very dissapointing, they made great strides this year

The franchise in Newcastle has died once before.

Wonder what the NBL s doing to ensure that owners are going to be able to follow through on their commitments to towns / states, employees and fans.

The giants came and went , Canberra was allowed to die, Hunter is in trouble as with almost everyteam in the league.

Salary Caps have been reduced to control costs yet teams are still having financial problems.

Sponsors and proper structures is what the leegue needs to survive.

If the league goes back to ten teams I wonder how many will make the playoffs?

My guess is nine with teams 2 to 9 playing a knockout final as their first playoff game.

No, the first game will be decided by a coin-toss. Much cheaper to host. They could televise it in a 3 second burst during some late night shopping program and issue a press release about having achieved the holy grail of FTA TV coverage!

Steve Carfino: "Brett Maher calls 'heads' and, wait, it's tails. Brisbane wins game one and the 36ERS start their off-season early. Thanks for tuning in!"

With 2 NBL licences available I think its time for the NBL to expand into Asia. The National League is dying a slow death with most clubs doing it hard. Have a team in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Korea and the Pay TV rights alone will be enough for the league to survive. With teams travelling internationally this should attract international sponsorship. A 14 team Competition playing each team 3 times with 4 Asian teams should be a good contest.

Pity for Hunter, they were starting to make some steps in the right direction. Any chance of the 36ers getting Butch Hays on the management team? I think he could do a great job.

Kingman, what about the added travel costs? Also, the current airline sponsor doesn't fly Asian routes AFAIK.

Get them into Tasmania and Gold Coast.

not another team out! i was just starting to like cannons and then they were out. Hunter arent a bad team they proved themselves of making the top 8. However thats the next issue, having 8 teams in playoffs out of 11. Thats a joke.

Should be more teams in the NBL and an attempt to gain more fans in areas. Theres no question that there will be enough players with talent and imports adding to that.

Kingman i agree with you 100%. Expanding into asia because by the looks of it australia is losing interest.

It would add a lot more excitement to the game aswell, people would want to see the level of skill they are on aswell as more teams in the league. 11 teams as aposed to NBA's 30...dam!

Isaac, why does there only have to be one airline sponsor. One of the Asian airlines may want to come on board as a sponsor and cover the Asian travel.

Expand to Mount Gambier and get Dallas, D-Mac Jr and Co into the NBL in major roles.

But seriously ..... until they return to FTA TV, they're in trouble. What happened to Rick "I'm an American and will save this place" Burton.

Damnit - they should've given the job to Bucky Cunningham. At least then it would've done well.

TC : surely if Butch Hays is the GM of Hunter and they are about to fold he hasnt done that great a job

I was a strong opponent to the salary cap reduction, and the fact that teams continue to struggle financially with the salary cap shows it was NOT the solution.

Unless teams can afford to bring in big talent players, and produce a top high quality side, this situation will continue.

The heamorraging of players to Europe is one prime example, and the amount of NBL players now heading of to play NZ NBL in the off, rather than play ABA is another example.

If they could get paid a decent salary, with decent contracts, and the ability to make additional income, we would not have these problems.

The cap reduction was reportedly to save clubs from themselves from spending too much. It has not even worked for Adelaide, who has suffered since the cap was reduced, with resultant crowd reductions (the cap is partly to blame - not wholly).

Might be time for some journalistic investigation and research for an opinion piece Isaac said we needed :)

While I agree with you Yogee - what a nice surprise that is ;) about the salary cap reduction being an incorrect decision I still think that a lot of players would cross the Tasman to play in the off season. Even if they were being paid handsomly for their NBL club the lure of even more $ in NZ would be an attractive carrot and with a limited lifespan in the game players are grabbing as much as they can while they can. And if I was in their position Im sure Id be doing the same.

It doesn't matter how much they earn, it still only occupies them for 6 months of the year. They may as well put the other 6 months to good use. It keeps their practice up and earns extra dollars for them. An increase in Salary cap would not keep them here in Australia in the off season. What I would like to see happen is that the cap is increased and players agreeing to spend atleast a further 3 months in the off season promoting the sport for the extra dollars.

EC, sponsors do not want to be appearing beside a competitor; they would have been offered exclusivity in that regard. A sponsorship deal without exclusivity would be substantially reduced in value. I do like the fit of the NBL with Virgin as a brand and its associated demographic, but Qantas is also very dominant and has better coverage.

In relation to the off-season, it's hard to reduce the cap and offer players less money, but expect them to do more.

I've always wondered how an NBL franchise would go in Darwin. It is supposed to be a popular spot, with a majority population of younger people?? Could this be an untapped marketplace for the NBL? Perth hosted a game there this past season, surely more exposure in the region can only be good. People always talk about getting more indigenous people involved in sport in general, could the NBL be seen to be doing it's bit by getting a franchise up and going in the NT?

Coach K. .. i like most of the stuff you post on this forum .. BUT... i dont think Darwin could accomodate an NBL team.

1. The league is struggling to find a decent market-share in most (if not all) other states, so expansion into Darwin after its moves in NZ would be pretty risky.Consolidate the regions you are supplying- then think about expansion.

2. AFL is massive in Darwin and i believe is too strong for the NBL to compete with (at least short trem 5-10yrs)

Has anyone in Darwin applied to the NBL for a lic.? If they have i'd like to know why they were turned down ?

I do agree with you though on one point.. that indigenous Australians from Darwin, and elsewhere should be represented in the NBL, in admin./ playing capacities.

Noted Skyhook.
You mention consolidating the regions basketball is currently played in. Think about Sydney and Melbourne. While it may seem reasonable to believe that both these cities should be able to have enough supporters of the game to support two teams, history is showing us that they simply cannot. While I believe there should be a second license in Victoria, a team in Melbourne shouldn't be given a chance to fail again. If the NBL is thinking of going back to Victoria a regional area like Geelong should be given another chance, they have the stadium, and im sure people in areas like Ballarat would love a team close by to get behind. For the record, I also think the NBL missed the boat for the central coast area after Soccer's expansion into the area.
Sure, AFL is massive (as is Rugby in NSW) but people in areas like Geelong and Darwin need a sport to follow during the summer (and yes, I know footy in the NT is played during summer). International Cricket isn't played in these areas, and there is only so much Football news to be reported on. Not all indigenous Australians excel in Football, can you imagine some of the abilities and moves these guy's could have playing Basketball with the right coaching. Even wait a couple of years before having a team in Darwin compete in the NBL, and in the meantime, have the NBL negotiate with the NT government, get a development program in place and look to find some star's of the future, in what I believe is an untried area.

Isaac you mentioned the salary cap and make the comment that because it was cut and clubs are still struggling it proves the cap wasn't the problem. My opinion the cap is still too high for what the sport can sustain. We need to get over the fact that this is not a fully pro league as AFL is or rugby is. It is a second tier competition on a national basis.
Adelaide spent 3.6 million and brought in 3.2. Any way you cut it the team is going broke. This is what will happen at some point.
There will be a recognition that it is a semi pro league at best. Top players will earn $40-60000 as part time pros. They will train in the main after work and play two to three games at weekends. The season will be shorter, 5 months including finals, allowing the better players to play overseas and the lower grade players to maybe play in NZ. Coaches will be part time as well and their salaries will be about the same. You can compare it more to the SANFL then the AFL. More teams in the lague including regional centres such as Geelong, Hobart Albany etc. Adelaide will have two at least and here in Vic we will have four, Melbourne and one other city team, and Ballarat and Geelong in an expanded comp. Two divisions and an NCAA finals format at the end of a home and away season. This sport can not afford the current system.

Jay, I have mentioned the cap, but I haven't claimed that the higher cap was not a problem (I think that was Yogee and maybe others).

I don't think the clubs of the NBL are that far off the mark in being a sustainable venture. If I saw that Adelaide was doing everything I thought right in trying to bring in crowds, and was still losing money, I'd concede that they were, but I think they have room for a lot of improvement.

Remember that even now, $700-800,000 as the cap is currently set, is only a portion of the $3,600,000 expenditure.

If you drop the cap, a lot more players could look to European options (Derek Moore is an example), and the quality of the league may well drop. Then, you can pretty much kiss any hopes of FTA TV (and probably even Fox) goodbye.

A team from Gold Coast and Hobart again would be great.You would think a team on the Gold Cst would get alot of tourists attending the game,if the stadium is built in a good spot.
Any new teams would be welcomed,the NBL needs a bit more variety.

Jay,

I wonder how you can claim that NBL is not as professional as AFL or other sports.

The top exchelon players play all year round (and even a lot of the lower ones)....whether they go to Europe, play in a different national league (Malaysia or NZ NBL) or play for an ABA club.

Eev your Mark Ricciutio (sp??), Matthew Primus, James Hird etc all take a good 6-8 weeks off a year.

NBL players not only train as club training, they also have individual skill sessions, weight sessions, fitness training, team meetings, club promotional work, etc.

I dont think it would be fair to say they are any less a professional sports person as an AFL or even Soccer player is.

If you dropped the cap any further, you would lose many of the talented players that have managed to stay around.

You would lose your players of the Dusty Rychart, Darnell Mee, Willie Farley, Mark Sanford, Brian Wethers type....not to mention many of the better Aussie players.

Drop the cap any further, and NBL would become a glorified ABA (no disrespect intended towards ANYONE associated with ABA). It would be the death of basketball in Australia.

Here here Yogee .. good on you.