POSTED BY: Eurobasket News
The United States Basketball Association has announced a couple of changes in their schedule for the 2009 season.
Due to the state of the economy, and a major venue change, the league has decided to scale back its schedule for their inaugural season. We will be shortening the season to 20 games as opposed to 30, and will not be playing the All-Star Game in Atlanta.
According to league president Duane Jenkins, 'Due to the current state of the economy, we feel we must cut back our season to 20 games. The state of today's economy dictates we start our season on May 6^th and end on July 2, 2009 . We will have the championship series in Atlanta and will be sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury. The tournament will be single elimination in format.'
The league has also announced that due to the fact that Morris Brown College is on the verge of bankruptcy, the Atlanta Platinum will be playing their home games at the VW Henderson Gymnasium on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. According to Director of Communications Chris Munson, 'We were informed on Friday March 27^th that Morris Brown College will be unable to host Platinum games due to their financial situation. 'We are thankful to Clark Atlanta for stepping at the last minute to host our games.' When informed of the cancellation of the Atlanta Platinum tryouts on March 21, and 28, Clark Atlanta University's Athletic Department allowed the team to conduct it's tryouts in their gymnasium on March 28, 2009.
'We also had several unexpected coaching changes in four of our team cities, during the pre- season months, we are obligated to give each coach ample preparartion time to field a competitive team' , said Kenneth Green, League Director of Basketball Operations.
The league staff met on Sunday March 29, 2009. The outcome of this meeting dictated that the USBA and the teams would be best served making the schedule adjustments. 'Losing Morris Brown College at the last minute took me by surprise, we fully intended to assist the college in it's efforts to financally resurect itself, now that their problems have escalated to the point of what may be no return, we can only feel this may be the end of this fine institution', said Jenkins. ' We are going to do this right, even if it means reducing the season to just 20 games for each team'
