LAS VEGAS VENOM: Shooting for success

Team marks latest attempt to establish ABA

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By KEVIN STOTT

VIEW STAFF WRITER

Las Vegas Venom co-owners Dan Savage and Tyrone Nesby may be on to something.

Working feverishly to get the word out about the new local American Basketball Association team, the pair has been visiting schools and talking to media in Southern Nevada several months before the Venom's first game in November, and doing everything in their power to give the expansion team a decent chance of surviving in a city with fresh memories of failed ABA teams like the Slam and the Rattlers and the International Basketball League's Silver Bandits.

While Savage admits his partnership with former UNLV and NBA player Nesby might come across a bit like "The Odd Couple," he said they are trying to learn from past mistakes made by the fallen franchises of the past.

"Actually, a mutual friend of ours put us together and we just met at New York-New York one day, and what I did was show Tyrone a little footage of what we did in Boston and just related it to Las Vegas," said Savage, former owner of the ABA's Boston Frenzy, who also works as recreation services manager for the New York-New York. "And obviously his background is great but ... his work ethic is even better."

Savage said the Venom's success could depend on getting residents involved at a grass-roots level.

"It's a community approach where we want to get into the schools," he said. "I actually went to the school district about creating a sort of Read to Achieve program, obviously naming it something different and going into the schools and bringing a couple of players and the coach in and reading to the kids to stress awareness of education. That's huge for us. That's one part of the community approach.

"The other part of the community approach -- and there's one other team in the ABA doing this, the Vermont Frost Heaves -- is to give the fans actual real live input into starting lineups or the team jerseys. When we narrow it down to two different team jerseys, we want to put them on the Web site and let the fans vote."

Savage said getting local youth interested in the Venom is much more important than doing the same for adults, something he learned while running the Frenzy in Beantown.

"The first year we had so many high school and middle school and elementary school kids at our games that ended up being repeat customers and dragging their families out to the games," Savage said. "That's the key. That's the main thing I learned. The other thing I learned is to treat it like a business, not a basketball team, because we're going to have good players, we're going to have good coaches, we're going to have competitive games, but the reality is that we're in the business of entertainment. It's selling tickets and getting the place full and getting good coverage."

Taking the game to the community means getting away from the Strip and finding perfect locations to create Venom fans, Savage said. Savage said he thinks he's got a couple solid venues in two of the most basketball-savvy high schools in the city.

"We have Silverado and Palo Verde, 100 percent. We might do a third," Savage said. "Realistically with 18 minor league games, you're going to have a tough time keeping that focus with one group of people ... but we're still looking."

With places to play, the next order of business is to find a head coach and players. The Venom does have an assistant coach, Che Jones, who has worked as an assistant at Silverado for the past seven years.

"Che Jones is one of those coaches that's great for our team," Nesby said. "He takes the time out to do what a coach is supposed to do, like working with guys and stuff like that. I've known him for 11 years since I've been in Vegas."

Savage said he's somewhat close to hiring a head coach.

"I get resumes, two to three a week from some pretty big names," Savage said.

To build a team, the Venom, which has a $120,000 salary cap for its 12-man roster, held its first open tryout on July 8 at Christ the King gymnasium.

"We know enough that we can put a team together right now. But we want to get a little local feel and that's kind of what the tryouts are for, to see how many local guys we can get," Savage said. "And that's for a couple of reasons. You want local people to play because local fans will come see local people. We actually have a couple UNLV guys we've talked to who are interested in coming out and trying out. In Boston, I think we got nine of our 12 players from the tryout. The ABA puts an emphasis on picking local players."

The first player signed by the Venom -- 7-foot-7-inch Neil Fingleton, a McDonald's High School All-American in 2000 who attended the University of North Carolina before finishing up his career with Holy Cross University -- may not even be with the Venom in November.

"I'd like to get him a good contract so he never has to play a game for us," said Savage. "The ABA is a great league, but him being 25 years old and 7-foot-7, he's got some NBA teams interested in him. We'd like to see him sign there. He flew out to Indiana and had a look from the Pacers and they invited him to the Orlando Summer League."

Nesby, who, at 30, recently won the Union of European Leagues of Basketball Cup tournament with BC Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania last year, seems like the perfect small forward for the Venom, but contended his playing days are done, despite some subtle jabbing from Savage.

"He told ESPN Radio, 'I might play in the home opener. We'll let the fans decide,' " Savage said, trying to influence Nesby to play. Nesby played in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Washington Wizards.

To introduce the new franchise to the community, the Venom hosted an all-star game on May 24 at Palo Verde against the Court Jesters, a team from Massachusetts.

"The media coverage was the best part of that because we had Channel 3, Channel 13, Channel 8, ESPN Radio and two of the stations went live, did actually live shots from the game," Savage said.

"We probably had six or seven hundred people out there," Nesby added. "And it was the finals night of 'American Idol' and Phoenix and Dallas (in the NBA Western Conference Finals) were also playing that night."

There are some unique aspects to the ABA that Savage and Nesby are hoping will stoke interest in the team. They include an 11th man promotion, where someone like Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman or R&B singer Usher may actually suit up for the game; a four-point shot from behind the halfcourt line; the 3-D Rule, which maintains if the defending team steals the ball in the backcourt and scores, an extra point is awarded; and midcourt autograph sessions with players after games.

A cheer squad, basketball camps, giveaways and other plans are in the works to help the Venom win over more fans.

Besides trying to get elementary and middle school children involved, Savage and Nesby said they are trying to get Las Vegas figures like Goodman and Andre Agassi on board.

As far as dealing with negativity and naysayers who think the franchise is doomed before it even gets started, the owners said they want none of that.

"We just want an opportunity to prove ourselves," said Savage. "We understand the bad aftertaste left by some of the previous teams, but we had nothing to do with them. We weren't involved with them."

Nesby said he totally understands the perception of professional basketball teams in Las Vegas.

"That's why we came out real quick and did a lot of radio and TV time because we wanted everyone to know there's a new team with new owners," Nesby said. "Like Dan said, saying something bad is cool, but it makes us work even harder to make it better. The previous teams tried to compete with the Strip. You can't compete with the Strip. We're not trying to cater to the tourists, we're trying to cater to the locals."

Savage said it's much better in the long run to try and have a small, crowded, noisy gym for the games as opposed to a large, empty, quiet arena.

"If you get 1,000 people at the Thomas & Mack, it's going to be a joke," Savage said. "If you get a thousand people at Palo Verde, it's going to be big."

The schedule for the Venom -- the team logo features the trademark red, white and blue ABA ball in a snake's eyes -- is expected to be released later this month.

For more information, visit www.venombasketball.com or www.abalive.com.