ABA returns to Indy — meet the Indy Naptown All-Stars

Here’s the inaugural team with owner Susan Packard.

There’s a new professional sports team in Indianapolis.

No, I’m not referring to the Indy Eleven nor the Indy Fuel. Instead, it’s another basketball organization.

The American Basketball Association (ABA) has made its way back to Indianapolis with familiar ownership and what they believe is a sustainable business plan. It’s the Indy Naptown All-Stars, and they tip-off their debut season on Nov. 8. The team plays 33 games, including 16 at home.

The ABA has returned to Indianapolis.

The ABA was founded in 1967. The Indiana Pacers, which began as an ABA team, dominated the league until its merger with the NBA in 1976. Led by Hall of Famers Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, and under the direction Hall of Fame coach Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard, the ABA Pacers won titles in 1970, 1972, and 1973. They absolutely owned the ABA era.

In the last decade, the ABA has tried to make its grand return to the Circle City, only to fail, pack up, and go away.

Joe Newman, the co-founder of the second coming of the ABA in 2000, formed the Indiana Legends. They played home games at Hinkle Fieldhouse, and then moved to the Indiana State Fairgrounds for their second season. But then they folded after just over two years.

Newman’s daughter, Susan Packard, co-owns the Indy Naptown All-Stars along with her close friend Jerri Rines.

Gathered in the Murat Shrine-Tunisian Room a few weeks before the inaugural year, the leaders of this franchise spoke highly about their team, mission to draw interest in a basketball-crazed state, and partner with the community.

Newman, who still has deep ties in the ABA, strongly believes there is a need for a team in Indy.

“Absolutely,” he said passionately. “Kevin Pritchard, the general manager of the Indiana Pacers, got his start as a player and as an assistant coach and head coach in my ABA. Scotty Brooks, the coach of the Oklahoma City Thudner that competed for the NBA championship, got his start in my ABA as an assistant coach and a coach.”

The ABA, according to Newman, is the largest professional sports league in the United States, with more than 80 teams competing this season. What makes the ABA special, too, is that 75 percent of its teams are owned by minorities — African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and women. Packard is one of 12 women-led teams.

The league averages between 1,500-3,500 fans per game, and employees about 250 players that then have earned spots playing overseas, 200 coaches that want to coach professionally, and 300 referees. It is through this league that some of these individuals are able to prove their skills and then advance through the ranks.

With a great support system in place, Newman says the Indy Naptown All-Stars can operate a team at 15 percent of the costs of previous ABA teams, like the Indiana Legends or Indy Alley Cats (2005-06).

“At that time, the business model of the ABA was not good,” said Newman, the co-founder of the ABA and owner of the Legends franchise. “I didn’t CEO at that time; I allowed the owners to CEO and they made dreadful mistakes. The mistakes they made in the first years of the ABA were just as bad as the business model of the original ABA. The salaries were too high, the venue [costs] … were too high,  the travel costs were too high, and as a result after two years I suspended operation.”

The team will be coached by Kevin Jones and his son, KJ.

Indy’s ABA team will be coached by Kevin Jones, who has made a number of stops on the college ranks, including the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Texas Southern, and most notably, Chicago State. He’s a 1987 graduate of Eastern Illinois and coached the U.S. Marine Corps. at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from 1983-86.

“Without Paul George and Lance Stephenson, I would love to tip it off against the Pacers,” said coach Jones, the city’s only African-American professional head coach. “I really mean that.

“I feel really good about the guys that we have and what we’re trying to do.”

The ABA game uses a combination of college, NBA, and international rules. They do play with the familiar red, white, and blue basketballs. It is a faster game, and there’s even a segment of the game when special lights come on and 2-pointers are worth three points, and 3-pointers go for four.

Where is Home?

Costs of a playing facility was one of the contributing downfalls of the Legends team. The Indy Naptown All-Stars aren’t making that mistake, and will play its game at the more modest Arsenal Tech High School (which seats about 3,500), located at 1500 E. Michigan Street in downtown Indianapolis. It’s also special because 75 percent of the players are from the state.

Tickets at the door cost $10, and $5 for kids.

“We chose Tech because of the location, a lot of tradition there, the athletic director is a good friend of mine,” said coach Jones. “He did a great job of affording us the opportunity to not only play our games there, but to play to also practice there.”

Added Newman: “I am very prideful of the fact that the games are going to be at Tech because it’s in the inner-city, we are a diversified league, fan friendly, and affordable,” said Newman.

“The critical mass in developing a business is word of mouth, and is people talking about it and getting involved.”

The team practices at Tech each day from 7-9 p.m., and anyone is invited to come check it out.

Tickets to games are beginning to sell online, and fans can be part of the “Fast Break Club,” which costs $20 and offers discounts on tickets, merchandise and much more. They are available for groups to sell, with $8 staying with the group that sells the card.

The ABA has a broadcast deal in place with ESPN. The Worldwide Leader in Sports will televise 40 games and stream games on ESPN3.com. The Indy Naptown All-Stars will appear on the network at least once in their inaugural season (Saturday, Nov. 29).

Dinner Conversation

Wheels were already in motion last spring to bring a team back to Indy. But it wasn’t going to be under the leadership of Packard and friends.

The team takes the floor for the first time Nov. 8.

“I wasn’t supposed to be the originally owner,” she explained. “There was another gentleman that was supposed to own the team. He brought the assistant coach from our L.A. Slam team all the way out from L.A. He sold his house, got rid of his dogs and brought his wife and three of his children all the way from L.A., to get here and the very next day have that owner say, ‘I’ve changed my mind.'”

Packard was having dinner on March 27th with her family, Rines, the co-owner, and the family that had traveled from across the country.

“My dad pipes up, ‘That’s OK Suzie will own the team. And Jerri will help her.’ That was about 8:25 p.m. and by 11:30 that evening, we had named our team, filed our LLC, filed our articles of corporation and here we were.”

“And now, we’ve worked so hard and gotten so involved in the community to come up with so many good programs, that even as a brand new team, the other teams in our division are now using our business model to build their team.”

The most difficult thing, of course, is fundraising. The bills have to be paid somehow. It’s no easy task to ask companies for their hard-earned money and to believe in a product that hasn’t even played a game. It’s a partnership, the team says, where both sides can greatly benefit.

Thus far, the All-Stars have brought on about 20 company sponsorships and continue to add more.

The Key Question

“Based on the other ABA teams, how long do you expect it take to establish an ABA team in a new city,” I asked Packard (a North Central High School grad, by the way). Having another team is great for the city (publicity, hotels, and restaurants), the team, the staff, and residents. But can it be sustainable? She thinks so.

“There are some teams that have said they’ve tried to make it one season and have bowed out for a year to spend the next year to build their team,” said Packard. “We feel as though we have done that from jump. And that is mainly because we’ve reached out to people we’ve known in the community, who have known other people in the community. It certainly doesn’t hurt having the founder and CEO (of the ABA) being your father, and having his connections and business savvy. Having him here by my side has been invaluable to me.”

The Indy Naptown All-Stars’ home opener is on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. (All Sunday games tip at 5 p.m., so plan accordingly.)

Time will tell if Indy can handle another professional franchise. That makes seven: Colts, Pacers, Fever, Indians, Eleven, Fuel. With experienced ownership featuring a clear passion for the city and this league, hopefully it can add to the great sports landscape that is in downtown Indianapolis.

For more information, visit IndyNaptownAllStars.com and follow them on Twitter.

We enjoyed meeting @MayorBallard this afternoon! We hope to see him cheering our newest #Indy team! #ABABasketball pic.twitter.com/rgLLmCJvxL

— IndyNaptownAllStars (@IndyNaptownABA) October 6, 2014