 1976 merger between the ABA and NBA, and Joe Newman. The league started small with eight expansion teams, and by the second season five of these teams were defunct and new teams were created.

After the two-year experiment, the ABA went on hold for a season to allow for restructuring. In 2004, the league witnessed an explosion of expansion in which the league grew from eight teams to 33. To buy a team, after all, costs only several thousand dollars.

This season, former owner Richard Nice scouted possible ABA cities and selected Buffalo. The Arizona native financially backed the Rapids.

"I think that (the ABA's) style of development was to give cities the opportunity, at an inexpensive initial investment, to build interest and to build a program," said Rapids head coach and general manager Rich Jacob. "I believe that they planned for some of this folding of franchises, trying to take these first few years to identify those cities that are committed. Then they're going to close the books and build a league from there."

After being slated to play its home games at the Flickinger Center on Erie Community College's City campus, the team was abruptly evicted from its home after only two games.

According to The Buffalo News, Nice bounced his first payment of $9,500 to the school. Nice claimed he paid in cash the next day and had already paid $20,000 to the college as payment for the first two games.

Despite these claims, ECC evicted the Rapids. The team moved its home games to the Park School, a small, private high school on Harlem Road in Synder, near Amherst. They now play their games in the school's gym, which seats approximately 200 people. Flickinger Center holds 3,000.

Jacob said he was prepared for these challenges from the outset, which has allowed him to keep the team's attention away from the off-court distractions.

"What I've tried to do is keep the team focused and remain focused on my own, on the development of a new team," Jacob said. "Any way you look at it, trouble or not, we are still in a start-up situation. We are still in a first-year challenge."

However, the remedy for the Rapids' problems may be closer than most people realize. The neighboring Rochester Razorsharks have proven to be a giant ABA success story in only the team's second year of existence. The Razorsharks lead the league in attendance, averaging around 2,900 fans per game.

"I believe if you have a good product on the floor you're going to have a good fan base," said Razorsharks president and chief executive officer Sev Hrywnak. "Also, last year, Rochester was voted the No. 1 minor league town in the United States. It does have a lot going for it."

Hrywnak believes that some of the problems ABA teams face have to do with the ownership of and not the people running the league.

"I can't speak on behalf of the league. I just think that maybe they should check some owners and start to see how deep they are," Hrywnak said. "Having a few $100,000 is not going to do the deal for a season."

Wier, who picked up the Rapids as a result of the poor ownership that Hrywnak described, said he acquired the team after buying season tickets.

"There was an opportunity to step in. I got to know Joe Newman, the ABA commissioner, and the team played well in the month we were looking it over," Wier said. "I thought it was a nice fit. More importantly, it fit Buffalo and it fit us."

Although Jacob believes the team can excel in Buffalo, he is not sure whether it will continue its affiliation with the ABA.

"I think my focus is to understand that we're preparing and moving forward with the minor league basketball franchise," Jacob said. "Whether or not we're affiliated with the ABA, the Continental Basketball Association, or the National Basketball Development League remains to be seen. We know that there are other affiliations and we're certainly aware of what that entails."

In part two, Buffalo Rapids players will tell in their own words what it is like to be a semi-pro basketball player, and what they hope to accomplish in the league.