Rough game. It was kind of ugly. Thoughts after the jump.
– Chad Lucas’ blog entry makes some good points, his main one being: Halifax are in the middle of the pack in the ABA’s eastern region and will remain there until they can consistantly play 48 minute games against the ABA elite.
– The game was close in the first half but the third quarter included a big run in the first 5 minutes (I think it was 21-4) that was just brutal. Halifax couldn’t find an easy way to score and they were getting no stops against Vermont.
– Halifax got outcoached, plain and simple. Lewis tried to go small with a line up of Oliver or Crookshanks at centre, Silverhorn at powerforward and three small guards. (i.e. not Ferguson) This is a questionable idea anyway since Silverhorn is not capable of guarding Akingbade or Nelson, but it’s even more questionable when he continued to play man to man, leaving mismatches at two or three positions. Voigt exploited these and we got handled. The 1-3-1 zone could have stopped some of the bleeding.
– Ferguson and Eichelberger had terrible games. Neither of them could shoot the ball (combined 4-18 in 20 minutes) and instead of going inside for easier looks to get some confidence they just kept chucking up jump shots. This continues to be Halifax’s problem: too many jump shooters, and like all jumpshooters they can go hot and cold. If too many guys are cold on a given night, we’re done.
– In the last five minutes Anderson came in and just decided to start trying to score all on his own. It was actually kind of awesome. As much as I like him to pass first, he is also a legit scoring threat. He averaged 15 ppg and 3 apg in his senior year, and was Fordham’s leading scorer – definately good stats for NCAA D-1.
– 3 Frostheaves fans made the trip up. What a nice group of people.
– Benoit has a really, really ugly shot. He shoots off of his palm but it is somehow effective from midrange. He played well, but Oliver kind of disapeared for the game. He only took one shot all night.
– Halifax shot below 50% from the line.
– Officially attendance was 1275, but I am not 100% sure if that’s accurate. It looked to be under 1k to me, but it is thrown off by the tiny number (like 300) who were there when pre-game intros started. I still think that the intro is too long (I don’t want to see the Weathergirls dance before the game, and announcing all the bench guys and having them run on to the court is a bit too much) and people know this. Normally I aim to show up at 7:10 to try to dodge most of the pre-game stuff and it looks like I am not alone.
– In garbage time Darrell “The Hammer and Sickle” Dexter got in the game and snagged a rebound, and then got a shot blocked. He then missed another shot. People went crazy, it was fun(ny).
– What wasn’t so funny was Derico Downey coming in at the same time – it must have been incredibly embarassing for him. It’s one thing that I don’t like about the 13th man, it takes away from the accomplishments of the real athletes on the court. I also thought that this was a game where his ability to slash may actually have been useful earlier.
– On the unconfirmed rumour front: word is that James Booyer is coming back to the team this week.
SECTION 23 
Took 42 photos at tonight’s game, here they are…enjoy!
James Booyer, this could be exactly what we need. Provided he doesn’t suck.
I also agree, we got out coached. We shot contested shots all games, while Vermont adjusted and kept getting open looks.
We also stopped going down low to Crookshank after the early going. This completely takes away any game we have down low. I don’t get this. Crookshank is good at passing out of the double team as well and would give our shooters some open looks.
In the first quarter I actually liked Lewis’ sub of Green for Ferguson. He definitely provided a spark. However, from there he stuck out Eichelberger, left Green out for WAY too long, and did too many other stupid things to think about.
Someone needs to tell Ferguson, that when he cuts to the net that if there are five guys on him; he doesn’t need to force up a ridiculously terrible shot. Like he did this at least 3 or 4 times and either changed it off the front or bottom of the rim, or hit a random part of the back board. He is better than that, I like his size and slashing abilities, but man, he was cold.
Why don’t we have a full court press? The rules in the league promote that style of play. It’s stupid.
Benoit’s shot is brutally ugly; actually, his whole style of play is ugly. However, he gets his shot down and as long as he doesn’t have to make tough decisions, or play outside of his limits, he can be an effective scorer off the bench. I’d rather see him than Eichelberger.
Wigginton isn’t that bad if he keeps his game simple. He should have got more time early in the year. I feel bad for him. He looked fairly good against Boston and I feel Lewis really stunted his growth for this year. He has tons of potential, he is just raw. Now for the year he is relegated to garbage time and trying ridiculous dunks. He is not developing and it’s disappointing.
Great photos. Thanks.
Why is Wigginton not playing college ball????????????????????
I asked myself the same question. and I can not come up with an answer. there should be some program in the states that would give him a chance and free school along the way. you should ask him yourself after a game.
I just read that Halifax is #1 in fan attendance in the league! Wow! And we thought there weren’t many people showing up. Having said that, we can always do better.
Looking at the ABA Power Rankings of the Top 15 teams, it appears that only the lowly Maywood Buzz (1-15) are not on this list. The ABA says it will have 16 teams in the playoffs. Considering there are only 16 teams left, I think it’s safe to say that we are in the playoffs.
How bad do the Buzz players feel (other than because they are 1-15)? They are the only team in the league that is not listed on the Power Rankings. You would think the ABA would just list all 16 remaining teams now. What happens if more teams fold? Will they have a Top 14 list? Top 13 list?
Looking at last year’s playoff tree, I think we want to stay around the middle of the rankings to last longer in the playoffs. It looks like a typical #1 plays #16, #2 plays #15, etc. playoff.
If there are an odd number of teams, I think Halifax, as the #1 in attendance figures, should get any available first round bye as a reward (if there are an odd number of teams).
After this season, I think Mr. Levingston should seriously consider taking on some local investors and pony up the $1,000,000 to join the NBA Development League. That means 20 people at $50,000. That is chicken feed, to be part of the NBA Organization. As reference, the Raptors have a franchise value of $373,000,000 on revenues of $124,000,000 and operating income of $29,000,000 last season.
I don’t know the Rainmen’s revenues, but let’s just say they only get their home game ticket sales and merchandise. If they average 2,000 people per game for 18 home games at $15/ticket, allowing for discounted tickets but also the floor seats, that is $540,000. Let’s say they sell 2,000 mechandise items this season, at an average of $25 each, including replica jerseys. That is another $50,000.
I don’t know how much sponsorship they have, or if it is even included in revenues. Most of the sponsorship appears to be in kind, like the Printing House, Daily News, Q104, Reebok, Physioclinic, The Westin. As a guess, let’s say the total sponsorship is $300,000. I assume the Metro Centre keeps the concession revenues, to keep things simple. Based on the Raptor’s value to revenue ratio, this makes the Rainmen franchise worth about $2,700,000, from $890,000 in revenues.
These figures are all just guesses on my part, I have no actual information on the Rainmen finances. I also assume that there is no economy of scale; in other words, a bigger company like the Raptors would probably have better profit margins than a new company that operates on a smaller scale, like the Rainmen. This is because fixed costs such as travel, salaries, venue rental, etc. are probably all a much bigger percentage of revenue for the Rainmen than for the Raptors.
If the Rainmen don’t make as much as 24% income on their revenue (the revenue figures being complete conjecture on my part), then the franchise value would not be as high as the above figure. If their costs are $20,000 per game ($8,000 for venue rental in Halifax, say the same for travel costs for away games, $12,000 per game in salaries of players, coaches, staff), that means they have costs of $720,000 for a 36 game season. That leaves about $170,000 of around 19% of revenue, as income. Based on the Raptor’s figures, that makes the Rainmen worth about $2,200,000.
I am guessing these figures are on the low side, but my point from this exercise is to show that the franchise has a value that could easily be supported with a local consortium with the current owners retaining 50% of the team to reward their risk-taking on starting the team, to enter the NBA Development League. Once the Rainmen join the NBADL, attendance will go up and that increased revenue will go toward the bottom line, although I figure player salaries will probably also rise, but probably not as much as the increased revenues from attendance and merchandise.
How about the Green Bay Packers model of local people owning shares, maybe for a part of the team ownership to raise money (it essentially acts as a bond to raise money)? Sell 2,000 shares at $500 each. I would definitely buy one of those, and I am sure most other season ticket holders would, too. Heck, I paid more than that for my 5 season tickets. What do you think, Mr. Levingston?
OK, I think I am going to just post my longer comments on my blog. Chris, I referenced your blog on mine, if that’s OK. For my thoughts on the Rainmen, go to: philkempton.blogspot.com
You left out marketing and staff costs. I figured this out before but with few more sponsors that have come on board, I am guessing they would have in the 400,000-500,000 dollar range in sponsorship.
That being said I thinks it’s safe to say the Rainmen are losing money this year.
re: Power Rankings.
Last year’s power rankings had 25 teams listed. I would be shocked if there are more than 12 teams around by the time the playoffs roll around and even fewer being able to make the trip east from California.
re: Team Value.
It’s safe to assume that the Rainmen are leaking money all over the place. Rent at the MetroCentre is actually much higher than 8k per day due to the huge number of staff that you need on hand. Add in advertising expenses. On a side note: Andre Livingston has expensive tastes – check out the fasion article in the HFX supplement of today’s Daily News, his outfits aren’t cheap. (He also drives a suped up hummer). The team initially gave two different numbers for what it needed to break even – 2k a game in the summer and 4k a game in the fall. I have no idea which one is more accurate.
My guess is that the team is losing money, but almost every business loses money in it’s first year. I think it would be a shame if the immense investment of time, money and goodwill that the Rainmen put in isn’t used next year. I think the team will have better turnouts in a second season, but we may not be able to see that happen.
Here is my .02 on the second season, based on what I have seen here with the Frost Heaves.
With a sucessful season and good PR, corporate sponsorship will increase. But, at least here, attendence has fallen off a bit from last year. Even though the team is doing great, some of the newness has worn off.
Another thing I have seen in contrast is that the fans that ARE showing up this year are wearing team shirts, hats, etc.