ABA BUILDS BRIDGE TO MEXICO

Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) today announced that the league is “building a bridge to Mexico” rather than erecting a wall with the creation of ABA Mexico, a developmental professional basketball league to begin in August. “Basketball in Mexico is very popular and the ABA has always had a wonderful relationship with Mexican teams sending many of our players there and having many Mexican players on our US teams,” said ABA co-founder Joe Newman. “Having an ABA Mexico is something long overdue, but until we found the right people to execute the plan there, we couldn’t proceed. We now have the structure in place and are very excited about the new relationship with our fine neighbors from the south.”

Roberto (Bobby) Carlos Garcia Crook has been named President/COO of ABA Mexico. He is from Cuidad Obregon Sonora Mexico. His mother, Mary Geraldine Crook Romero is from Cananea Sonora Mexico; his father, Enrique Garcia Delgado, is a former basketball player and ex-coach for the University of Sonora Mexico. Bobby is a former player in the Mexican professional leagues. With an extensive business, marketing and basketball background, he has all of the skills to put together a very strong league. “We already have four teams lined up and over a dozen that have expressed interest,” added Garcia. “Our goal is to have as many as 32 teams in Mexico, and we have quite a few additional initiatives, including kicking off ABA Mexico with a major tournament featuring Mexican and US ABA teams around Cinco de Mayo in May. Details will follow. And concurrently, we are creating an ABA Mexico Wheelchair Basketball League under the direction of attorney Licenciado Tosca (additional details to follow shortly also).

Dana Tully has been named Vice President of ABA Mexico and will serve as US liason with the ABA. Dana trained under famed Olympic gymnastics coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi and was an alternate on the US Olympic team in the 84 Olympics in Los Angeles. She was a full scholarship athlete at UNLV in Las Vegas and afterwards became a trainer with the Karolyis for the 1996 Atlanta US Olympic team. She then went into consulting specializing in strategy, concept development, new store concepts, customer research and customer experience for a chain of Houston sporting good stores and has been doing that for 20 years. “In my spare time, I’ve been working for non-profits connecting veterans through physical and social activities and we now have 2000+ members in RWB,” commented Tully. “Bobby and I are extremely excited about ABA Mexico and we are ready to get started.”

The ABA has appointed three ABA team owners to help coordinate the ABA Mexico program and relationship, including Marlon Minifee, owner of the Laredo Swarm; Adam Salyer, owner of the Universal City Seraphim and Al Smith, owner of the Orange County Novastars. “Each of these three people have excellent relationships with Mexico and great backgrounds in organization and management in professional sports,” added Newman. “There are many parts to this program, all of which will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Suffice to say, we are thrilled and looking forward to the future with our new partners.”

For more information, contact Joe Newman at [email protected], Bobby Garcia at [email protected] or Dana Tully at [email protected] or visit www.abaliveaction.com or www.americasportsnation.com.

Thanks,

Joe Newman