A Letter to Andre Levingston, Rainmen team owner

Dear Andre,

It pains me to have to write this letter to you. After reading about Cordell Jeanty's benching in the newspaper today, I have to wonder: How can the Rainmen front office continue to stick their heads in the sand? Andre, you are a successful businessman, aren't you? How can you not see that Lewis is messing up so much that this team, as a business, may not last long enough to make it to next season?

With only a handful of home games left, what the Rainmen need is a total transformation from a team with talent that can't win the tough games into a talented team that has a chance to win it all. The real answer is THE COACH HAS TO GO.

Andre, other professional sports teams fire their coaches all the time. When the talent on the field exceeds the talent on the sideline but the team still falters, it is obvious what part of the equation has to change.

Andre, do what is best for the business. Emotions are not part of it, look how negative emotions hurt the business with Lewis punishing talented players for daring to question his authority. The players are punished but it is the team, the fans, and ultimately your bottom line that will suffer.

As a player and coach myself, I used to give Lewis the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes players have to be reminded who is the coach and who is the player. However, in his parting comments to the newspaper, SirVal merely expressed what all of us fans have been saying for a long time now, in conversations with each other and on Section 23, Chris Parson's blog (which is the main source of news and opinion about the Rainmen). Lewis is the obstacle to the Rainmen's success. With all of the recent negative press about the Rainmen, people who are just learning about the Rainmen are getting a lot of reasons to decide against buying tickets, let alone buying any merchandise.

I personally had two friends buy season tickets this year, based on my bringing them to a couple games last year with my season tickets (which I renewed). One of these friends, a regular commenter on the Section 23 blog, has seriously wondered aloud to me about getting a refund. If he is thinking like that -- and he is a basketball fan, an athlete, and a coach -- imagine what a casual observer must think about the Rainmen and whether to even attend a single game or not. This all adds up to losses for the Rainmen and I am not just talking about the score at the end of each game.

How about next year? With Crookshank and Jeanty -- two talented and experienced players -- being benched over coaching disputes with Lewis, if the coach is still with the team next year, how many new recruits will you get?

Halifax has the potential to be the most successful team in the league. We have the population, the venue, and the talent on the court. What we don't have is the coach to bring success to the team. It would deeply sadden me as well as a lot of other fans in Halifax to see the Rainmen fail because of Rick Lewis.

Andre, if it has to be about the dollars and cents, then so be it. Lewis must go.

Thank you for bringing the Rainmen to Halifax. I sincerely hope you make the necessary decision to further the team's success and its future in Halifax.

Best regards,

Phil Kempton

Good luck to Eric and a potential Moncton rival team?

Congrats to Eric for still having the opportunity to show his stuff at the ABA All-Star game, even after the Rainmen have officially left the ABA. I am happy that he is going to see some of his family. They are really supportive of him, as evidenced by the fact that his extended family actually commented on the Herald website a few months ago when it had a story about Eric. I thought it was pretty cool that Eric's family keeps track of his career here in Halifax. Have fun Eric, I hope you get selected as the game MVP!

In other ABA News, Joe Newman is looking at the silver lining around the cloud of the Rainmen leaving the league.

In this news story, Newman is quoted as saying that this "opens the door for an ABA team in Moncton."

While I agree that Moncton is probably the right-size market for an ABA team, I shudder to think that another Maritime entrepreneur might get involved with the ABA. If our D-League hoop dreams don't work out, maybe a Moncton PBL franchise would work well for us, as a ready-made rival for Halifax. You heard it here first!

Short post about the Rainmen

I like Mr. Levingston’s plan to approach the D-League to see if we can join, with the fallback position of joining another league if it doesn’t work out with NBADL. In my previous post, I laid out a SWOT analysis of the Rainmen joining the D-league.

I read somewhere on OSC that PBL and CBA are merging and that the ABA team from Texas has already been playing as Dallas in the CBA, so it sounds like the scenario of the Rainmen joining another league other than the D-League is quite likely. However, I agree with the ambitious plan of talking with the D-League, because you don't get anything if you don't ask.

The NBADL will be impressed with Mr. Levingston and his organization, but if the league doesn't have plans to expand to the Northeast and if there are no other teams in the area that are ready and/or willing to join the D-League for next season, then we will probably join the new PBL/CBA merged league. The bottom line is the Rainmen need other teams in the Northeast to be part of whatever league we eventually join, to make it viable in the long-term.

Wow! Big news for the Rainmen!

In his press release, Mr. Andre Levingston announced that the Rainmen have left the ABA effective immediately and are not participating in the playoffs. This was great news and the timing was a bit of a surprise, although not really when one thinks about the expense that travelling to Quebec for the playoffs would have been, especially when it was pretty much written on the wall that the ABA had let the Rainmen down so many times that it would be almost absurd for us to stick around.

Furthermore, Mr. Levingston informed the press that the Rainmen would be looking into joining the NBA D-League. You don't have to go too far into my blog to see that I have been hoping for this for some time.

I really think the Rainmen will be a good fit in the D-League, despite some potential obstacles. Why? Here is a quick SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis:

- Erie, Pennsylvania was just announced as the latest D-League expansion team for the 2008-09 season. The Erie metro area has a population of 281,000. The Halifax metro area has a population of about 385,000. I think we can support a D-League team if the owners in Erie think they can make a go of it, in a much smaller city than Halifax. Ron Sertz, the director of basketball ops in Erie, seems to be the man behind minor-league sports in Erie. From what I can tell, Mr. Levingston seems to be making connections with guys who are the Ron Sertz’s here in Halifax that are obviously crucial to a professional team’s success in a small market like ours. STRENGTH. The Rainmen front office has learned a lot from this year’s experience and the population of Halifax can and will support a brand name like the NBA.

- To get a sense of what ticket prices may be like in the D-League, here is a link to the Erie franchise.

The prices look to be about 50% higher than what our tickets were in Halifax this season. Erie will have eight different seating packages available, from “Hollywood Seats” and “Courtside Suites” to “Endzone” and “Corner” seats. I think slicing up the arena in so many categories is a smart way to provide the opportunity for fans of all economic means to enjoy the game. OPPORTUNITY. Here is a chance to really fill up the Metro Centre, with a variety of price points which create demand for premium seating and give more people a chance to afford bringing their whole family to a game with the lower-cost seating choices.

- I really like the Season Ticket Holder Privileges part of the Erie ticket price program and I really hope the Rainmen have something along those lines next year. OPPORTUNITY. There is so much that can be done in terms of promotion next season. While ticket prices may be higher than when we were in the ABA, the product will be better.

- I just realized that the Rainmen intro montage with the piano music and shots of the Rainmen is the same music and concept that the NBA used in their Where Amazing Happens campaign. Coincidence? Can’t be. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. STRENGTH. The NBA will have to be impressed with the Rainmen organization.

- In terms of players returning next year, that will likely depend on a few factors such as which league we will be in, who the coaching staff will be, how many roots the players have made here i.e. girlfriends, and of course pay levels. We can’t expect the players to put the rest of their lives on hold if the pay is not commensurate with the commitment to come to Halifax to work. THREAT, assuming we want at least some of our players to return. I think we know who we want back!

- NBA Commissioner David Stern stated in 2005 that he planned to expand the league to 15 teams and to develop it into an NBA farm system, with each D-League team would have 2 NBA affiliate teams. Recently announced expansion teams in Reno, Nevada and Erie, Pennsylvania make it 14 teams. WEAKNESS. If the NBA is not receptive to opening up the Northeast, we can’t make them. The NBA already closed down 2 of its teams in the southeast when they decided to expand the league westward. Does the Northeast fit into their plans?

I figure the NBA will not expand too quickly, they have a very valuable product and diluting it too much by expanding the D-League without strict control over who gets a team is risky for them. This ain’t Joe Newman’s ABA! A total of 11 D-League teams have either folded or moved in the league’s 7 seasons. Considering the nature of minor league sports teams, this is a pretty respectable retention rate. By comparison, here is the Wikipedia entry for the ABA.

Check out how many teams are in the league this year and how many are defunct or have left for other leagues. Interestingly, the Rainmen are already off the list of this year’s teams.

- I will repeat my concern over the lack of D-League teams in the Northeast US. Erie is only 93 miles from Cleveland, who appears to be their NBA affiliate. Erie will be the closest D-League team to Halifax and it’s over 500 miles away from Boston, let alone Nova Scotia. Unless the D-League expands into the Northeast in a meaningful way, our team’s travel costs will be exorbitant and so will our competition’s.
WEAKNESS. This may or may not be a problem, depending how many other Northeast teams are able to make the jump to the D-League. However, the answer to that question may be that no other teams can or will do it.

- A lack of nearby teams and therefore higher costs will translate into higher ticket prices. What is the magic price point for Halifax fans? I don’t know, but I’ll bet that a price any more than $20-25 for an average seat will be perceived as too expensive. THREAT. If prices are too high, the fans won’t come.

Hmmm, pretty even SWOT so far, with 2 of each category. The Strengths and Opportunities seem to be fairly well-identified items that relate to the Rainmen’s existing organization, while the Weaknesses and Threats arise from unknown factors such as what will happen with ticket prices, who will be our competition and can we afford to travel beyond the US Northeast to play? If details on these latter issues become known, then this analysis can be firmed up to show whether or not the D-League is viable for the Rainmen.

Tribute theme to Rainmen owner Andre Levingston

We need Isaac Hayes to record these lyrics to the "Theme From Shaft"! If Isaac isn't available, how about a great local band like The Metric System or The Mellotones?

Who's the dapper man
That rocks a fedora at all the games?
(Andre!)
You're damn right.

Who is the man
That would risk his neck for his team The Rainmen?
(Andre!)
Can ya dig it?

Who's the cat that won't cop out
With ABA madness all about?
(Andre!)
Right on!

They say this cat Andre is a bad mother--
(Shut your mouth)
But I'm talkin' about Andre!
(Then we can dig it)

He's a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
(Andre Levingston)