Investor Keeps the Faith in ABL
Venture capitalist Joe Lacob was explaining why he put together a group, raised $3 million and invested it in the American Basketball League, in which a crowd of 3,000 is considered a good turnout.
It’s also a league that lost $6 million last year. Lacob’s group wiped out half of that and the rest was erased by Bob Fiondella, chairman of Phoenix Home Life Insurance of Hartford.
And this week, ABL chief Gary Cavalli said, another $3 million has come in from Rodger Rickard of Woodside, Calif., who also will serve as a league vice president.
“Content, content, content,” Lacob said, mimicking the real estate guy who preaches: “Location, location, location.”
Lacob is the new operator of the San Jose Lasers and his group’s investment makes it a 20% owner of the ABL.
It started, he said, at the Atlanta Olympics.
“I had Dream Team men’s tickets,” he said.
“I went to a couple of games and it was dead, flat. Great players, no competition. So I went to the women’s games, and they blew me away. I came home and went to a few Laser games, then I talked to Gary [Cavalli].
Lacob (pronounced: LAY-cub) is a partner in the Menlo Park, Calif., venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which in 25 years has helped build nine technology start-up firms into Fortune 500 companies.
Lacob put together an ABL investment proposal and took it to the board room.
“The reaction around the table was: ‘Uh, well . . . ‘
“So I got some people together [he won’t say who or how many] and did it on my own.”
Why? The ABL is losing money and it’s up against the WNBA, which spent $25 million in advertising and marketing in its first season. The ABL is spending $3 million this year.
“Content, content, content,” he repeated.
“We compete with Bill Gates every day at Kleiner-Perkins. Here we’re competing against David Stern. We have the best women’s players in the world and we play during basketball season.
“When I consider an investment, I take a macroscopic view, where even if you miss by a little, you’re still in the wide stream. All the elements are there for us--women’s sports is a major trend in our society, the appeal of the athletic woman is here.
“The shoe and apparel companies who market women’s sports are mature businesses. And you’re talking about half the population.
“Now, can we take on the NBA and win? Odds are with them, frankly. They’re powerful and they have a brand name. So we have to be smarter and more aggressive. But the one thing they do not have is the best players. We do.”
What does he expect to get for his $3 million?
“I could put money elsewhere and get a better return,” he said.
“But this is fun. If it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t be interested. But I think eventually we’ll do very well on this investment.”
TICKET TALK
ABL attendance is up from last year, but you still wonder how long the league can hold together while drawing crowds of 1,000 to 2,500 in Long Beach, Philadelphia, Colorado and Columbus.
Columbus, the defending champion and still arguably the league’s best team, drew only 2,013 in its 6,300-seat arena for its victory over Long Beach on Sunday. When the Richmond Rage team didn’t draw well last season, Cavalli moved it to Philadelphia.
After 38 games last season, the ABL average was 3,395. After 37 games this season, it’s 4,179. That figure is somewhat skewed by the New England Blizzard’s average of 8,146. The WNBA average last summer: 9,600.
“We’re not happy with attendance at Long Beach and Philadelphia,” Cavalli said.
“We’re sending a ‘swat team’ marketing group to those places and we’re asking them to come up with some ideas on getting those numbers up.”
