There has been little or no publicity. No advertising. The coach was announced late. The roster was announced late. The website is not working. Three games or more have been canceled.

This puzzled me. All of the other 2004 entries into the leauge have started play and have had a lot of coverage in ABAlive.com. Plus, Oklahoma City is the only city in the league that has no radio network contract.

I was wondering what happened, so I emailed two of the television stations. Mark Rogers from KOCO said he thinks the team will not play. He actually said he is not sure the league will survive. (almost a direct quote)

Any comments?

Poorly conceived, poorly funded, poorly promoted, poorly situated, poorly operated, poorly launched. magnificiently doomed.

Well put downtownguy.....when I heard they were going to play at Millwood Fieldhouse, I knew the team was a joke!

Wow, that sounds like the WHA...oh wait wrong sport...

I just received a reply to an email I wrote the ABA. They said the ownership group of the Oklahoma City Ballhawgz hosed them. The ownership group was not what they should be, and an announcement will be made today about the future of the team.

When I saw nothing being written about them, I felt that was strange. Especially when the other teams had announced everything well in advance.

My bet is a better ownership group and waiting until 2005 to play.

I read in ABAlive.com, that the ABA has signed a contract for a television network, called America One Sports, to broadcast ABA games on key cable providers... Including Cox.

We need to get these guys going so we can get the exposure the league wants. Radio and television nationwide? Oklahoma City needs it.

By the way. According to stats, Oklahoma City has a zero win, one loss record this year with the next game schedualed for December 10.

If the owners will get their heads out of... Well, you know, then this city will get some national attention in the sports world other than Bubba University.

What's wrong with our University sports? Other major cities are able to support both college AND pro teams. It just so happens that our college teams are having too much success right now for pro teams to really take off.

I just can not stand Oklahoma University. It could be worse, it could be Texas.

The ABA announced today that the Oklahoma City Ballhawgs have become the Louisana Hurricanes, and the games will be played in Baton Rouge.

The league was diplomatic in saying "the owners made a dramatic effort to put the team together." Sure. Right. We had a bad ownership group.

Hopefully, a better group will emerge and another team will take their place with a better name, and better staff who cares.

Why is that? Parents go to Oklahoma A&M?

I would edit the above post to say "Oklahoma State" because many do not know that Oklahoma State, a fine institution was once called Oklahoma A&M. I figured it would have probably still been Oklahoma A&M when anderson's parents went there, therefore, I used the most accurate name for the place that came to mind.

I have a younger brother currently attending Oklahoma State, and I think it's a fine school.

I'd clear up any confusion over the above post, but the edit function being unavailable to me makes that rather difficult and troublesome.

Hmmm...strange...we lost a team to Baton Rouge and it never even got a chance to play here! Well, guess you can't blame that one on anyone else but management. I don't buy what the ABA officials said......we didn't have a decent ownership group. If we had one, they would've played at least a few games here, and advertised more. Anyone who would even consider playing games at Millwood High School has to have their head missing.

I wonder why Express Sports didn't step up to the plate to buy an ABA team for our city.

I will email the league and find out if Oklahoma City is being tapped for another franchise. They may bring us on board in 2005.

Funny thing about this league. They expand by a lot of cities each year. I would reccomend going to their website and looking at expansion teams. It is interesting.

I think the last two posts can explain why someone like Express didn't jump on this. The ABA as a league doesn't look very cautious. If it continues to operate like it does -- e.g. approving a franchise that hosts its home games in a HS Auditorium in a bad part of town, it's going to go under.

People will only invest in things that look to be able to make them money.

We've had minor league basketball here before -- the Cavalry. As I recall, they either moved or went under.

One thing I really appreciate about the ABA is when you email, they respond fast. I worte them this morning asking about Oklahoma City's future and I will paraphrase what they said.

They told me they were embarrased at the way Oklahoma City was treated by the ownership group. The league apparantly was treated the same way. They were appauled that the venue was at Millwood and should have been either at Norick Arena (the formal name of the fairgrounds arena) or Ford Center. Oklahoma City is seen by them as one of the premier cities that they have been eyeing for years. We WILL have ABA in Oklahoma City in 2005. They have found (to quote) "good" ownership, and the formal announcement will be forthcoming. They said they are also appauled at the way the ownership handled the publicity (what publicity?), the selection of the team and the coaching staff. They expect this team to be one of the top sellers and the top performers. They were also ashamed of the fact the radio contract had not been secured for Oklahoma City. The league had secured a national television contract already.

If for no other reason but care for the fans or potential fans, I like this league. They really care and respond quickly. We need to support the Oklahoma City whatevers. I think the league will watch the owners like a Hawk. Good thing. We need that. Maybe it will be basketball's answer to the Blazers in fan loyalty.

By the way. For keeping in touch with the ABA office? Your most entirely welcome.

Thanks mranderson for making the contact and getting the information for us!

Glad to hear the league still holds our city in high regard. Sounds like the ownership group had the problems.

Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to show our support for an ABA team. If we support it well, the NBA might be a future possiblity. Hopefully the new ownership group chooses a name other than "Ballhawgs"