Year one that should be.

What about the wildcats, they have about 8 assistant coaches, 3 physios and the list of staff is endless. Surely we need equalisation in the NBL, why should they have so many assistants when we see teams like sydney have 1 assistant, Adelaide have 1 KB maybe 2, Hawks have 2.

Another reason why Perth cheat with all these extra staff members.

Yep, and they are all on the roster as well.
NBL should do something about it.

"Another reason why Perth cheat "

How is it cheating?

Sixers147, its not cheating if its within the rules. Currently the NBL obviously allows a heap off assistants.... you don't know that they are all being paid either. Adelaide could have 10 intern style assistants if they wanted. Its not cheating.

It's cheating because Perth, that's why.

Sixers have at least KB, Tracy York and Richard Dickel, plus other staff (team manager, medical, etc) on or near the bench.

Who cares how many assistants Perth have? Re Melbourne, I think they are expecting some big losses this season, except for the final two games their crowds weren't close to their expectations, and a lot of attendees were on tickets that were part of in-kind deals too.

Assistants on the bench or not, it's still 5 on 5 out on the court lol

"Another reason why Perth cheat with all these extra staff members"

And even in a thread about Melbourne you find a way to excrete your verbal Diarrhea about Perth

Nothing announced, just curious as to how much it may be.Have to think around $1m.

Staff aside, the venue costs must be very high too and with so many 'members' using their tix y'day hard to see how they can make a profit. Oh we wont even talk salaries for players either.

Perth don't cheat - they raise the bar and set the example. Which is a good thing in regards to causing the rest of the competition to catch up and as a result giving us fans a better overall standard of basketball on and off the court

Exactly, NZ and Perth have shown what can be done. The Breakers' efforts are quite underrated, while Cairns are outstanding in their model.

Re Melbourne, it is the first year of one of the most disastrously handled rebrand in sports history. Even had they handled it well there would have been a significant loss, so seven figures would be no surprise.

When the second Melbourne team comes in it will be fascinating to see how this plays out. Hopefully these owners hang around or exit graciously and don't just take their bat, ball and another Melbourne franchise with them.

The two clubs owned by very rich guys who treat them as a toy have both had atrocious seasons, there could be a good lesson in that.

I am yet to see an assistant coach run onto the court and nail a game winner, or trip an opposition player stopping him/her from scoring a game winner!

Now, that might actually be cheating...

Who stays and who goes will be dependant on existing contracts and the new coach.

I went to the game as a very interested spectator, is the NBL worth a potential sponsors money? With Uniteds dismal finish to the season, I wasn't expecting much from the atmosphere at the venue or from the players either, both teams being out of the play-off picture. What a surprise! 10 000 screaming passionate fans, heaps of kids and a fantastic game. Obviously Melbourne United have United a great percentage of the Melbourne basketball public. Get the TV rights down, get some stability to other teams and I think the league has a lot of positives.

Legend.

Hi Dane. Welcome to Hoops. I remember you back in the day ;) Loved to have caught up. Tang says hi!!!

Dont think United will be sad to see McCrae gone.

On another note saw a pic of united mad Monday and no McCrae, has he gove already?

Of course McRae is gone, that was the plan!

"You would think the huge turn up on Sunday was a very good sign for the future of the franchise, and also interest in basketball generally in Melbourne."

Maybe. Was it a papered house? The Brisbane Bullets used to post sellouts, until they stopped giving away thousands of tickets per game.

As for interest in basketball generally, when has Melbourne lacked for interest in basketball?

Interesting point of view @HO. Obviously an NBL franchise cannot give away all their tickets, somone still has to pay and fund the overheads. However, there would be a threshold for profit/loss where during the season you just want to get as many fans in the gates as possible (doors in this case).

Not being privvy to any statistics on the official gate reciepts, it is theoretically possible to give away a percentage of tickets and still avoid a financial loss I guess.

The reasons for doing so are also valid if you are trying to build atmosphere and your brand, especially to attract future sponsors etc...

Looking at long term projections from a strategic view point, not just a one off season, I get why they would do this and the result is a 10,000 strong crowd, so to the United organisation it has to be a successful result either way...

Oh, and on the final point about interest in basketball, I believe that the Melbourne and Brisbane markets are sleeping giants when it comes down to NBL potential...

That's why the Tigers used to have so many consecutive sell outs. Oh wait....

Bear

Papering houses has a long history of not working if that is what they did. It devalues your product, sends a message that you can always find a way to get a ticket without paying etc.

There are actually academic papers about the true cost of "giveaways" in terms of ticketing. Its just not very targeted as part of your marketing strategy. The GM's love it (full house), the true marketer and CFO hates it (revenue per seat collapses).

I have been hearing people say for years about Basketball in Australia "If we can just get people in the door then they will become hooked and buy a membership or come again" - hasn't worked to date so why would it work now?

Look at BBL. They are not papering the house. They have built a strategy around young families; made it incredibly affordable for the third and fourth ticket consistently. They are playing a long game with T20 to ensure long term participation and attendance at all forms of the game (so attendance at BBL is not the only outcome they are looking at). I was very skeptical three years ago about BBL, thought it was a blow away fad... but hats off to them, its been brilliant. And, participation growth is a welcome side effect.

But, overall, if you are giving tickets away in large numbers then your other fundamentals are wrong, because you are not generating enough demand. I might sample out a new toothpaste, but that is in an enormously cluttered toothpaste market and people HAVE to buy toothpaste. Free tickets are not sampling in this context. I don't HAVE to come to a basketball game. So, the demand needs to be based around the imperative of always being at the game.

I have no idea what Melbourne did, and a big crowd is great for the league. I am not accusing them or criticising them. If they sold 10000 seats then they deserve huge accolades.

As for interest in NBL sure, but there is no lack of interest in basketball in Melbourne.

Be good to know what the ratio is of freebies against paying customers. You would think they will start to tighten the screws in year 2 once they see there bottom line.

Yup, agree, so in essence if they reduce ticket prices to get 10,000 in the doors or give away tickets but keep prices higher and still get 10,000 in the door, the difference is in the value they are placing on their product...

Interesting theory, and of course we all know which one should be used, but if they can't sell those cheaper tickets regardless, then they have anohter problem don't they?

I think it's more about creating partnerships with basketball associations that including their members being members of the of United. The theory is in return you build your database etc and then get the ability to market directly.

It's a long-term strategy, which had disappointing buy-in this season, but I am interested to see how it goes over the next few years.

Thousands of free (in kind) memberships equals free tickets.

#517384

Good point.