According to a press release sent specifically to us — because we draw a lot of water in the La Crosse basketball community, we imagine — that sleepy Wisconsin hamlet has been chosen to receive a fan-run professional basketball franchise. We are going to show you some of the release — which includes the news that you could have a say in personnel decisions, etc., for the low price of $79.99 — and send you a link or two. That said, while this does not at all have the look and feel of a “deposed leader of Nigeria” proposition, we always encourage people to tread lightly whenever money and the Internet are involved. OK, here we go:

FanRunClub is pleased to announce La Crosse, Wisconsin has been selected for a real professional basketball franchise run by the local community and fans around the world. This concept was first introduced by MyFootballClub.co.uk. MyFootballClub recently purchased a real soccer team and gave the fans control of the franchise. FanRunClub plans to begin operations in Fall 2009.

Basketball fans across the world are invited to sign up for a free newsletter at http://www.fanrunclub.com. Signing up for the free newsletter is the first step in becoming a real General Manager of a professional basketball franchise located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Membership dues are planned at $79.99 per year. Membership will grant fans access to private member forums, a private voting module, and live game feeds. Potential General Managers can visit FanRunClub and click on Voting Schedule to view a sample of how the organization will be run. GMs will vote on a wide range of decisions including which coach and players to sign.
From 1985 to 2001 La Crosse, Wisconsin was the greatest minor league basketball city on the planet. In 1990 and 1992 the Catbirds won the CBA Championship. At the time Flip Saunders was the head coach of the club.

So yeah, many of the details appear to be in the “to be worked out” stage, but we can’t deny we think this is a pretty cool concept. We’re guessing Sassbottom, an early adopter, will probably be the first one to sign up and will immediately insert himself into the opening day lineup.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.