6/12/2007

Carroll Long says it has been "the busiest year of my life."

What he didn't say, but easily could have, was it also has been the most frustrating year of his life.

Long is a public accountant and has his own business, Long Associates. It's a full-time job, and then some.

But much of Long's time this spring has been consumed with his duties as president and general manager of the Kansas Cagerz, who are in their ninth season as members of the United States Basketball League.

And it's the basketball chores that have caused most of his angst.

First and foremost is the Cagerz, who despite having what appears to be a talent-laden roster, are barely above the break-even mark. They enter tonight's 7 p.m. game against league leader Dodge City at the Bicentennial Center with an 11-10 record and have lost their last four games.

The team is riddled with injuries, plagued by inconsistent play across the board and, most worrisome, faces an uncertain future after the current USBL season mercifully ends in three weeks.

It would be an understatement to say it has been a bad year for the USBL. The league started its 22nd season with high hopes and what was advertised as 10 franchises -- two five-team divisions. But it started to unravel even before it started. Long Island folded prior to its season opener. New Jersey exited after playing one game, Jackson, Miss., after four games, and Delaware after 10.

One of the six remaining franchises, the Albany Patroons, is withdrawing after the season and will play exclusively in the Continental Basketball Association after playing there and the USBL this year.

According to Long, none of the other five franchises, including the Cagerz, will return to the USBL in 2008.

"At the end of the season, unless they do some massive recruiting of new teams, the USBL is done. It will be going away. I know of no team in the USBL that will play next season," Long said Monday afternoon.

The USBL, as it exists today, is a league in name only. Franchises are paying referees before each game, the money coming from dues previously paid or owed to the league.

Even more embarrassing was the recent and brief rebirth of the Long Island team, which was resurrected after Delaware folded. Long Island was formed to play Delaware's remaining road games against Alban y and Brooklyn, but the plan was scrapped and the games cancelled after Albany and Brooklyn officials learned they would have to pay the costs of the Long Island players.

The Brooklyn Kings will enter the USBL's Postseason Festival later this month having played just 17 of their regular season 30 games -- none in the two weeks leading to the tournament. Albany will finish with 23 games, the Gary Steelheads with 26. The Cagerz will lose just one game, but play either Oklahoma or Dodge City in their final eight games. Seventeen of their 29 games will be against the Legend or Storm by season's end.

"We had several franchises that were loyal to the league and were willing to do everything they could to salvage it, even though they knew it was an uphill battle," Long said. "We thought we could change it and if the league worked with us, we could save it. But the league didn't care."

Long said the USBL's demise has been hastened by the unofficial departure of Ed Krinsky, who has served as the the league's director of operations since 1995.

"Ed worked his tail off and tried to do what was right this year, but there was nothing he could do," Long said. "He didn't officially resign or anything like that. He just washed his hands of it and kind of stepped aside. That was the worst thing that could happen to the league -- no Ed Krinsky."

Long said USBL chairman and commissioner Daniel Meissenhimer III has attempted to sell the league, but the asking price is too high.

"The offer he made to another person was for an ungodly amount, in excessive millions," Long said without naming the prospective buyer. "The person turned it down."

Long said he has spent considerable time this spring investigating new destinations for the Cagerz. One possibility is joining the CBA, a long-standing and respected wintertime league. The CBA plays an 18-week season, Nov. 1 to March 31.

"They're putting new teams in Oklahoma City and outside of Dallas and would like to see us join them," Long said. "I could see a lot of positives in a wintertime league. It's the traditional basketball time, it's winter and there's not as much going on as there is in the spring. You get bigger names coming to town, there's a lot of NBA coaches at games. You have more budget and there's more checks and balances to keep it an honest league."

But there also are several hurdles.

"I don't think Salina can afford the CBA," Long said. "Their budgets are twice that of the USBL, and we're struggling and losing money now. We'd have to compete with high school football in November, and high school basketball on Tuesday's and Friday's starting in December. There's also Big 12 football on Saturdays, then Big 12 basketball. Those are big-time competitors."

Long said history also works against a wintertime league in Salina, specifically the Rattler factor.

The Salina Rattlers were a minor league team that played one regrettable and forgettable season in the International Basketball Association during the winter of 2000-01. The team was horrendous and the franchise folded after the season, leaving a trail of unpaid bills and hard feelings. The IBA folded in August, 2001.

"The Rattlers are a factor, I heard it this year from a couple of prospective sponsors who said 'they still owe us money.' It's a negative thing," Long said.

"Was it that they played in the IBA, that they played in the winter, that they were underfunded ...? Tom (Hughes) did a good job (coaching) the Cagerz for two years, you can't take that away from him. Would he have done a good job with the Rattlers if he had money? I don't know the answer to that."

Long acknowledged that a new coach would have to be hired for a winter team since Cagerz coach Francis Flax coaches Brown Mackie College during the winter.

Long said there's also another, perhaps more viable option being discussed.

Negotiations have been ongoing since April concerning the creation of a new 25-team spring league with headquarters in Atlanta. The unnamed league would have four divisions -- seven franchises located in the Ohio Valley, six in the Midwest, six in the south and six in the east. Long said the six Midwest franchises would be based in Salina, Wichita, Dodge City, Enid, Okla., Kearney, Neb., and St. Louis.

"It would be better than the USBL," Long said. "It would play with NBA rules and three officials. The guy who's putting it together wrote a plan for a new league, but the league never paid him and never got off the ground. We're using that plan.

"Each team would own a percentage of the league. For example, if there are 10 teams an owner would own 10 percent of the league. If there are 20 teams, he'd one five percent. That way you'd have owners who not only care about their team, but also care about the league."

Long said he has been approached about working for the new league, but is hesitant.

"This has been the busiest year in my life. It has taken away from accounting practice and that's a negative," he said. "Either it's going to have get done or I'll have to move forward. There are going to have to be changes where I don't spend weeks and nights working on league stuff."

For now, Long says everything is in the discussion stage.

"We're not sitting here doing nothing. We're investigating a lot of options," he said.

"I think we've done due diligence. We have some options, but also have some doubts. There's still a lot of work to do before anything is decided."

* Sports editor Bob Davidson can be reached at 822-1404, or by e-mail at sjbdavidson@saljournal.com

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