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Will Birmingham join the Continental Basketball League?

April 5, 2012
James Barney says he reached an agreement with the Continental Basketball League to bring a team to Birmingham in 2013.

The team will be known as the Birmingham Lions.

The CBL has been in Birmingham since 2010, with the Birmingham Steel and then the Birmingham Sabers. The Steel switched leagues mid-season to the World Basketball Association Exposure League. The Sabers played for the remainder of the year after the Steel jumped leagues and also played in 2011. The current status of the Sabers is unknown at this point.

"As you know, basketball in Birmingham has not been a success. I am going to try a new approach. I selected the CBL because the league runs a short 10-12 game season (May and June) and plays in small venues. I expect to play five to six home games in the Birmingham area in 2013 in venues seating no more than 200-300 fans in order to keep the costs low. I believe that most other teams failed because they committed to large venues and paid a tremendous amount in advertising in their first years," Barney said.

"The logo is strongly influenced by European/English football (soccer) clubs. Thus, I really want to cultivate the community based club feel of European/English football clubs, where the local community feels that they are invested in the team and its survival. In the UK, a very small city can turn out thousands each weekend for a football match. I purposefully adopted the logo and avoided the overworked references to steel, Vulcan, etc. In selecting and creating the logo, I was very much influenced by the Lion of Judah which is the symbol of Ethiopia and the (recent) birth of a group of lions at the Birmingham Zoo," Barney said.

"I am really doing this to help a few (local) charities and to build a sense of community in Birmingham. I also wanted to create something that was very different from what has been tried in Birmingham before," Barney said.

Epilogue
The Birmingham Lions were never able to properly organize, and even if they had, it would not have mattered.

After the 2011 season, most of the Continental Basketball League's teams fled to other leagues, effectively ending the CBL.

			Teams of the                            Continental Basketball League
xxx		xxx		xxx		xxx		xxx		xxx
	Birmingham Sabers 2010 to 2011		Birmingham Steel 2010		Carolina Cougarz 2010		Cary Invasion 2011		Fayetteville Crossover 2011
	Florida Flight 2011		Gainesville Galaxy 2011		Georgia Gwizzlies 2010		Heartland Prowl 2011		Miami Stars 2011
									NEED LOGO
	Palm Beach Titans 2011		Port City Sharks 2011		Raleigh Rough Riders 2011		Savannah Wildcats 2010		South Florida Stars 2011
	Tampa Bay Saints 2011		Wilmington Sea Dawgs 2010 to 2011

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Last update: February 22, 2023