Bandits, ABA team to merge

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

Minor league professional basketball will continue to have a presence in Las Vegas but it will be as one entity, not two.

Brad Rothermel, president of the proposed Las Vegas franchise in ABA 2000 which was expected to debut this fall, confirmed the local franchise in that league will merge operations with the Las Vegas Silver Bandits of the International Basketball League.

"We've already agreed in principle," Rothermel said Tuesday of ongoing conversations with the new Silver Bandits ownership group, headed by former UNLV Rebel Jackie Robinson.

Rothermel said the merged franchise may have to buy out a group of ABA 2000 investors in Phoenix but didn't think that would be a stumbling block.

The team most likely will be affiliated with an expanded IBL, which may absorb the entire ABA 2000. Rothermel said owners in the two leagues will meet in New York on Monday to discuss a merger.

Although the ABA has name recognition with fans, the merged league probably will continue to operate under the IBL banner. The NBA, which claims to have acquired the rights to the ABA name during the NBA-ABA merger, has threatened the new league with legal action if it continues to use ABA as part of its title.

The IBL recently concluded its first season but most of its teams struggled at the box office -- none more than Las Vegas, which was successful on the court (37-27) but rarely attracted more than a few hundred fans to its home games at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Given the Silver Bandits' attendance woes, it remains to be seen if one minor league franchise can survive in Las Vegas, much less two. As Rothermel said, it simply made no sense for two teams to try to co-exist in what has been a questionable market for minor league professional sports.

"It's not that we're afraid of the competition," said the former UNLV athletic director. "But in the conservations Jackie Robinson and I have had ... we agreed it would be better to have one franchise instead of two. That didn't make sense to either one of us."

Robinson was introduced as the point man for the Silver Bandits in March but his group only took over ownership from the league this week. Last week, the team laid off roughly half of its administrative staff.

"Brad and I are on the same page," said Robinson, who said the combined franchise will be one of "four or five" major announcements regarding the Silver Bandits that will be made in coming weeks. "I adore Brad as a person and respect what he did at UNLV as athletic director."

Rothermel said his position with the merged franchise has yet to be determined, but expect it to be a key one. Most observers thought the community contacts Rothermel made during his successful UNLV stint would have given the ABA team a big hand up over the local IBL franchise in a fight for survival.