They WERE doubting for a good god damn reason! This if all true is well over due and about time. So dont talk about humble pie, its not that they are eating any, they are just busy organising how many 36er season tickets they will need, because its now something worth going to.

Look....all those things are great.

The Issue I had, and I assume most other people and clubs, was that they couldn't show that these things were going to happen BEFORE they expected clubs to pony up. In fact, they (the laegue/BA) promised absolutely nothing whilst they held their hands out.

It's excellent that these things are happening, but the order in which they did things was completely arse about.

Just FYI, we have had naming rights sponsors and fox TV deals before, without it helping the league one single bit.

- Did they get a better deal from Fox, or are Fox still calling the shots?
- Did they get a decent deal for naming rights, or did they bargain basement it, like for Hummer.

There's a LONG way to go before success can be claimed, eh? I'll judge it on things like :-

- Whether Wollongong are still in the league next season. Or if any other teams are strruggling.
- Whether they make themselves attractive enough for a Sydney and Brisbane team to re-enter the league.
- Whether there is an exodus of players to other leagues.

THOSE are things that will indicate success, IMHO.

I don't think that anyone is saying the league has got it exactly the way they want it. The issue is that 8 (or 7) other clubs showed their support to the league while they ironed out a few things towards the end. The Dragons pulling out, then releasing a letter from the owner, then threatening a press conference, says more about their own selfish ways than it does about the state of the reform.

TC2.....There is a chance you realise that he was the only one that was right?

Cowan was not given the information required to commit to the demands of the league. Either :-

a) The other clubs were given more information, which would indicate that the league only wanted one Melbourne club.

or

b) The other clubs are foolish enough to commit 7 figure sums to a league that would not tell them what it was going to do with the money or what they would get in return.

Cowan was cautious and, from what I have seen, rightfully so.

Has it jumped up and bitten him in the arse? Possibly. But that desn't mean he was wrong to play it the way he did at the time.

As for "ironed out a few things"? Seriously? At that stage they needed to iron out everything.

How can you criticise other clubs for being foolish for throwing away money when Cowan was doing exactly that for the past 3 years with no league-wide vision in sight either? It's not like the delay in the reform process is the major catalyst for the league being in it's current turmoil.

And I'm sorry but "one Melbourne team" conspiracy theories just come across as sour grapes.

Sorry if you didnt get jist of it, NBA Finals are one and was in hurry.

DICKO, also consider that both sides might be right, but that Cowan's utopian big-budget dream could be a significantly higher risk for all teams (both current and future).

You can understand, right, that when things like TV deals, naming rights sponsors and budgets depend on league composition, and that when the clubs signing up depends on those same things, you're going to have a tough process to sort all of that out.

I have heard that the info from BA was hardly convincing and I wouldn't want to be a major investor in any team right now, but at some point you have to have some trust that the community will be able to collectively sort things out. Cowan obviously didn't think it was going to be good enough and opted out - beyond putting his boys on the league board, what else did he hope to achieve? Eventually supplant BA with another entity that could do a better job? Squirm out of the $1m guarantee months after it was made known?

Right now, we have a schedule, we have teams recruiting, there are club staff looking at new ways of improving what they do, there will be some sort of TV deal, players are training in preparation for the season, and fans are buying memberships or waiting to support their clubs.

If the league can add to that next season with a couple of new teams in major cities, I think things could be on track.

Dicko, which team will you be supporting this coming season? Thanks to the NBL not listening to Cowan, you have 8 to choose from.

The NBL is probably dead to me, to be honest.

And Isaac....if you think it was Cowans plan to continue big budget spending, etc, you're wrong. But he expected the leagues reform process to reduce the risk of that sort of thing happening. It doesn't appear to be stopping Melbourne going about things exactly the same way, does it?

Cowans plan was simple....to force BA to WAIT long enough for a comprehensive plan to be put together and he offerred whatever help he could to make that happen, including using his influence in corporate Australia. At the time he chose to NOT sign up for the new league, he thought there were 3 other teams making the same stand with him. He got shafted. And, PERSONALLY, I believe that they SHOULD have waited longer before running headlong into this new season.

Dicko I know you've been away at some stage but Cowan and existing clubs were adamant that the new season go ahead without any delay- even if that meant that BA could get the product better.
I have said before in recent weeks that came directly from interested parties that were in the room at the EOI Briefing and in the weeks before and after it- they essentially felt bullied and intimidated as though it was the 'big kids' party and they were at the wrong one- it was embarassing to them and to BA themselves, so I really am not sure where the stories about Cowan or any other club that didn't want staff temporarily unemployed for a season is coming from.

Clubs like the Dragons wanted EVERYTHING done in the blink of an eye, (as so-called business people they should know this never happens?) or they wanted to be the ones to provide the 'know how' to push changes through- naturally, BA weren't happy with either option and they have every right to say so.

Clubs didn't vote in reform so that the Tigers and Dragons (in particular) could be the ones everybody has to answer to.
For a guy that has poured in $9mil into the Dragons over the past 3 years to end up having a fire sale and selling everything for $5 not long after winning a championship, he and his club's fans could've come out of this much better without having to form alliances with anybody.
Who would take the risk of agreeing to anything with the Tigers anyway- as they say, when you lay down with dogs you'll get fleas.

Dicko, why didn't Cowan lead by example in recent seasons if he was so against big-budget teams? How can you excuse the fact that he was trying to put his guys on the board when you've been such a vocal critic of Seamus' impact doing something similar?

Sit out the season and there's no guarantee that the revised plan is much better than what they'll get to by next year anyway.

Let's not forget this was all a smokescreen put out by the Dragons so Cowan wouldn't have to admit to the embarrassing reality of no longer being able to fund the club after being cut off from daddy-in-law's money.

Well, his co-owner's father-in-law's money.

Dicko's usually on the money in the 2 years or something I've been coming here- one of the more credible posters who also knows people at different levels of the game.
I think for the most part, Dicko has been away from the frequent see-sawing that was going on with these clubs pretty much on a daily basis, and Dicko has missed some of that in that time.

To be honest, I was and to a certain degree, still am an advocate of sitting out a season to keep the ball rolling on the progress BA have managed to make so far considering they've had to play devil's advocate with so much of what they've been trying to achieve... it's almost embarassing to think of how many things have happened since the GF that are questionable, unprofessional and have a negative impact on the game- that was not the point of reform but was probably going to happen to some degree anyway- the level of how much politics got played and how often, has been a huge eye-opener even to someone that has been around the game for 21 seasons!

I am chewing on humble pie.

I was told the league would not go ahead from a very credible source (and to be fair for a week following that info..the league was not going ahead).

I still have deep concerns about this years *league*, however i am thrilled that Fox will give it a reasonable coverage. 8 teams without Sydney does not make a league IMO and so i imagine this years winners will be * champions.

that being said...thank heaven for SOS.

Lets all hope that from here on, the only way is up.