What International Team would you pick?

[pickIBL]

Ok, since this is an international question I thought I'd better post this in the International forum. For all wondering why I am asking read this RealGm article for more info on the organization. http://www.realgm.com/src_beyondthearc/ ... al_ibl_gm/

Moving on- while OwnMyTeam.com is currently running an IBL basketball team it will likely be possible in the future to a buy a real team in Europe. So below I've developed a likely situation to see how it would play out in a vote.

Option Number 1 is purchasing a team in Reykjavik, Iceland. It easily fits within the budget and the Iceland Express league sends top team(s) to the EuroCup. The arena seats around 1800, but there aren't other buildings in the area so expansion is a possibility. The Express league limits imports outside of Europe to 2 roster spots.

http://www.eurobasket.com/isl/isl.asp

Option Number 2 is purchasing a team France that plays in the NM1 League. This is the third division in France below France ProB. The team for this example is Angers BC 49. The home court seats 3,000. In future years the club has a good chance at getting upgraded to France ProB. They are not eligible to play in EuroCup regardless of record or success in NM1.

http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=FRA&Team=879

Option Number 3 is purchasing a team in Spain that plays in the LEB Silver. The LEB Gold, Silver, and Plata are below the ACB league. The team for this example is Caja Rioja in the LEB silver. Their arena seats 3850 people. They are not eligible for EuroCup but do have a chance to be upgraded to LEB Gold in the future.

Option Number 3 is purchasing a team in Germany that plays in the Pro B league. This league is the 2nd league in Germany. The name of the team is Proveo Merlins Crailsheim. The capacity of the gym is around 1400. They are not eligible for EuroCup play and it would be challenging to get the facility and team to be upgraded to the ProA league.

Option Number 4 is the Chesire Big Storage Jets of the BBL in England. This is the top league in the UK. The capacity of the Northgate Arena is around 800 people. The team(s) in the BBL get the opportunity to play in EuroCup. Drawing fans and support has been a challenge in the BBL.


http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=ENG&Team=1399

[Rasho Brezec]

Do the teams become eligible for European competitions if they advance to a better league?

[pickIBL]

Teams need to be in the top league in their country and win (titles) to get into EuroCup. Thats the pros of a league like the BBL or Express League. Sure Caja Rioja could compete someday but it would be incredibly unlikely without a ton of fan support and a cash injection from a organization like OMT.

[Sheenmue]

I think it would be useful to know about local talent. I mean, if some of those clubs have junior teams or a strong junior team is located in the same area so they can use those players in the near future. About Europe, I'm not sure how it works in Iceland, but it seems this year there isn't any iceland club in an european competition http://www.fibaeurope.com/cid_KNce8jInH ... de_on.html . Anyway, a hard decision to make, hehe.

[pickIBL]

http://www.eurobasket.com/isl/isl.asp

according to eurobasket.com KR Reykjavik competed in Fiba EuroCup. Something that would only be possible with the BBL and Express Leagues respectively. you can get an idea talent wise on eurobasket.

its a challenging question which is why i posed it. Buying a team in France ProA and paying top guys half a million bucks a year isn't really an option. at least not right away. there are no paramenters for you vote. part of my vote dealt with the community and country. tourism and interest in actually visiting can count if you factor that in as well.

there is no easy answer or right answer here.

[MaxtheRabbit]

i just wanted to note that the Pro-B is the third league in germany after Pro-A and the BBL.

However since I am from germany I of course support the idea of supporting a german team.

I also think that buying an english team is probably a bad idea because of the low interest in basketball in GB. There is the possibility of playing euro but low attendence would relativize that.

[pickIBL]

was probably thinking france at the time. thats right the team in listed in proB is the third league

[androcles]

CajaRioja. La Rioja wine rules.

[BarbaGrizz]

I would go with the English team.

-With the 2012 Olympics, basketball should have a great increase of interest in UK
-The language. Your team shoudn´t have problems to sign foreign players; the iceland team will have this kind of problem...
-The possibility of play in a European Competion in the next few years...
-The power of the exchange rate in UK: UK>Euro>US Dolar


*sorry for my poor English

[pickIBL]

the olympics is a really good point. As for the other points- OMT membership is in USD. USD would be converted to Iceland Krona in that case (so thats different that described above). Also The Iceland Express League and England's BBL have the same international possiblities.

[BarbaGrizz]

Yeah, they have the same possibilities, but again, it should be easy to sign players with the English team, I don´t know much of Iceland, but I´m almost sure that England should be more atrative to foreign players. And England is also a bigger country, with a larger talent pool...

[pickIBL]

, it should be easy to sign players with the English team, I don´t know much of Iceland, but I´m almost sure that England should be more atrative to foreign players. ...

Look up Rekjavik, then compare it to Chester. Then tell me what you think.

[BarbaGrizz]

, it should be easy to sign players with the English team, I don´t know much of Iceland, but I´m almost sure that England should be more atrative to foreign players. ...

Look up Rekjavik, then compare it to Chester. Then tell me what you think.

I have done some research...now I´m pretty that I would pick Chester instead of Rekjavik. From what I could understand, Chester is a warm city, near Manchester and Liverpool and the basketball team has some support from the city office.

http://www.chester.com

[pickIBL]

, it should be easy to sign players with the English team, I don´t know much of Iceland, but I´m almost sure that England should be more atrative to foreign players. ...

Look up Rekjavik, then compare it to Chester. Then tell me what you think.

I have done some research...now I´m pretty that I would pick Chester instead of Rekjavik. From what I could understand, Chester is a warm city, near Manchester and Liverpool and the basketball team has some support from the city office.

http://www.chester.com

yep no wrong answer- just thought some research might surprise you as chester is the sleepy town about an hour away from Liverpool and Reykjavik is the surprisingly warm city of Iceland with 300k (in the area) people and is quite the party town. also surprisingly you should expect higher attendence in Iceland compared to Chester. Believe the Northgate Arena in Chester only has a few hundred people as average attendance.

[BarbaGrizz]

yep no wrong answer- just thought some research might surprise you as chester is the sleepy town about an hour away from Liverpool and Reykjavik is the surprisingly warm city of Iceland with 300k (in the area) people and is quite the party town. also surprisingly you should expect higher attendence in Iceland compared to Chester. Believe the Northgate Arena in Chester only has a few hundred people as average attendance.

I don´t know...I really don´t believe that the Icelandic team would put more than 800 people in the gym. If the English team start to play well, we could have a sell-out night every night. And the managements costs would be lower for the english team...

And btw, I live in a sleepy town, and we don´t have almost nothing to do here. A (good) basketball team would be (like I see in americans movie) a great event, where the whole city pays attention to the highschool team and the players are local heroes...

[pickIBL]

yep no wrong answer- just thought some research might surprise you as chester is the sleepy town about an hour away from Liverpool and Reykjavik is the surprisingly warm city of Iceland with 300k (in the area) people and is quite the party town. also surprisingly you should expect higher attendence in Iceland compared to Chester. Believe the Northgate Arena in Chester only has a few hundred people as average attendance.

I don´t know...I really don´t believe that the Icelandic team would put more than 800 people in the gym.

And btw, I live in a sleepy town, and we don´t have almost nothing to do here. ...

Iceland puts over 800 fans in the gym for many pro teams around Reykjavik. The Express league has 12 teams. The 2nd division has 10 teams.

I pointed out that Chester was a sleepy town as a reply to your comment that players might rather play in Chester when Reykjavik is known as the party town.

There is more to Iceland than meets the eye

[BarbaGrizz]

yep no wrong answer- just thought some research might surprise you as chester is the sleepy town about an hour away from Liverpool and Reykjavik is the surprisingly warm city of Iceland with 300k (in the area) people and is quite the party town. also surprisingly you should expect higher attendence in Iceland compared to Chester. Believe the Northgate Arena in Chester only has a few hundred people as average attendance.

I don´t know...I really don´t believe that the Icelandic team would put more than 800 people in the gym.

And btw, I live in a sleepy town, and we don´t have almost nothing to do here. ...

Iceland puts over 800 fans in the gym for many pro teams around Reykjavik. The Express league has 12 teams. The 2nd division has 10 teams.

I pointed out that Chester was a sleepy town as a reply to your comment that players might rather play in Chester when Reykjavik is known as the party town.

There is more to Iceland than meets the eye

Yep. But been a party town also could be a negative thing. In Chester, the players only have the bball to focus, with no distractions at all

(man, I´m enjoying a lot this thread! )

[Basti]

Look up Rekjavik, then compare it to Chester. Then tell me what you think.

I have done some research...now I´m pretty that I would pick Chester instead of Rekjavik. From what I could understand, Chester is a warm city, near Manchester and Liverpool and the basketball team has some support from the city office.

http://www.chester.com

yep no wrong answer- just thought some research might surprise you as chester is the sleepy town about an hour away from Liverpool and Reykjavik is the surprisingly warm city of Iceland with 300k (in the area) people and is quite the party town. also surprisingly you should expect higher attendence in Iceland compared to Chester. Believe the Northgate Arena in Chester only has a few hundred people as average attendance.

I don't if I got this right but the entire country of Iceland has 300k inhabitants. Reykjavik has around 120k inhabitants so it is still somewhat big enough. anyway I'd be hesitant to buy a team in Iceland only because there are only 300k inhabitants and soccer is probably more popular. so the talent pool is quite small. I know that you could bring in some players from the rest of Europe but well the weather is really inconsistent (and I'm being generous here) in Iceland and it certainly won't attract many players. plus I don't think the domestic league is probably 3rd tier in europe so to get some good players it is very likely to overpay them. I'm just trying to give you an outlook.

on the other hand, Iceland is arguably the best country in terms of social & medical support of these countries you mentioned.

[pickIBL]

I don't if I got this right but the entire country of Iceland has 300k inhabitants. Reykjavik has around 120k inhabitants so it is still somewhat big enough. anyway I'd be hesitant to buy a team in Iceland only because there are only 300k inhabitants and soccer is probably more popular. so the talent pool is quite small. I know that you could bring in some players from the rest of Europe but well the weather is really inconsistent (and I'm being generous here) in Iceland and it certainly won't attract many players. plus I don't think the domestic league is probably 3rd tier in europe so to get some good players it is very likely to overpay them. I'm just trying to give you an outlook.

on the other hand, Iceland is arguably the best country in terms of social & medical support of these countries you mentioned.

its been along time since i've looked up rekjaviks population but i know when i quote populations its normally the greater metro area which might be the conflicting numbers. its been awhile since i've looked up the population of the country or the city so id have to check on the most recent numbers. what i do know is it gets hundreds of thousands of tourists during the IBL season as well. Actually I've been impressed with the talent. Jon Stefansson actually played for the Dallas Mavs. Plus a guy who played several years in Iceland who now plays in Spain would likely be willing to come in a play during the IBL season as well.

http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_artic ... n_happens/

[pickIBL]

I don't if I got this right but the entire country of Iceland has 300k inhabitants. Reykjavik has around 120k inhabitants so it is still somewhat big enough. anyway I'd be hesitant to buy a team in Iceland only because there are only 300k inhabitants and soccer is probably more popular. so the talent pool is quite small. I know that you could bring in some players from the rest of Europe but well the weather is really inconsistent (and I'm being generous here) in Iceland and it certainly won't attract many players. plus I don't think the domestic league is probably 3rd tier in europe so to get some good players it is very likely to overpay them. I'm just trying to give you an outlook.

on the other hand, Iceland is arguably the best country in terms of social & medical support of these countries you mentioned.

its been along time since i've looked up rekjaviks population but i know when i quote populations its normally the greater metro area which might be the conflicting numbers. its been awhile since i've looked up the population of the country or the city so id have to check on the most recent numbers. what i do know is it gets hundreds of thousands of tourists during the IBL season as well. Actually I've been impressed with the talent. Jon Stefansson actually played for the Dallas Mavs. Plus a guy who played several years in Iceland who now plays in Spain would likely be willing to come in a play during the IBL season as well.

http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_artic ... n_happens/

according to Johnson the weather is milder there than the Midwest in the winter.