Anonymous
Years ago
Why not Perth as the home for the Chinese team?
Whilst pleased with the recent idea about a Chinese team in the NBL, I think that instead of Gold Coast, why not make the Australian home/base for this side Perth? These are the reasons why Perth should be chosen:
- Perth has the same timezone as China, so where they host games in Australia it will be perfect prime time viewing in China;
- Perth and China already have very strong commercial/corporate/government links due to the iron ore/resources connection;
- Perth has arguably the most passionate NBL supporter base in Australia;
- Because of the interest in basketball in Perth, there was already discussion about having a second side. There was questions about whether the Perth market was big enough to support two sides, but as this side would have the Chinese supporter base, this would effectively be having "1.5 teams" in Perth as opposed to two;
- Perth already has a good Chinese/Asian population and visitors. Perth also has the Crown Casino, which I understand is attractive to the Asian high roller customer segment;
- Gold Coast is known for not being a good sports town. Huge track record of teams folding or not being well supported there. The party atmosphere also doesn't seem conducive to host a team of young professional sporting stars. The culture and performance of the Gold Coast Suns appears to be an indicator of that.
