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The Rochester Zeniths was a professional basketball team in the Continental Basketball Association. They played in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester at the Dome Arena and in downtown Rochester, New York at (what is now known as) the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. They existed for six basketball seasons, winning two league titles and generally had great success on the basketball court before they disbanded after the 1982-83 season. ==Pro Basketball in Rochester before the Zeniths== The Rochester Royals played in the National Basketball League and the National Basketball Association from 1945-46 through the 1956-57 season before moving to Cincinnati. They played their home games at the Edgerton Park Sports Arena and later the Rochester War Memorial in the city of Rochester. They enjoyed success at the turnstiles and on the basketball court, winning the NBA title in 1951 and finishing as runner-up in the NBL in 1947 and 1948. They were a typical NBL/NBA team of the era, playing in a smaller market and a smaller arena in an area that was to become known as the Rust Belt. Their move to Cincinnati in the summer of 1957 was part of the general franchise relocation process of the 1950s and 1960s in the NBA which saw these older smaller markets abandoned in favor of larger markets with larger arenas. In the summer of 1958, a group of Buffalo businessmen announced that they were creating a team called the Rochester Colonels to begin play in the fall of that year in the Pennsylvania-based Eastern Professional Basketball League. The team was intended to fill the void created when the Royals left town. Former Rochester Royals great Arnie Risen was recruited to join and coach the team to pique fan interest. The Colonels also featured former Royal Dick Ricketts and future Hall of Famer Hubie Brown. It was all for naught as the team went 0-8 and folded in December 1958, playing just two home games before modest crowds at the Rochester Community War Memorial. Beginning in the 1959-60 season, the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA began playing regular season games in Rochester. During the 1959-60 and the 1960-61 seasons they played two games in Rochester and during the 1961-62 and 1962-63 seasons they played four games in Rochester (as well as playing a number of games in Utica, New York during the same period). These "neutral site" games were common during this period of the NBA (for instance, Wilt Chamberlain's historic 100 point performance occurred in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a regular site for NBA games) but they were not particularly well attended and definitely not popular with the players and coaches as they added more travel to the schedule. The Syracuse Nationals became the Philadelphia 76ers after the 1962-63 season ended and regular season NBA games ended in Rochester as well. During the 1970-71 season the expansion Buffalo Braves of the NBA played two regular season games in Rochester (as well as two in Syracuse) in an effort to build Western New York interest in the nascent franchise. The Braves were not a very good team and the games were not as successful at the gate as the team hoped and the Braves did not return the next season. The Braves were bucking the south and west trend of NBA franchise movement and the hope was their large market, large arena and fan interest in nearby NBA abandoned cities (they played fifteen games in Toronto during the 1973-74 and 1974-75 season in an effort to regionalize in to Canada) would be enough to make the team successful. The Braves played their last game in Buffalo as the Braves in April 1978 and the club moved to Southern California to become the San Diego Clippers. Not many fans made the seventy mile trip from Rochester to Buffalo to see the Braves play as, for the most part, they were not a competitive team. The move of the Braves out of Buffalo coincided with rise of another professional, albeit minor league team in Rochester known as the Zeniths. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rochester Zeniths」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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