Wednesday, May 21, 2008

ISRAEL BASE-KETBALL UPDATE: "Did I say Israel Professional Baseball League? My bad!"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MACCABI HAIFA BASKETBALL
PROMOTED TO PREMIER LEAGUE
UNDER FIRST-YEAR OWNER
JEFFREY H. ROSEN

HAIFA TO PLAY IN PREMIER LEAGUE FOR FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS
AVENTURA, FL., - Triangle Financial Services, LLC., a sports and entertainment investment firm, is proud to announce that first-year Maccabi Haifa Heat Basketball Club owner and Triangle Chairman, Jeffrey H. Rosen, has secured the team’s promotion to the Premier League (Ligat Ha’al) for the 2008-2009 season.

Maccabi Haifa upset the #1 seeded Barak Natanya 73-69 in the Second Division Semi-finals playoffs on Thursday, May 15th in front of a sellout crowd of 3,500 rabid fans in Haifa’s Romema Arena. Haifa won the best-of-five Semi-finals playoffs series, 3-1, guaranteeing the team’s promotion to the Premier League. The promotion means that Maccabi Haifa will play opponents such as Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem next season.

Players, coaches, fans, and the owner celebrated on Haifa’s home court by spraying champagne and cutting down the nets. "This is a wonderful day for the entire city of Haifa. This is how I envisioned the team when I bought it," said Rosen in an on-court interview.

Rosen, whose desire was to invest in Israel, purchased Maccabi Haifa in July of 2007, resurrecting the franchise from the Third Division. The former Rose Art President of International Operations and Chief Operating Officer had an immediate impact on the marketing of the franchise giving the team an American name, Maccabi Haifa HEAT, a custom not practiced by Israeli professional sports clubs.

Rosen’s pre-season goal was to have Haifa promoted to the Premier League under his first year of ownership. The goal was a bold one considering the team had just been promoted to the Second Division.

The road to the Premier League was not an easy one. The team struggled mightily in the beginning of the season, losing their first three games making it difficult to gain the attention of local Haifa fans. Through the first nine games of the season Haifa was towards the bottom of the league standings with a 3-6 record. However, after several player acquisitions the team turned it around going 12-5 in their last 17 games, finishing in fourth place with a 15-11 record. Haifa advanced to the Semi-finals after defeating Eliztur Yavne, 2-1, in the best-of-three Quarterfinals.

Haifa will begin play against #2 seeded Givat Shmuel in the Championship Series of the Second Division on Wednesday, May 21 at 19:30 (12:30 pm EST).

Triangle Entertainment will produce a documentary on Maccabi Haifa Heat’s unforgettable season.

ABOUT JEFFREY H. ROSEN
Jeffrey H. Rosen is the Chairman of Triangle Financial Services, LLC. Rosen is the owner of Maccabi Haifa Heat professional basketball club, playing in Israel’s third largest city. From 1977-2006, Rosen served as COO of Rose Art Industries, a major manufacturer of toys, stationery and arts and crafts. Rosen guided his company to yearly sales topping 300 million dollars in more than seventy countries. With hundreds of license agreements and thousands of innovative products, Rose Art continuously distinguished itself in an ultra competitive marketplace. Rosen is a graduate of Boston’s Northeastern University. He currently resides in Aventura, Florida and is very active in multiple charities.

ABOUT MACCABI HAIFA HEAT BASKETBALL CLUB
Maccabi Haifa has a long and storied legacy as they were one of the original eight teams to form the Premier League during the 1953-1954 season. During the 1980’s, fans would fill up Romema Arena to watch Maccabi Haifa basketball. The team’s reputation even had Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, the “yellows”, scared to visit Romema. However, the team’s stature in Haifa began to fade in the early 1990’s. In the latter part of the decade, the team returned to become a municipal team – B.C. Haifa. The team succeeded in defeating Maccabi Tel Aviv and finished fourth in the Premier League. The team was purchased by Jeffrey Rosen in July of 2007, who pledged to secure the team’s promotion to the Premier League in his first year of ownership. For more information about Maccabi Haifa, please visit www.mhbasket.co.il (Hebrew) or http://www.mhbasket.co.il/default.asp?lang=en (English).

ABOUT TRIANGLE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Triangle Financial Services, a sports and entertainment investment firm, has a diverse portfolio of international sports enterprises. The recent acquisition of the Maccabi Haifa professional basketball team in Israel along with the sponsorship of the Dragonflies, a semi-professional baseball team in Hong Kong, China, represent Triangle’s continued effort to invest in emerging international sports ventures. For more information on Triangle Financial Services, please visit www.trianglefs.com.

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For more information contact:
Andrew Wilson, 305-933-8308 x 123
awilson@trianglefs.com

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