10-Apr-2006
Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) today announced that it will have an expansion team in Knoxville, Tennessee starting in November.
According to Joe Newman, ABA CEO, "Tennessee is a great basketball state and it is great to be back with an outstanding ownership group that really understands the business of basketball and basketball."
The team will be operated by Suki Sports Corporation and its team owner/CEO Gavin Raiteri and his brother, company president Ashley Raiteri. After returning from the league owner's meeting in Indianapolis, Mr. Raiteri was "100% committed to bringing the game home to Knoxville." "And," he added, "rather than name the team ourselves, we are planning a community contest to name the team."
Ashley stated, "We are very excited. This is where our roots are, most of our family came from either Knoxville or Memphis and we can't wait to be at that first game."
The Name the Team Contest will be officially announced Tuesday, April 11 live on "Sports Animal," a local radio show broadcast by WNML 99.1 FM. Gavin said, "We're really focused on being a big part of the Knoxville community and we thought this would be a great way to get everyone excited from the get-go!" And Ashley said, "Gavin's got a million great ideas and I think it's fantastic to be working with family and trying to be a part of the community. But don't misunderstand; this isn't recreation league ball. It's professional basketball and we have every intention of bringing National and International exposure to Smoky Mountain sports. It's going to be affordable, and I know it's going to be entertaining. We've got a lot of things planned and I think it's going to be an explosion of energy these next few months."
The Raiteri's plan to harness the fire and passion that Tennessee fans now have for the Lady Vols and UT Men's basketball to help the new team go straight to the championship in their first year playing.
CEO Gavin Raiteri coached AAU basketball for 15 years and worked with underprivileged kids in the Knoxville community, taking two Junior Pro teams to win national championships. Mr. Raiteri is a well known figure in the Knoxville basketball community and is perfectly suited to bring pro ball to Tennessee.
Ashley Raiteri is an entepreneur and President of Ignite Analytics, a Systems Engineering company based in Seattle, Washington. Ignite is a prominent consulting company working on the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program and currently developing innovative products for the Digital Health Care industry.
