ABA DELAYS START OF SEASON TO JANUARY 2nd 2021

Indianapolis, IN.

The American Basketball Association (ABA) today announced that it has delayed the start of the 2020-2021 basketball season until Saturday, January 2, 2021 instead of its original opening date of Saturday, November 7th. “Like all other sports leagues, this is not something we wanted to do,” stated ABA CEO Joe Newman. “It is something we had to do because of Covid-19 and significant health concerns for our fans, coaches, players and other personnel. We have been very diligent in following all health guidelines and feel that starting in November is premature based on the current surge and conditions. Fortunately, we are able to be very flexible.”

“This season, we’ve had record-setting expansion and already we’re on our way to breaking that record,” added Newman. “It is possible we could approach 200 teams by the start of the 2021-2022 season. The ABA has the best business model in professional sports; it is easier to own and operate an ABA team than any other, and our incredible diversity has provided opportunities and inclusion for all races, creeds and genders with 75% of our teams owned by African-American, Hispanic, Asian and women. No other league has ever come close to that.”

The ABA plans to shorten the season by a few games and to extend regular season play through mid-March, shorten its play-in rounds – and to hold the Final Eight in Binghamton NY as originally scheduled in mid-April. Full details of the restructed season will be announced shortly. In addition, because of the size of the ABA and some areas not affected too much by the coronavirus, some ABA teams will start earlier than January 2nd.

For more information, please visitwww.abaliveaction.com.

Thanks. Have a good weekend. Be careful, be safe.

Joe Newman

ABA CEO