IBL, ABA to announce merger

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

The International Basketball League, which includes the Las Vegas Bandits, is announcing later today that it is merging with the American Basketball Association to form a 14-team league.

Whether the new league will be called the IBL or the ABA had not yet been determined this morning.

The new league will incorporate the six IBL teams with eight from an ABA that has yet to play a game. The ABA teams represent Chicago, Detroit, Indiana, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, San Diego and Tampa Bay.

IBL franchises are located in Cincinnati, Trenton, Richmond, St. Louis and New Mexico in addition to Las Vegas.

The IBL's earlier announced 56-game schedule has been scrapped and will be replaced by a 56-game schedule featuring all 14 teams. The season will open next month.

"Rather than competing with each other, we recognized the great synergy that would be created through a pooling of our resources and experiences," IBL chief executive officer Ralph Rossi Jr. told the Associated Press.

Joe Newman, co-founder of the ABA, voiced a similar sentiment, saying "With our eight teams and six IBL teams we will have tremendous geographic coverage through the U.S."

The IBL had been in a precarious position after two franchises folded last week and a third, an expansion franchise, failed to materialize.