Portland gets USBL franchise> Mountain Cats to play in Maine next summer

PORTLAND – The United States Basketball League announced Tuesday that the Portland Mountain Cats will begin play next summer as an expansion franchise in the northern division.

The Mountain Cats will play their 13 to 15 home games at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland or the Portland Exposition Building.

“The Portland area is an ideal location for a USBL franchise,” said Commissioner Daniel T. Meisenheimer III. “It is obvious that Portland has the sports fan base to make this a very successful franchise.”

The franchise will become the first professional basketball team in Maine since the Maine Windjammers of the Continental Basketball Association, who played in Bangor during the 1985-86 season before being sold and becoming the Bay State Bombardiers.

Maine’s first pro team was the Maine Lumberjacks of the Eastern Basketball Association, which later became the CBA. The Jacks played “home” games in Portland and Bangor during their inaugural season in 1978-79, but the Bangor franchise remained in the Queen City in subsequent years.

The Lumberjacks and Windjammers had difficulty attracting consistently large crowds and the poor fan support was instrumental in the demise of both organizations in Bangor.

Mark McClure, Mountain Cats president, hailed the 11-year-old USBL as the “the league of opportunity,” both for players seeking to advance to the NBA and business people seeking a chance for growth.

Portland will join the Long Island Surf, Connecticut Skyhawks and Jersey Turnpike in the northern division. The southern division includes the Atlanta Trojans, Jacksonville Barracudas, Miami Tropics and Florida Sharks.

The regular season runs from May 10 to June 30, with playoffs to begin July 2.

The new franchise gives Portland its third professional sports team. The city is home to the Portland Pirates in the American Hockey League and the Portland Sea Dogs of the Class AA baseball Eastern League.

McClure said the team needs 3,000 to 3,500 fans per game to make the venture a success.

“We’re banking on anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000, based on what the Pirates and the Sea Dogs are doing and on the name recognition of the players we’ll have,” he said.