Nighthawks basketball forms a league of its own

So last month, Doyle and the Maryland Nighthawks announced that they were leaving the ABA and joining the newly formed Premier Basketball League. The Nighthawks and the Rochester RazorSharks, the ABA champions in 2006, will be the inaugural franchises in the PBL, along with newly formed teams in Chicago, Dallas and Connecticut. By the time the season starts in January, the league expects 16 franchises to participate.

‘‘Minor-league basketball has never been done right,” Doyle said. ‘‘It has been successful in baseball and hockey because they have looked at a lot of things that we are not looking at: optimization of schedule, the length of the schedule, when teams play. That is the duty of the league.”

Teams in the PBL will be required to play 12 home games and 12 away games during the 2007-08 season, which will span from January until March. In a nod to their ABA roots, teams will have to participate in ‘‘focused and direct action” with the community. Each franchise in the league will be required to have a minimum number of hours that each player commits to community involvement. Doyle, who stepped down as Chief Operating Officer of the ABA to become Chief Executive Officer of the PBL, will see that teams in the newly formed league will be able to live up to their commitments.

‘‘The barriers to entry are going to be significant,” Doyle said. ‘‘Each new member of the league will go through a lengthy due diligence process, and they will have to make sure they schedule fan friendly dates. We are going to demand that of any team in the league.”

In an effort to populate the league with players, tryout camps will be held in Chicago in mid-July and in the Washington, D.C. and Dallas areas later in the summer. The league plans to hold exhibitions in November in an effort to introduce fans to the game. One other plan to attract fans to the league will be to use the capabilities of the World Wide web to their advantage.

Under the PBL’s proposed Virtual Stadium Network, fans from all over the world can pay to view games on their computer via streaming video, much like fans of Major League Baseball can watch baseball games on their computers via subscription packages. The league plans to let internet consumers view video from cameras positioned all over the court, including those in team huddles during timeouts.

With all these changes, however, fans of the Nighthawks should still expect to see familiar faces when the season commences in January. Within the fluctuating ABA, the Nighthawks were considered a bastion of stability, and players like Randy ‘‘White Chocolate” Gill are expected to make the journey to the PBL with the team.

‘‘Far too many guys have been stiffed by teams,” Doyle said. ‘‘The players know the good organizations in a league. Our players recognize how we do things. They know I am the CEO [of the PBL] and that I have a say in what goes on. They are excited by this opportunity.”