Wilson Sporting Goods Partners with American Basketball League

Online, September 24, 2012 (Newswire.com) - The American Basketball League has announced a global partnership with one of the most prominent brands in sports. Wilson Sporting Goods has agreed to a corporate partnership with the American Basketball League, which will include the creation of the first ever FIBA designed basketball in American professional sports history.

"Our partnership with Wilson is significant for many reasons" said American Basketball League CEO Steve Haney "No league in American basketball history has ever played exclusively FIBA rules and our league, through our partnership with Wilson, will be the first ever to play with a specially designed Wilson FIBA basketball".

The American Basketball League will commence its inaugural 24 game season in January 2013 and will field a 12 team league set to challenge the recent economic and rather public failings of current minor league basketball organizations. Initial ABL markets include; Miami, San Antonio, San Marcos, Sugar Land, College Station, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Sebring, and Corpus Christi. Future expansion is scheduled for California and New York.

Most recently the American Basketball League made national headlines when it announced its partnership with music mogul Steve Rifkind. Rifkind, one of America's top music moguls, was the founder of Loud Records, which he sold to Sony in 1999, and currently is the president of SRC. In his distinguished 25 years in the business, Rifkind has long been associated with such artists as; New Edition, Akon, Wu Tang Clan, Three Six Mafia, Big Pun, Xzibit, David Banner, Melanie Fiona and others. In addition to managing the careers of many of the biggest names in music, Rifkind has also launched numerous high profile national marketing campaigns for such companies as; Nike, T-Mobile and HBO. By all accounts, Steve Rifkind has long been one of the most powerful names in the entertainment business.