The NBL and why has it gone to the dogs?

[hoju]

For me the NBL died when Acie Earl, Bennett Davison, James Smith and Kevin Brooks all left.

This is true, they have lost a lot of characters along the way too as well as talent to Europe and US.
Ask someone who doesn't follow basketball to name an NBL player... most of them will say "Gaze" still haha! Corey Homicide Williams was half way there, but then the Tigers sacked him and he hasn't returned!

 

[peternorth]

There are a load of examples in similar vein, that seem so simple to me. Perhaps there are legitimate reasons why they can't happen but from the outside, it seems to make sense. The All star game. For one, the randomly DON'T run it some years. When it does run, the last time they had either only the slam dunk contest OR the 3 point comp -WHY can't you run both at the same event? At Tigers games, they still play music and sound effects from the 90's! It's extremely tacky and cheesy and they need to move on! Basketball is synonymous with r&b, hip hop, the intros and players with big egos - why not look into re-creating that showmanship, it really doesn't seem that hard.

an excellent post.

re: hip hop, r/b, it is itself synonymous with african americans. when non afro americanos try the hommie stuff it looks terrible and cringeworthy.

therefore it is difficult to get the L right.

i think kids/teens need to be targeted hard. they are the future and the key to getting the L back on its feet.

 

[peternorth]

for me the L died when the sydney kings started to become the barometer of the comp. the nbl desperately wanted sydney to start winning. they got more promotion and air time than anyone else.

it coincided with the introduction of sports tonight (or in sydney tonight). then when it went to foxtel, it seemed every week there would be highlights or live games featuring sydney. it was bias to the nth degree.

sadly administration across all codes in this country are all the same. sydney must be strong in every sport cause they have the population. if the team wins, more people turn up.

 

[Shaxx Attaxx]

I think I am the only person from SA that has Shane Heal as their favourite player! The little feud between Heal and the 36ers was great.

 

[XFactor1979]

Now a days, on the surface to me, it seems so simple - they aren't doing simple things to make it work! Take NBL.tv for example, for years I had been asking how they haven't implemented this service, given their primary sponsor is iiNet, it just makes sense to do it! Now that they've finally done it, I applaud them, but as a poster mentioned above - it will only appeal to the hardcore fans. Why not give it free for a week for 'casual supporters' to try and sell the thing to them? Or give different pricing plans for a one of game, or just for your team's games?

I think they should give away 1 game free and live a week on NBL TV (the one that is on Channel 10)

 

[Heardy_101]

The League hit rock-bottom when the Dragons (South) left, Melbourne Tigers threatened to do the same, Sydney Spirit (West Sydney Razorbacks) practically folded mid-season, Cairns almost died, and by the end of that season (2009 I think it was?? 2008?), the NBL was almost left with 6-7 sides that, apart from 1 or 2, were half broke or had ownership issues.

I do have a little plan of my own in terms of what I would like to see happen with the league and teams etc, will publish it when it's a little more finished.

 

[Heardy_101]

Basketball is also pretty big in my family as well.

My Grandfather (John Heard) and his brother (Malcolm Heard) were Olympic Basketballers, both played in the 1960 Olympics and John captained the side in 1964 as well.

Both played for SA and for the Sturt Sabres, and very much well known in the SA Basketball community.

Malcolm only passed away earlier this year after visiting a friend in hospital, he suddenly collapsed and died.

My mother, Belinda Heard/Thomas, also knew most of the 36ers side of the late 80s/early 90s, including Scott Ninnis and his parents, Mark Davis and also coach Phil Smyth among others, all in first name terms.

 

[peternorth]

Basketball is also pretty big in my family as well.

My Grandfather (John Heard) and his brother (Malcolm Heard) were Olympic Basketballers, both played in the 1960 Olympics and John captained the side in 1964 as well.

Both played for SA and for the Sturt Sabres, and very much well known in the SA Basketball community.

Malcolm only passed away earlier this year after visiting a friend in hospital, he suddenly collapsed and died.

My mother, Belinda Heard/Thomas, also knew most of the 36ers side of the late 80s/early 90s, including Scott Ninnis and his parents, Mark Davis and also coach Phil Smyth among others, all in first name terms.

posting names is frowned upon by some mods.

 

[Heardy_101]

No worries, doubt that my mother or grandfather would care much LOL.

 

[peternorth]

No worries, doubt that my mother or grandfather would care much LOL.

haha its ok by me

 

[Heardy_101]

While we're at it, what's the go with the Gold Coast Blaze? They still in or they officially gone?

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

While we're at it, what's the go with the Gold Coast Blaze? They still in or they officially gone?

Gone!

 

[Heardy_101]

Now that's sad Another NBL team folded.

 

[Westy Bogan]

As someone who worked for the Kings organisation in Sydney I would like to make the following points:

1. Australia has a shitload of sporting codes for a small country and not enough sponsorship money. AFL, League, Union, Cricket, Soccer are all ahead of basketball in the sponsorship money. This means the only people who will pay for sponsorship are individuals of companies that are true fans and dont mind pissing away money. Their are not many of those.
2. The availability of NBA on pay TV and internet really hurts the NBL
3. The Leagues stupid decision not to play the comp in Europes offseason where Aussies could come home and play for their local for peanuts was just crazy.
4. Giving multiple licenses in cities that were already struggling was stupid. Split the supporter bases and sponsors dollars.

The future of the NBL should be an Asian League. A few teams from China, a few teams from Australia and so forth. Then let the Chinese dollars flow.

 

[peternorth]

As someone who worked for the Kings organisation in Sydney I would like to make the following points:

1. Australia has a shitload of sporting codes for a small country and not enough sponsorship money. AFL, League, Union, Cricket, Soccer are all ahead of basketball in the sponsorship money. This means the only people who will pay for sponsorship are individuals of companies that are true fans and dont mind pissing away money. Their are not many of those.
2. The availability of NBA on pay TV and internet really hurts the NBL
3. The Leagues stupid decision not to play the comp in Europes offseason where Aussies could come home and play for their local for peanuts was just crazy.
4. Giving multiple licenses in cities that were already struggling was stupid. Split the supporter bases and sponsors dollars.

The future of the NBL should be an Asian League. A few teams from China, a few teams from Australia and so forth. Then let the Chinese dollars flow.

not sure it would work. there have been chinese teams play in american lower leagues. i think they went back to china.

 

[Upgrayedd]

not sure it would work. there have been chinese teams play in american lower leagues. i think they went back to china.

At least they are about a 10 hour flight rather then a day?

Poorly thought out Expansion,. However the Wildcats still have a very strong supporter base, the white Knight in the new Perth Entertainment center will see a huge increase in members, me for one

 

[workhorse]

I like what they've been doing in the past couple of seasons. Apart from Gold Coast going under, which was disappointing, as well as a failed Brisbane Bullets re-entry. But you've got New Zealand who now play half of their games at Vector Arena (and pull 6-8k to those games), so hopefully sooner rather than later they're out of that disgusting North Shore Events Centre. Perth are moving in full-time into Perth Arena and have a great supporter base. Melbourne Tigers are playing 7 of their 14 games at Hisense Arena. NBL All-Star game is back this year and hopefully is a success. NBL.tv is another great step.

Basically the league was run disgracefully between 2001-2009 and it may end up being the period that killed the game, hopefully not. They seem to be trying really hard to bring the league up to scratch and they are getting there. It basically boils down to money. They're isn't enough money that the clubs are sustainable enough, so the salary cap isn't increased, so better players won't come because the money is shit, so people don't watch because the standard isn't great, and clubs don't make money. It's a vicious cycle.

I'd like to see them go maybe a couple of seasons as an 8 team league, try and get it as sustainable as possible. Then look at bringing a team in from Brisbane, and perhaps a second Melbourne team. Just need to keep slowly building and hopefully they can return to the glory days.

 

[XFactor1979]

As someone covered this->

A Euroleague type model could be the go with basketball in Australia

A team from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (because Perth has a strong tradition in the sport) to compete against teams from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the best of them from Asia.

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

As someone covered this->

A Euroleague type model could be the go with basketball in Australia

A team from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (because Perth has a strong tradition in the sport) to compete against teams from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the best of them from Asia.

What about Adelaide? We consider ourselves here as a good bball state!

 

[XFactor1979]

What about Adelaide? We consider ourselves here as a good bball state!

Not if there isnt a court to play on!

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/bas...-team-recruiting/story-fne3ar1x-1226456067988

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

Not if there isnt a court to play on!

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/bas...-team-recruiting/story-fne3ar1x-1226456067988

 

[Heardy_101]

Would a move back to playing in the winter months be viable at all?

Seems to me that when they played in that period as opposed to summer, it was a far more successful period and the league began to die down (coincidentally?) around the same time they shifted to summer seasons.

 

[Heardy_101]

Not if there isnt a court to play on!

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/bas...-team-recruiting/story-fne3ar1x-1226456067988

I thought this was sorted out? Read in the Sadvertisr about a week back that the Sixers were good to play on there.

 

[Bucking Beads]

How can the NBL not have a team in South East Queensland. Pretty poor IMO but it is mainly due to poor business men isn't it?

 

[EastcoastDocker]

Imports arent as dominant or interesting as yesteryear.Dmac, Leon trimmingham had some swag. Individualism has gone out of the game.

Also NBL is an ugly spectacle nowadays. Teams have a lot of big bodied players and the lane gets clogged. IMO nbl has gone more euro style from nba style and that aint a good thing