May - Albany Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce

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Championship caliberAlbany Legends, Tri-City Valley Cats win titles and earn community’s respectThis spring, twoprofessional sportsteams in the CapitalRegion begin theirquests to defendtheir respectivechampionships, one onthe basketball court, theother on the baseballdiamond.The AlbanyLegends won the 2010International BasketballLeague championshipby defeating theBellingham Slam, 126-111, in front of 1,045fans at the WashingtonAvenue Armory. Theteam commenced its2011 season on April 15 at its new home,Christian Brothers Academy’s (CBA’s)Ned McGraw Athletic Facility.“We retuned Albany to the minorleague history books in a good way,” saidSteve Miller, Legends’ president, referringto the success of the Albany Patroons andsuch future National Basketball Association(NBA) coaches as Phil Jackson and GeorgeKarl. “We were very successful last year.A lot of those players are going to bereturning this year, and there will be a lotof new faces.”Meanwhile, the Tri-City ValleyCatsbegin their New York-Penn Leaguetitle defense on June 17 against theVermont Lake Monsters and will raise thechampionship banner during a specialpregame ceremony. Last season, theValleyCats defeated the Brooklyn Cyclonesto capture their first championship sincemoving to Troy in 2002.“There are a lot of baseball fans inthe Capital Region who want to see qualitybaseball,” saidRick Murphy,ValleyCats’vice president/generalmanager. “Itwas excitingthat we wereable to get on aroll on the fieldand rewardthe fans whocame out to seethe ValleyCatsby providingthem with achampionship.It’s excitingfor our frontoffice and ourfans to embrace the ValleyCats’ brand as acommunity team.”The Albany Legends give young athletes an opportunityto pursue their dreams at the next level of basketballHoop dreamsThe Legends have a threefold mission:serve as positive role models and provideaccessible, quality minor league sportsentertainment alternative to families andresidents of the Capital Region, includingdiscounts for students; upon completionof players’ collegiate eligibility, provideyoung men with an opportunity to pursueprofessional athletic careers around theworld and in North America; and partnerwith youth and nonprofit organizations tobenefit the community.“We’re locally owned, and my partnersand I decided to buy this team to providefun, affordable family entertainment,”Miller said. “It enhances the quality of life,and for around the price of a movie ticket,we provide good, quality basketball at alevel that’s fairly high.”The Legends and other IBL teamsgive young athletes an opportunity topursue their dreams at the next level ofbasketball, either in the NBA’s minor leagueor abroad.“In 2010, nine Legend veteranscontinued their professional careers onfive continents and the NBDL. That isan incredible first-year accomplishment,”Miller said.The Legends also partnered withmore than 25 youth organizations in2010, offered a college scholarshipprogram, sponsored an inner-city AAUJunior Legends basketball program,provided youth clinics, student internships,role model appearances, partnered infundraisers, provided monetary donationsand distributed complimentary tickets todeserving organizations.“We work very closely and partnerwith community organizations,” Millersaid. “We work tirelessly to make theCapital Region a better place.”The timing of the Legends’ seasonalso fills a void on the Capital Region’ssports calendar.“Our season doesn’t conflict withcollege basketball or hockey,” Miller said.“We play primarily in April and May, righton the heels of March Madness. Ratherthan compete, we found that niche, and thequality and availability of players gettingready to play in the NBA summer leagues isvery high.Miller appreciates the support offans and the business community andanticipates another successful season for theLegends, this time in a new home at CBA.“We’re looking forward to a longfuture in Albany,” he said. “We do our partto provide quality, professional basketball,and we need everybody’s support. We offeran affordable night out when there aren’t alot of other sports going on in the region,14 | acchamber.org | techvalley.org
The Tri-City Valley Cats will showcase their New York-PennLeague championship trophy at The Joe on their openingweekend of June 17and we’re looking forward to picking upwhere we left off last year.”Top catsThe ValleyCats set organizationalattendance records for the seventhconsecutive year in 2010, drawing 155,315fans to Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, or“The Joe,” and averaging 4,314 fans pergame. That was also the season of theone millionth fan, who came through theturnstiles on June 19.With 2011 being the ValleyCats’ 10thanniversary season, the team is lookingforward to another season of competitivebaseball and family entertainment.“We’ve been growing for sevenyears, and a lot of it comes down to theentertainment value that we really try todemonstrate at The Joe,” Murphy said.“When you look at the affordability of ourtickets, our family four pack of four tickets,four hot dogs and four drinks costs only$25. Depending on the day of the week, wegenerally offer some value incentive. Everynight is a theme night, and we’re alwaystrying to cater to a particular demographicor theme. Last year, we had 15 fireworksdisplays, and we’ll do that again this year.We really are an affordable family option.”The ValleyCats also cater to thecorporate community, hosting events forbusinesses and their clients or staff.“This is a great opportunity forbusinesses to come out and have abarbecue or a corporate outing,” Murphysaid. “It’s a great team-building venuefor various businesses to offer employeesand their families to gather collectivelyin a fun-filled, affordable environment.Our mission statement is ‘to create fansfor life in an affordable, safe and cleanenvironment.’ What we try to do is reachout not only to our demographic, but alsoour corporate environment and offer theman affordable way they can connect withtheir employees.”Financial institutions, for example,have held corporate outings with 25employees, while some parties haveincluded more than 1,000 people, Murphynoted. On Time Warner Cable CustomerAppreciation Night, more than 7,000fans came to The Joe, and Time Warnershowcased some of its new offerings andrewarded their clients, just for bringingtheir cable bill.“Getting a better understandingof our marketplace has only helped usenhance the product that we want to putforth,” Murphy said. “People think we’re inthe baseball business; actually, we’re in thepeople business.”After winning the New York-PennLeague championship in 2010, theValleyCats had a trophy tour that went offto various locations. They’ll showcase thetrophy again this summer at The Joe onthe opening weekend of June 17, when theteam raises the championship banner andgives away a championship ring to a luckyfan.“The success of last season is reallygoing to carry over to the start of thisseason,” Murphy said. “We’ve really takenthe championship and melded it intothe start of the 2011 season. We provideentertainment and everybody likes to beassociated with a winner.”The ValleyCats also continue toreach out to Little League organizations,spending a day renovating four youthbaseball fields in 24 hours as part of its “4in 24” campaign.“We partner with Friendly’s, PriceChopper, CDTA and Brickman Group toperform an extreme makeover on thesefields,” Murphy said. “We’ve renovated 10fields in 10 years. That really fits in withour community-based mission. We reallyare stewards of the game of baseball butwe also want to be a really good neighborand be a part of the Capital Region for along time to come.” •May 2011 | VISIONS | 15
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