BLOOMINGTON - Minor-league pro basketball may be the next thing Bloomington-Normal sports fans can spend their entertainment dollars on. Tom McGinn, owner of the Quad City Riverhawks, is exploring the possibility of the Premier Basketball League establishing a franchise at Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

"They approached us a couple weeks ago," said Mike Nelson, co-owner of Central Illinois Arena Management, which manages the Coliseum for the City of Bloomington. "They took a tour of our facility."

Nelson indicated McGinn might own the team or determine whether there is local interest by others in owning it.

Nelson believes a PBL team would be a good fit for the Coliseum because of its January-to-March schedule of 10 home games and 10 road games.

"I've seen markets where minor league basketball worked and where it didn't work," he said. "It depends who owns the team and who manages the team."

The PBL had 10 teams in its inaugural season last winter and has already expanded to 17 for next season.

"The league is growing by leaps and bounds," said Riverhawks general manager Eric Hutchins. "The league is ready to explode."

Teams pay players $200 to $500 a week. Each team is allowed to have a "franchise" player, whose salary is subsidized by the league.

The league pays the travel expenses for each team through corporate sponsorships and from fees owners pay to join the league.

"With rising energy costs, that's a big portion of a budget," Nelson said.

Players include those with experience at the Division I level on down to Division III and junior college as well as those who never played in college or come from outside the U.S.

Last season's playoff MVP was former Virginia guard Keith Friel while the regular season MVP was former Williams Baptist guard Jeremy Bell.

Former McDonald's All-American Stanley Thomas of Chicago King High School made the all-league second team.

The league also included former Illinois-Chicago star Sherrel Ford, ex-Southwest Missouri State player Coleco Buie, ex-North Central College star Anthony Simmons as well as former Elmhurst College standout Nick Michael.

"What interested me about this is whoever could bring a team in could fill the roster with former ISU, IWU or Illinois players," Nelson said.

The PBL has many players looking to move up to higher leagues in the U.S. or abroad.

"Our job is to get them up to the higher ranks," Hutchins said.

The Rochester (N.Y.) Razorsharks were the PBL and East Division champs last season. They led the league in attendance at approximately 7,000 per game.

Their division included the Wilmington (N.C.) Sea Dawgs, Reading (Pa.) Railers, Maryland (Rockville, Md.) Nighthawks and Jacksonville Slam.

The Slam began the season as the Jacksonville Jam, which withdrew from the PBL on Feb. 6 and was replaced by the Slam, whose offices are at Rockville, Md.

Last season the league included the PBL Travelers, an emergency squad which could be deployed at any time to replace any team unable to show up for a scheduled game. The Travelers were needed twice and lost both games.

The Riverhawks, based at Black Hawk College in Moline, won the PBL West Division, which included the Rockford Fury, Chicago Throwbacks, Dallas Defenders and Arkansas (Little Rock) Impact.

New teams for next season include the Buffalo Dragons, the Quebec Kebs, the Detroit Panthers, the Vermont Frost Heaves, the Toronto Lazers, the Montreal Sasquatch and Manchester (N.H.) Millrats.

Vermont and Manchester belonged to the ABA last year.

Quad City ticket prices were $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. The team's beat writer from the Quad City Times, Eric Page, estimated attendance at 100 per game.

U.S. Cellular Coliseum seats 7,000.

"The league officials seemed very pleased with our facility and how the basketball floor looks," Nelson said. "That's why we bought the basketball floor, to explore all options to get basketball events in there."