ABL CEO Kuhan Foo: “The challenge is getting teams to market themselves.”
By Jan Lin/Red Hoops
The CEO of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), Kuhan Foo, pointed out at the post-finals press conference in Jakarta that for the existing teams to survive, teams will need to learn to market themselves well. (Photo 1 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Kuhan Foo, the chief executive officer of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), has revealed that the league will know by April the status of new teams coming on board for the 2010/11 season. He also pointed out that for the existing teams to survive, teams will need to learn to market themselves well.
“The challenge I think is getting teams to market themselves and finding the major support, sponsors, pulling in more crowd and creating a basketball culture,” shared Kuhan at the post-finals press conference.
“We know it is possible,” Kuhan added, “if we look at KL Dragons for example in Malaysia where the crowd is usually Chinese and men, but now their crowd has 40% Malays, 30% women because of the ABL.”
Four of the six ABL teams in the inaugural season are new teams set up in conjunction with the inception of the ABL. Only Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma and the Singapore Slingers are existing professional teams with the experience of engaging the community.
It has indeed proven to be a challenge for the new teams to fill the stadiums on game day. Thailand Tigers and Philippine Patriots gave free entry to their home games in a bid to draw in the crowds and drum up the support in their first season.
While the Thailand Tigers, who finished at the bottom of the table in the inaugural season, struggled to bring in the home crowd all season, the Patriots crowd picked up significantly towards the playoffs and finals.
The KL Dragons, singled out by Kuhan as the role model for having done an exceptional job in expanding and diversifying their fan base in their maiden season, credited their fans and media partners for their success.
“I don’t think other teams can do so because they don’t have Malaysian blood in them!” the KL Dragons owners said jokingly when asked how they managed to pack their stadium to the point of having to turn away spectators.
Turning serious, they continued: “I think to be fair, this game, except for Philippines, is quite new to other countries, including Malaysia. I think if you look at any leagues when they have just started, even the NBA, the English Premier League, the crowds were not there either.”
“It takes time to develop these things,” they added. “Give it time to slowly grow, it’s about creating the awareness. It has a lot to do with our media partners as well, we need to say a big thank you to them.”
Besides a massive revamp of their dynamic website mid-season and heavy utilisation of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the Kuala Lumpur-based team also organised road trips for their fans to Singapore for their away games.
Indonesia’s Satria Muda is the only other team that had fans travel to an away game. Satria Muda, who have the most number of fans of all the ABL teams, have been actively building their fan base since the team joined the Indonesian Basketball League in 2003. Satria Muda have won four domestic titles since, plus the SEABA Champions Cup in 2008.
Philippine Patriots owner, Mikee Romero, who also owns the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) team, Harbour Center, the team that Satria Muda beat in the 2008 SEABA Champions Cup final, said after the ABL finals: “When we (Harbour Center) played against Satria Muda two years ago, it was a very different team. The level of Indonesian basketball has become higher.”
While the team’s success and progress will be a crowd puller, according to Kuhan, what is essentially more important is the building of a basketball culture, or a culture of identifying ABL as ASEAN’s pride.
While the Philippines have built an unrivaled basketball culture, elsewhere in ASEAN, Malaysians and Indonesians would not find local sporting pride unfamiliar too, with their history of having homegrown athletes claiming top honours at international competitions such as the Olympics.
But for the rest of ASEAN, building a strong fan base that would attract sponsors and support to ensure the sustainability and survivability of the team does seem like a mountain-moving task. The teams taking ownership of the ABL dream is the instrumental first step.
“This finals is the fruit of the ABL dream,” shared Mikee Romero at the post-finals press conference in Jakarta. “It is a common dream of Tony Fernandes and his friends (who became the owners of the six teams). There are a lot of people backing this.”
“And one day, we will grow into Asia and this league will become a big, big league,” Romero continued in zest, “and maybe even rival the NBA (National Basketball Association) or CBL (China Basketball League). Watch out for this league.”
Philippine Patriots owner Mikee Romero (right) seated next to Patriots’ star import Gabe Freeman. (Photo 2 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring said that the Satria Muda fans provided the ‘X’ factor for his team’s success. (Photo 3 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Satria Muda take in the cheers of their supporters who traveled from Jakarta to Singapore for the final playoff game that went in favour of Satria Muda, sending them to the finals. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The KL Dragons, in their final regular season home game against Singapore Slingers, saw the stadium hit maximum capacity and had to turn away spectators. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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i have a suggestion to make the league popular on some countries.. make a contest for the next courtside reporter hottie :b i mean it worked with uaap/ncaa.. u vote who will be the reporter that will represent your school.. that alone can create hype before the regular season starts..but of course she needs to speak “understandable” english.
and please invest on “real” cheerleaders! those that can do pyramids and liftings..not barely legal girls with pompoms..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZvYc0Fuvko
Rival the NBA! C’mon guys lets keep this into perspective. Yes hopefully it can become pretty big here in Asia. But lets keep it to standards that can be meet. Creating a league with 12 or so teams in it that has an excellent fan base and sold out stadiums, now that is managable. Nobody who plays good minutes in the NBA will leave the NBA to play in the ABL. People will go to Europe first then if there not good enough for that they will play in ABL or another asian league to that degree. Or both leagues such as Kyle Jeffers. It’s just the way it has been and always will be. If the ABL focuses on becoming the top league in Asia then it will have done its job well.
in the PBA, the RAMCAR conglomerate of the Agustines family (local franchiser of KFC, owners of Mister Donut & Tokyo Tokyo, distributors of Motolite Battery) plugs in their companies for even the simplest of things during a televised game such as instant replays of assists, closeup shots of fans, and interviewing the best player.
i don’t know plugging in ads during a game will work with the ABL’s multinational setting. i’m just saying that the ABL has very limited options in finding sponsors (preferably visible in the ASEAN region like Milo) willing to take the risk of advertising to a few thousand people watching live and maybe less than a million TV viewers. the league also has to consider if the networks broadcasting the games (Star Sports, TV5) will agree to mention the name of a sponsor other than GE or Air Asia.
We are the 3rd best team in Asea.
We will return back next season with full force and hopefully bring the best imports.
@Kimsurasak, yes, will bounce back!
Any news for brunei barracudas?
The best way to market the Patriots is to let the Patriot’s games go on rotation in Clark, Cebu and Davao. People will watch in droves, besides provincianos don’t get to watch international basketball all the time. Do it the Mao way, start in the countryside. When the team becomes popular, they can finally include Manila in their stops. Patriots need a fan base and I’m sure they’re not gonna get it in the league infested capital called Manila. There is a vacuum for big basketball in the provinces. It’s a sweepstakes waiting to happen.
The only thing to consider though is to ascertain as to where will they be based. Can they have the three cities altogether? I mean, I know there are rules but how will a ball club survive if it’s not charging the gates? What does that infer to the basketball fans? Even if it’s not true, the branding that the Patriots/ABL will get in the Phils is- it’s a league not worth their pennies.
The Thailand experience is another beast, bball is not popular, there are no basketball stars,…. a scenario that is in polarity with the situation in Philippines. Reluctantly, I have to say that somehow the market is saturated by PBA, PBL, Liga ng Bayan, UAAP, NCAA et al.The marketing arm of the Patriots needs to do a blue ocean of sorts by going to the provinces. I am dead sure that the regional papers will headline them in the sports section. Along the way national media will turn its head and realize the newsworthiness of the team.
The games in the provinces will be packing gyms and as the local media highlights the Patriots team, the sponsors will follow. I am sure, the telcos will be shoving on another to sponsor the team. Can you imagine how many new subscribers a telco can get if they include a sim card on the price of the ticket on one game alone? What about the beverages? They can go exclusive Coke or exclusive Pepsi. With 4,000 to 5,000 people watching I could just imagine the liters of softdrinks that will be consumed. Ditto with snacks, water etc.. and that is just the immediate benefits a company will get from sponsoring the games. More importantly there’s media exposure and advertising with ripple effect.
A lot of national companies want a presence in the provinces. It’s a matter of understanding how these companies want their products to be pushed in the league. It’s clear cut, there is a huge market for males in the 13 to 25 age bracket as well the older markets. There is also a huge segment for female fans. There is money in provincial basketball.
More importantly, the Patriots can do their CSR better. There are so few basketball clinics for kids in the emerging cities. They can also help in promoting positive values among kids like going to school, fostering nationalism, reproductive health.. etc These kind acts will surely foster a sense of community among fans and will generate a big buzz in the key cities.
I hope this reaches the Patriots.
1ASEAN!
Peace, love and punk rock from Waray Nation Pilipinas!
@Jerby – Wow! Patriots could so hire you to do marketing for them, you’ve got such a keen vision.
I think the location is decided primarily on whether Air Asia flies there! So Clark for instance wouldn’t be a problem (and you raised such a good point). Currently teams have to fly into Clark and commute by bus for 2 hours to Manila, which is quite strenuous for them – I don’t think they would mind just playing in Clark! And just as you’ve pointed out, there’s so much potential for Patriots to actually make a difference than only being just another basketball team in Philippines
isnt it part of the agreement that the homecourt/hotel should be near the airport? i also think that you havnt taken into consideration the entry of the other team from phil. bec if thats the case then you cant call the whole country as your homecourt, how bout the patriots in luzon/manila and let the other team take visayas that way you can have domestic rivalry as a way to promote ABL,
the next redhoops poll:
who got the hottest courtside reporter?.
Goodluck to all the teams. May they continue to increase their profit, excluding patriots and tigers who provides free entrance to their homecourt.
KL dragons have the hottest reporter in the league
Les, it’s just my two cents on the topic.
I know they have grand plans laid out by some marketing meisters. 
@3stars- I am only looking at the current situation. I think they want to keep the one team from each country set-up for the moment. I read it in an interview here at Red Hoops. To be honest, I’m not too sure about the matter, maybe Les can confirm this with the ABL people.
As for Les’ proposal of using Clark, then maybe the Philippine team can become the Pampanga Patriots. However, the impact will still be monstrous/earth shaking if they do a triple city rotation. I don’t know if Mr. Tohrir will accept local airlines as sponsors for the team. Locally, there’s been a huge push by airline companies to get the lower income travelers into using the plane for domestic travel. The Patriots will be a great vehicle for this. Maybe they can just make arrangements with Tohrir to use ads that will solely be about domestic flights.
I will vote on Miakka and the Slingers’ courtside reporter.
the KL reporter needs some work!
Clark can be potentially be a suitable place for basketball afficionados especially from Pampanga and if Smart-Pampanga can do attract the crowd then how much more this Patriots Team?
good proposal Les.
I’d love to see a visayan/mindanao team play in the ABL
Oh Jan I’m sorry, i mistook you for Les! He he he. Nards it was Jan’s idea. nards are you from Pampanga?
@3stars – I don’t think there’s such an agreement but all teams fly AirAsia because of the special rate they get from the official airline. Air Asia only flies to Clark – but who knows may expand to Manila in time to come? I think they are considering another team from Philippines but it won’t be confirmed until April – I guess they will have to first work out whether having another team in the same country will result in competition for sponsors at this teething period of the league.
@jerby – Using the capital city as the representative team is the normal and ideal choice at the moment because behind this ABL gig, the (long-term) idea is also to promote tourism ala attracting ASEAN people to fly to the city to catch an ABL game and tour the city concurrently. Clark may not yet be as appealing for tourists vis-a-vis Manila
It’s just cheaper to fly in there via budget airlines but the transfer to Manila is quite painful!
In fact, most teams have to transit at KL (and maybe stay overnight even) in order to fly to Clark, no direct flights add that to their pain. And given that Air Asia is the official airline, there’d be very high barriers in place for other airlines wanting to come in as sponsors. Though teams are not actually obliged to fly Air Asia if I’m not wrong so they could fly other airlines for convenience but it’d be significantly more expensive.
@jerby – No worries. Maybe Les and I need to colour code, he can use blue shade for his reply while I stick with this girly pink, heh
@Nards – Honestly, I think Miakka is in a league of her own and it’d be next to impossible for other teams to hire someone of that calibre even if they hire reporters with the looks, their ability to report on this sport is another issue altogether. That’s always the curse of female sports reporters I feel (and players do joke about it)! For Miakka, not only does she have the experience as a courtside reporter but also her basketball knowledge (inherited from her dad and just for being Filipino)!
how bout bring all the other abl teams here in the phils for some exhibition games?? one at a time.. different provinces.. againts diff teams from pbl or university teams from NCAA/UAAP.. they can gain experience here and is a great way to make the students aware of the league..i mean any team that your university play you will definitely watch it rigth? imagine kl dragons vs. lasalle green archers.. singapore slingers vs. ateneo blue eagles, SMB vs SMB
.. and then they can look for their next ASEAN import while theyre here.. 2 birds in 1 stone.
@3stars – Another good suggestion! Will the fans of say Lasalle green archers, Ateneo blue eagles, SMB bother to come down to watch exhibition games or tune-up games like these though?
For the 09/10 ABL season, the Singapore Slingers did organise tune-up games inviting Pinoy teams such as Ginebra, Coca-Cola Tigers, Smart Gilas to Singapore to play against Slingers in a bid to tune-up and of course introduce Slingers to the locals.
To do it the other way round will definitely help to expose the league altogether since ABL is struggling to tap into the strong Filipino fan base.
Especially with Pinoys playing in almost all ABL teams, some Pinoys may find themselves support another team just to make it more exciting for themselves – I do know of some Pinoys supporting Barracudas instead of Patriots because of their Pinoy imports.
definitely.. all universities are so eager to test their new recruits before the actual competition.. its not going to be jam packed but since we are talking about marketing here then rich students from this rich universities will definitely pay for the regular abl games once they find it exciting and worth supporting… and that will only happen if they realized that abl teams can really give a tough competition to the local squads.
exposing the other teams will definitely spark the curiosity of the basketball fans..local fans can love them or hate them but either way they will start paying to see them either win or lose!
@jan
why Clark? i lived there for the past 2 years. tourists only go there to eat and play golf. there isn’t a venue big enough to host even an ABL game there. maybe in San Fernando (just a few exits via the NLEX highway) where Liga Pilipinas uses a school gym with a lot of seats.
PBA teams played UAAP varsity teams in their own gym early in the decade. i don’t think they do that anymore. but it’s always interesting how young college players will fare against a team of pros. it’s definitely a drop in level of competition (from playing PBA teams), but the idea of the ABL team playing a college team would spark some interest among hardcore local college basketball fans.
@Jan: a Singapore vs Ateneo or DLSU showdown or a UE or NU vs KL or even an FEU or UP vs SMB will attract a moderate amount of crowd audiences but to ease up the levels, it should be noted that the ABL teams must play with no imports to see if what exactly are we in.
or try the UAAP/NCAA – ABL challenge to be held in the summer or a few weeks before the actual competition.
the PBA cannot attract that much of a crowd (unless if it is GINEBRA), and please consider the ALMA MATER factor.
@Jerby: I am from Mindanao with Antique/Boholano – Zambales ancestry
you migth consider them pros, but they only become pros last year rigth.. they will never get the intensity of a “real game” with pba teams bec. pba players are wise enough not to risk getting injured while playing in a exhibition match, coaches even remove their star players whenever the game is getting physical, while college players are still in the stage where they are making a name for themselves.. they wanted to be noticed and they have the “yabang” factor!
Comparing ABL and the UAAP/NCAA in terms of power,
system effeciency and rotational execution
Ateneo/San Beda/Letran: Patriots
UE/SSC-R/AUF: KL Dragons
UST/NU/DLS-CSB/JRU: Slingers
DLSU/EAC/Mapua/FEU: Satria Muda
UST/UP/Adamson: Thailand Tigers
AU/UPHSD: Brunei Barracudas
which philipino team going to play here in qatar?
@nards.. uhmm i think a lot of people will not agree with your comparison..
ssc-r and auf??? the ncaa champions and the team at the bottom?in the same level? are you serious??
but lets not discuss it here as non-pinoys wont understand..
To give an idea of how bright our chances were then, in October, 1986, in the Seoul Asian Games, the Philippines won the bronze medal, but not after a highly questionable victory by the host Koreans against our team in the semifinals that led to our one point loss. In that game, with the Philippines behind by a point, and less than 5 seconds left, Allan Caidic attacked the lanes, released a looping layup and charged into Korean Hur Jae in the process. The basket went in and an offensive foul was called against Caidic. While we can argue that the offensive foul could have been a defensive foul in nature, what was highly dubious was the nullification of the basket that Caidic made, even after slo-mo replays showed that Caidic’s attempt was made before he charged into Hur Jae. As per amateur rules, a shot would be counted even in an offensive foul so long as the attempt was made prior to the foul. And this was clearly evident in the slow-mo. Too bad really since this not only made us lose a guaranteed silver but the opportunity of a rematch with the Chinese featuring top players Song Ligang, Wang Libin among others.
But this should give our younger basketball fans an idea of what potential our country had before in winning the Asian championships even against the likes of China and South Korea. Because at this stage, toppling Yao Ming and China,
Taulava, Willie Miller,Rudy Hatfield,Racela,Penissi,Cariaso,Thoss,Arboleda, miller, and the likes should not be part of any Philipine team in their time!
Allan Caidic,this was a key ingredient in Jacobs’ scheme of things as he needed shooters to break the fearsome man-zone defense that the Chinese employed. Surprisingly though, Jacobs was actually more fearful and wary of the South Koreans than the Chinese. In Jacobs’ words at that time, South Korea was more difficult to defend, especially their top players Lee Chung Hee and Hur Jae, because they matched up well against our players and that the defense would need to stretch to the 3-point region, thereby making the paint vulnerable. But South Korea didn’t have any interior threat, and Jacobs acknowledged this. On the other hand, China’s inside game is the most dominant in the region but their shooting, ball and player movement were suspect and mechanical.
I stand corrected, pls. exchange AUF and Adamson.
perhaps non-pinoys won’t understand us.
but if we introduce these kind of stuff then people will have a growing interest on Philippine Collegiate Basketball, thus increasing the market for Pinoy imports because some of the pinoy imports that ABL teams have are either at the twilight of their careers and some are mediocre but there are 3 standouts: Ricafuente, Vergara and Avenido. Lingganay was a super-import at the ASEAN level.
going back i think we have to let them use their imports.. were talking bout promoting abl locally and do you think people will be interested on a league where teams are beaten by our college teams??
an abl team wont be complete w/o imports therefore victory will not be sweet if you know the opposition is not with their full roster.if the abl team wins then they can gain some respect here.
@nards..believe me if we talk about phil college basketball here they see it differently and negatively.. let our asean exports do that on countrys they are playing.. lingganay is actually an attraction whenever abl is played in malaysia.. and he loves it!
What is Gintong Alay ?
Gintong Alay was the flagship sports project created by former President Ferdinand Marcos on October 31, 1979 primarily for athletics development to restore Filipinos rightful place as among the top sports champions in Asia. The project was designed to promote dedication and commitment to sports in its campaign to harvest gold medals in international sports events as part of the integral national goals of the country and also the Filipino way of life.
The first successful member of Gintong Alay was Lydia de Vega, a lissome lass from Bulacan who came to the scene and cracked the national record in the 100 and 400 meters track. De Vega became the darling of track and field events and was named the “Sprint Queen of Asia” by winning the 100 m gold medal in New Delhi in 1982 South East Asian Games and duplicating her feat in the SEA Games in Seoul, South Korea 4 years later. Along with her success came other champions such as 400 m male counter part Isidro del Prado who also bagged golds for the country with steeplechaser Hector Begeo, hurdler Renato Unso and a host of other athletes that included the basketball team spearheaded by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
While the success of the project boomed during the 80’s, it deteriorated after the ouster of Marcos in February 1982. The project was stalled for a decade and was brought back during the early part of the 90’s. Though brought back to be a part of the Philippine Olympic Committee’s added project, funding and resources from the private sectors had diminished and participation of individuals from schools nationwide through the Palarong Pambansa had shortened.
With so many talents around the country just waiting to be tapped, I hope that the congress and senate with the help of the national sports committee, government and private sector could formulate and support a way of resuscitating a golden project like this. It would allow us to show once again that the Philippines is a mighty powerhouse country to be beaten in sports and would once again add fame and glory through sporting events and would indirectly help the travel and tourism industry.
Palarong Pambansa should continue its task especially from out of school youth athletes that left lots of undiscovered talents more than any collegiate team.
Jay, do you think that the current rp gilas team that will headed to doha next month have these armour? How importance the shooting skills of our national player for any international competitions?
seriously? a top-tier college team will embarrass any ABL team if they go import-less. i’m basing it on the fact that DLSU (during their suspension year) easily beat pro clubs from KSA and Bahrain that didn’t use their imports. ADMU has been flying to Canada to play against very good university teams (UBC, Simon Fraser) for the past few years as part of their pre-season preparations and managed to be competitive. UE (with Lingganay, Acuña, James Martinez, and Paul Lee) won an invitational tournament in the US and even beat an all-State high school team (i think it was Arizona, and all of their players were recruited to US NCAA Div 1 programs).
a full-strength ABL team will beat any UAAP/NCAA team. like what 3stars said, no one will respect the ABL if they go to their gym without their imports and be literally taken to school.
I really like the idea of having exhibitions of ABL teams not only in Philippines but also around the ASEAN regions. There are tons of tournaments being held all over Southeast Asia, and as Sinigangsta and 3stars mentioned, it have to be in full-strength regardless it’s the same set of imports or different because it could be uninteresting if it’s not.
It will work in both ways because they market the league and their respective teams, and give a chance for the new players to strut their wares.
Although, we have to give credit to the person who pitched the idea of not including the imports. That’s because of the chance to give more exposure to local players from each team — another goal of the ABL. This can be done in the future since the league is very young, and the need to market the league should be the top priority.
@ hanoi, matt -Mga kababayan, kung pwede lang please, wag na kayong magiingles kung baluktot ang ingles n’yo. Nakakahiya, kung akala niyo ang galing galing n’yong mag-ingles, eh basahin n’yo ang mga post ng mga taga Singapore at Malaysians dito. Makikita n’yong tuwid sila mag-ingles. Hindi mga tanga ang ibang taga ASEAN na nagpopost dito. Kung pwede lang aralin n’yo muna ang wika, kasi sa totoo lang nakakahiya talaga.
If it’s ok, can we just post about the article? Jay, no offense but in all honesty I don’t care about the what ifs of Philippine basketball. All I care about is now and its future. There are a lot of PBA nostalgia forums where you can post your ode to a lost time. To Ilocos, there are a lot of proper forum to what you’ve posted, I hope we can be more sensitive, this is not just about us, it’s about ASEAN basketball.
Thank
Jay, i watched that seoul games, that was aclear broad day light robbery! putang ina mo 3stars!
@bader. Keep in mind that this is a Singaporean based site, and were in the world wide web. So it is appropriate for us to use English as our medium. This is for everybody to understand and not left behind.
Also, it’s ok if the English isn’t straight or prefect. What’s more important is we understand their point of view.
@Irangels I think you mean Red Hoops is based in Singapore cos that’s where we are but it certainly isn’t based on Singapore bball!
With Jonathan Chuongco and Jahred Salazar in Manila and Jakarta writing about ABL games, we are becoming an ASEAN site.
Now to find somebody in Malaysia and Thailand!
And yes, I echo Irangels call for English since it’s the common language for everyone here. Our mods would appreciate it because they all have a standing order to delete anything in a language they don’t understand just in case it’s something offensive!
@jack- it feels good knowing you cant sleep at nigth thinking of me..
@jay and ilocos.. you can try posting your comments in the pba forums a lot more people can relate to your post..but not here bec if you scroll up its about marketing abl.
going back to the issue.. i think abl should do something in between season i dont know what but anything will do.. i mean the fanbase of every country is picking up at the late stage of the competition and we have to keep the momentum going.. give the fans something to look forward and be excited about the league.. their website sucks.. no story to wrap up the season no articles on who are the leaders in assists, points heck i dont even know who won mvp!or if theres a separate finals mvp!
the league survived its maiden voyage now they can focus more on other things.. marketing itself.. bring on the team mascots bring and the courtside hotties next season!
@Sinigang – You will have to scroll up to read the earlier conversations to know why we derive at ‘Clark’ as a potential choice
@Nards, 3stars – I think it’s ok to talk about college stuff here as long as it is still kept relevant to ABL so that other non-Pinoys can participate in the discussion with you guys and like you said, maybe even introduce them to potential players from college who can play for ABL after graduating (like Rudy did). As for those who may see it negatively for no good reason, well then, we’ve got moderators
@lrangels – Make that ASEAN-base site?
Given that all ASEAN save for Pinoys do not understand Tagalog! 
@jan. ASEAN based site it is
@3stars. I agree! It felt somewhat weird that the first season of the ABL doesn’t have the first MVP, best import, All-ABL first team and second team, All-ABL defense, etc.
I think in the coming months, there will be tournaments around ASEAN that will feature ABL and non-ABL teams. Over the past few years I’ve heard tournaments like the Crown Prince Cup Invitational Basketball Tournament in Thailand, Brunei Cup in Brunei, and the Singapore Challenge Cup. These types of tournaments are the best targets for ABL teams to participate, market themselves, and the league. Of course, there should be appropriate media ads (TV, print, and Internet) to hype-up and inform the general public about this. Of course, a TV deal too.
As for respective local TV, I think every team can strike a deal with their local TV networks. This is something similar here in the US. A good example here is in the Washington, DC area, Comcast Sportsnet (a regional network in the east coast) broadcast all the games of the Washington Wizards (NBA).
As for the websites of each teams, I think only the Slingers, Satria Muda, and KL Dragons. This is certainly another area that every team has to stress. Just the simple things.
I guess I got to end here (for now) ‘cuz there’s still more, and I will add some later.
ABL mascots next season:
thailand tiger- TIGERPORN the trampoline jumping naked tiger mascot
kl dragons – DRAKE and GON the twin tower mascot
patriots – ANDRES the sword wielding mascot
brunei – BARRACK the black baracuda
slingers – MUFASA the lion
smb – wuysang as himself<-suggestions?
The ABL should come up with its own identity and branding first. Even the simplest and smallest detail, starting up is its own logo. I think, they should consider redesigning it. It seems it’s a logo of an amateur/minor league or a local tournament. Take a look on some Professional Leagues in the US/North America. The logo has its representation and meaning, with respect to the league, kind of sport, and history. It has some common similarities like: red, white, blue colors; acronym; the silhouette man; kind of ball; etc. For instance, the NBA logo represents Jerry West. The current NFL commissioner made a redesign on the emblem from 25 stars to 8 stars, which represent the 8 divisions. The PBA went to several logo changes up to the current one (it’s Francis Arnaiz, not Robert Jaworski is the silhouette man). Even the World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly known as World Wrestling Federation) and World Wide Fund for Nature, went to court because of the “WWF” acronym. Though, it’s a graphical representation, still it gives an impact, attraction to fans, consumers, and even familiarity to people with no interest. Every time you see the logo, it’s automatic.
Now, it’s down to its affiliated teams considering the logo, fonts, colors, used by any means: jerseys; graphics on TV, websites, print ads; t-shirts; tarps; collectibles; for “marketing” purposes; etc. The league should have this so-called “property” similar to the NBA and others. This is where the PBA patterned its “property” implemented by the late commissioner Jun B. about 10 years ago; wherein the “property” indicates the company name/logo along with its design and monicker; changing of names, monicker, and logo must undergo the commissioner’s office for approval and fees. This exempts Satria Muda BritAma, wherein they’re obliges to attached the sponsor name along with the club name. Bring on the ABL “property” instead of showing off the flags of its respective nations. The use of official abbreviation of its affiliated teams should also be implemented (e.g.: Philippine Patriots – PHP, Satria Muda BritAma – SMB, Singapore Slingers – SGS, Kuala Lumpur Dragons – KLD, Brunei Barracudas – BRU, Thailand Tigers – THA). And I don’t like the idea of using first name rather than family name on the back of the jerseys (e.g.: “Rudy” Lingganay, “Nakiea” Miller, “Pathman” Matialakan, “Wenda” Wijaya). League office should be strict on standard uniforms.
Lastly, the league must draft its own constitution.
@tabinge.. just like what you said logos have been to several changes as times go by.. so let the abl logo have its own evolution that symbolizes the evolution of the league itself.. its too early to change it again.. its only been a year.. the league is still finding its own identity and by the time it does then thats when we can change the logo.
dont overdo things.this is not a town liga where there is best in uniform award.. they dont flock the gym because they see players in multicolored uniforms its like wrapping a gift worth a dollar in a $100 gift wrap..
regarding using the names..its a culture thing..indonesians often use 1 name only..like our very own ferdinand.
Are all basketball players in ABL have under insurances by their respective teams?
@Janelle. You mean insurance, like the team would cover their surgery, rehabilitation, etc., should they get injured? I believe every team should have that. Else, they won’t join sign in the dotted line.