It may be the middle of baseball season, but Bill Boyce and his staff are preparing for basketball season.
In a second-floor conference room at the Westchester County Center in White Plains painted in the orange and blue and with the logo of the National Basketball Association”™s New York Knicks, boxes of souvenir basketballs are stacked up to the ceiling.
“These just came in the other day,” said Boyce, pointing to the boxes. Within arm”™s reach are boxes of T-shirts, hats and rally towels all bearing the logo of the Westchester Knicks, the new NBA Development League team that will play 24 games at the 2,100-seat Westchester County Center in the regular season that starts in November.
Financial success for minor league sports teams is driven by two kinds of sales ”“ selling an experience to fans that gets them into seats, and selling advertising and promotions to corporate sponsors, who pay to get their logo in front of the fans”™ eyes. For the Westchester Knicks, the experience is getting to watch future NBA players in an intimate setting at minor league prices, and the advertising ”“ in true minor league style ”“ can be anything.
“I don”™t think we”™ll be able to hang a car from the ceiling here,” Boyce said. During Boyce”™s run as president of the Texas Legends, the D-League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, his staff sold a sponsorship that entailed a car hanging from the arena ceiling and also agreed a naming rights deal for the club”™s court with the Mexican state of Veracruz.
“We really want to make an environment that is great for families,” Boyce said. “Families can bring their kids out and the kids can take away a memory that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. We”™re also in a great business climate, and we”™re very business friendly. We do have courtside suites, which are right-beside-the-court seating. They seat six people and they have some branding on them.”
Since its founding in 2001, the NBA D-League has, like most minor leagues, had its share of ups and downs. Seventeen teams in the D-League have either folded or relocated as the league adapted its business and basketball models to find success on and off the court. This past season, the D-League drew 1,131,543 total fans, with an average game attendance during the regular season of 2,838.
“The league has progressed, and the catalyst for the progression was the new collective bargaining agreement,” said Boyce, whose basketball experience ranges from broadcasting at his alma mater, Wheaton College, to being a licensed NBA player agent. “The change that that really allowed was that players in the first three years can be assigned down, so it increased the number of NBA players who could be playing in the D-League, and it opened up the option of players anywhere in their career could opt to come down to the D-League at any time.”
Because of those changes, the caliber of basketball improved. The 18-team league had 98 players appear in NBA games last year, and roughly one-third of the players on NBA rosters at the end of the 2013-14 season had D-League playing experience.
The Knicks organization is hoping that, in addition to producing NBA players, the D-League club will be a financial success.
“The Madison Square Garden Company is very committed on both of those fronts, and very committed to running a great business like they do with each of their teams,” Boyce said. “They”™re very committed to the quality of basketball, and they”™re very committed to the overall experience.”
Boyce and his staff will continue to build that experience over the summer.
“There”™s no easy way to do it, in the sense that there”™s a lot of work that has to be done,” Boyce said of the process of starting a franchise from scratch. “We just have to roll up our sleeves and do it. It”™s hard work, but it”™s rewarding work. When we see the smiles on the faces of families here in a few months, it”™s all going to be worth it.”
