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There will be no American Basketball Association team for London . . . at least for now.
Ruby Richman, who was looking for investors, said while there'll be no team in London this year, he'll continue to work to establish some sort of professional basketball team for London next year.
Richman hoped he'd be able to announce by Sept. 15 that he had enough investors to establish an American Basketball Association (ABA) franchise that would play out of the John Labatt Centre.
"It's not going to work for this year," the Toronto-based businessperson said. "But I will continue to work in an effort to make it happen next year."
Richman, whose wife's family comes from London, is a former lawyer, national team basketball player, coach, general manager and owner. He's been looking for investors willing to put money into the team.
"It was a combination of not finding sufficient partners and of the timing," Richman said. "It's only six weeks away from the opening of the league. I was hoping to be in a position to be able to say it's a go by Sept. 15. But I procrastinated in the hope that I could get a few more people interested but I couldn't."
Richman doesn't want to leave anyone with the impression there was no interest. He said he had considered trying to field a team anyway but he didn't want to go into the season having to rely on sponsorships and gate revenue to complete the season.
"Until you get started, there's a fair amount of outlay. If I had two more months, it would definitely be a go," Richman said. "There's no question it's a real possibility for next year and not just for the ABA."
Richman is talking about the Continental Basketball Association and the D-League, which is the National Basketball Association development league. The CBA and D-League are both several notches above the ABA.
"There's no team in Eastern North America for the D-League yet but who knows what's going to happen by next year," Richman said.
Richman is determined to put a team in London.
"I believe it's a good basketball market and that it can be very successful here," Richman said. "It has an excellent arena and always have been a good basketball market. The fans from Tillsonburg, Woodstock to Windsor would support it."
After the initial story appeared in early August, Richman had calls and inquiries. He said investors have committed and he'll be spending time over the next few months, looking for U.S. money.
"When I find that, I'll come back to the London people and then it's a go."