ABA Announces Fayetteville Team
by July 17, 2006 12:00 am 99 views
The American Basketball Association announced on July 4 that it will add a team from Fayetteville to its lineup this fall.
Keith Newton, vice president of operations with Wildhorse Entertainment of Bentonville, said the Fayetteville team will be called the Arkansas Aeros.
Wildhorse had previously announced that it will also launch a Little Rock team this fall. That team will be called the Little Rock Rivercatz. Wildhorse also owns the Arkansas Stars, a National Indoor Football League football team in Fayetteville.
Newton said Wildhorse had offered the Aeros head coaching job to a candidate, but didn’t have a commitment from that person as of July 12.
Newton said Meadowlark Lemon, the former Harlem Globtrotter, may bring his Harlem All Stars team to Arkansas this fall to play against the Fayetteville and Little Rock teams.
“We have had a tremendous amount of interest in the ABA from Northwest Arkansas,” Joe Newman, ABA CEO said in a press release. “In our discussions with Charles Wilkerson, owner of the just-announced ABA team set for Little Rock, it was decided that adding a second team in Arkansas would have some great advantages and would create an excellent rivalry. So, he decided to do it.”