ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Dream is the newest American Basketball Association team.

ABA chief executive officer Joe Newman said in a news release that the league has been looking at adding a franchise in Alaska for some time. The biggest drawback has been transportation issues, but those appear to have been solved.

He said the Alaska Dream has been added to the 2008 schedule for the 46-team league. Newman told the Anchorage Daily News he was "very confident" the team will play this year, but left open the possibility that the team could debut in 2009 if problems arise.

The team will be located in Anchorage, and will be owned by Trey Davis, who is associated with the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Alaska.

Davis said in a news release that Alaska Dream was chosen for the name because "it has truly been our dream to have a professional basketball team, particularly an ABA team, here in Alaska and this is like a dream come true."

The league has teams across the country as well as international locations such as Montreal and Monterrey, Mexico.