ABA awards La Crosse expansion basketball franchise

Team hopes to start play in 2017, but still looking for place to call home

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Professional basketball could soon be coming back to La Crosse.

The American Basketball Association is awarding La Crosse an expansion team for the 2017 season. The La Crosse Showtime would be the newest team in the ABA, which already has 100 teams across the country but only one in Wisconsin right now.

Even though the new team has been announced by the league, they don’t have a place to play yet. Team owner Scott Pooler says he hopes his team will be able to call the La Crosse Center home.

“That’s where the Bobcats were, that’s where the Catbirds were, and I would think that’s an ideal location for the ABA team and I believe the fans would support it there,” said Pooler. “It’s not an all or nothing, though, absolutely not, if that doesn’t work out then we will definitely seek other locations.”

The La Crosse Center Board still has to approve moving forward with the negotiations with the league, and is scheduled to address the topic at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The team is tenatively scheduled to begin play next November.