Mexican hoops team owner wants to create good image
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20050625-9999-1s25...
By Ed Graney
June 25, 2005
Here's an original one: Jeffrey Jensen owns a new franchise in a Mexican professional basketball league and doesn't expect to make any money.
Doesn't really care, either.
"If the team succeeds, the city succeeds," said Jensen, a Mexican-American businessman who lives in Tijuana. "We're trying to help clean up the city.
People are afraid to cross the border. They don't know how important basketball and other sports are to the people of Tijuana. We're going to do our
best to create a good image on both sides of the border."
Jensen says he and a group of Tijuana-based investors put up $300,000 plus player/coach salaries (ranging from $2,500 to $3,000 monthly, including
housing and food) and all operating expenses for the first season and will be content to break even.
It has been tried before with varied results, mixing Tijuana and pro hoops. But Jensen's realistic expectations might make this venture different. He
is motivated more by appearance than finances.
He has hired a former UCSD player with extensive international experience to coach the Galgos (Greyhounds), who will play their home games in a
5,000-seat arena off Tijuana's main boulevard. You can buy a season ticket on the floor for about $180, and single-game tickets will go for as low as
$4.
The National League of Professional Basketball consists of 20 teams from Tijuana to Mexicali to Guadalajara to Veracruz to Monterrey to Mexico City. A
40-game regular season is followed by playoffs.
Teams will consist of mostly Mexican players, with three Americans on each roster. The Galgos will include former University of San Diego High School
and San Diego State point guard David Abramowitz, who has dual citizenship and will not count against the roster's three U.S. spots.
The Galgos open their season June 30 at defending champion Todos Santos and play their home opener July 7 against the Grises Lobos.
"This is about more than sports," said Jensen, 43. "We want our players out in the communities of Tijuana and San Diego, visiting hospitals and
schools and showing the kids from low-income families there is much good about Tijuana."
That's off the court. Ken Hill is responsible for what happens on it.
Hill played for UCSD before embarking on a coaching career that has seen him instruct the game in places such as Australia, Malaysia, Africa and the
Philippines. In 1998-99, he coached a team from Beijing to the Asian Basketball Confederation Cup championship, a league that once featured Houston
Rockets center Yao Ming.
"We're going to speed the game up, get out and run, make it exciting for people to come and watch," said Hill, 46. "Basketball is international. It
speaks one language. Everyone understands it. The reason this can work is because people like (Jensen) want it to and understand you have to be
patient. The (ownership group) is dead serious about making this a long-term success.
"It's no different than any league, from the NBA on down. You're only as good as your franchise and the people running ours are very, very good."
Added Jensen: "Kenny is a great coach and a well-educated man. He and his team can be role models for two million people here in Tijuana. That is our
main goal."
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