Independent Basketball Leagues Banding Together to Raise the Bar in Minor League Sports

CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the current landscape of professional basketball in the United States, multiple key leaders within professional basketball have banded together to hold a Unification of Standards convention. The convention will be on Saturday September 10th, at the Marriott Chicago O'Hare and will focus on the idea of creating a unified front for minor league basketball in the United States.

The convention will discuss the creation of the United Basketball Federation of America (UBFA), a national model that centers in forming standards that would be followed by teams and recognized by Sponsors, Venues and most importantly the fans. "This standardization has been overdue for some time," said Dr. Sev Hrywnak, Chairman of the Board of the Premier Basketball League. "We formed the Premier Basketball League to remove ourselves from the bad experiences we endured in the ABA with teams due to poor league management," continued Dr. Hrywnak.

The Minor League Basketball Convention was the idea of Mr. Mark King, Owner of the Florida Flight team of the Continental Basketball League (CBL). "It's time that we started working together and create something much bigger than all of us as individual teams, and leagues," said Mr. King.

The convention is an open invitation to all minor league basketball teams and their leagues' offices to attend and contribute to creating standard operating procedures that each team in their league must comply with. Once these standards have been met and verified, the team will be deemed "Certified by the United Basketball Federation of America," confirming to fans, sponsors, players, coaches and venues that every UBFA team can meets all financial obligations and operate in a professional manner.

"I spent a year working for an ABA team with the expectation of a salary," said King. "The position turned into an unpaid internship because financial obligations could not be met. If leagues like the ABA are not going to do their due diligence and verify the business plans and financial backing of their member teams, the UBFA will."

President and CEO of the Premier Basketball League, Brij M. Desai, commented, "The PBL and our member teams have built a community and fan based league. We are excited to learn from others and share our business model with other leagues as well. This convention is an open invitation for all leagues to attend and on behalf of the PBL we are honored to be the host league for this inaugural event." Desai looks forward to attending the conference and discussing how PBL initiatives can be adopted into this new unified front. Actively engaging team communities and community service are at the core of the PBL. Desai's goal is to have all teams adopt this pledge to give back to their respective communities.

Invitations to attend the inaugural convention will be extended to key leaders in the American Basketball Association (ABA), the International Basketball League (IBL), and other independent leagues in the United States. Both league officials and member teams from the Continental Basketball league (CBL) and the Premier Basketball League (PBL) have confirmed attendance.

Starting Monday August 8th, 2011, interested individuals and member organization representatives will be able to visit the Minor League Basketball Convention website at www.mlbconvention.com to register for the event. For further information or to register for this inaugural event you can contact [email protected] or Mark King at (407) 592-9841

SOURCE Premier Basketball League