None of it was true, but it all made for great press at first. He was preparing to apply for an NBA expansion franchise for Tampa-St. He expected to make a 40% annual return on his Stingers investment. The Stingers cut off the waiting list of interested investment partners after more than 120 people clamored to get a piece of the Stingers. His club sold an all-time record of 1,348 season tickets for the 1983-84 campaign.
Three Stingers players – Clay Johnson, Mike Sanders and former Kansas City Kings first round draft pick Kevin Loder earned call-ups to the NBA during the season.įor a man making bad bets with stolen money – the Feds would later show that Jeffrey Fischer defrauded his clients of $2.3 million between 19 – Fischer spent a lot of time crowing to the local media about the alleged details of the Stingers’ finances. The Stingers finished the 1983-84 campaign tied for last place in the CBA’s Eastern Division with a 16-28 record. “ Does he think we’re a couple of hayseeds?” Musselman fumed to The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Musselman found a local money guy and offered to buy the team from Fischer instead, but scoffed when Fischer asked for $1 million – a 455% premium over what he paid for the team five months earlier.
After a 6-13 start, Fischer forced Musselman’s resignation in January 1984. On the floor, the Stingers struggled out of the gate. Musselman signed on as Head Coach and General Manager. Fischer paid $180,000 to the CBA for his expansion franchise that August. A Sarasota resident, Musselman brought the idea of forming a CBA team to Jeffrey Fischer in the summer of 1983. Journeyman basketball coach Bill Musselman briefly helmed teams in the ABA, the NBA and the Western Basketball Association. And he got away with it for an entire season before the Securities & Exchange Commission caught up to him in June 1984.
He took quite a risk by stealing it from his mostly elderly brokerage clients. Hutton in Sarasota, did not borrow any money to run his Continental Basketball Association expansion franchise in the winter of 1983-84. “ I took what I considered to be risk capital and invested it.” “ We didn’t borrow any money for this,” Jeffrey Fischer told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in early 1984, bragging about his new Sarasota Stingers basketball team. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. This one comes from Rebound Vintage Hoops, who offer a huge selection of different Continental Basketball Association tees, hoodies, long-sleeved and women’s cut shirts in a wide range of sizes. Fun logo from this short-lived Florida minor league hoops outfit of the mid-1980’s.