Yes please!

No, I'm no fan of 5 or 7 game series. It's so long and tiring. Best of 3 is fine to determine a winner and keeps fan interest. I find in NBA I tune out of all play-off series and only take an interest in the NBA grand final game 6 and 7.

NBL best of 3, I'm interested from game 1. Every basket seems crucial and tense in a best of game-3. 5 is to watered down and fans will only take an interest in Game 5.

I have been wishing for a 5 game final series for a while now.

Best of 3 games semi-finals and best of 5 games for the final.

The format can be debated, however I don't see a five game final series as anything but potentially amazing, especially with the way this season is going, just imagine!

Agreed. 5 game series are great.

Just look at all the recent NBA playoff examples of 3-1 comebacks, Rockets Clips, Thunder Warriors, Warriors Cavs etc.

The thing that makes a post season is the way it is promoted and embraced as another season. The NBL needs to really look at the post season as an extension of the regular season, but as a small and significant season in itself, kind of the way the NBA does it.

If we do it right, then there is no boring games, there is expectation and excitement that something big is brewing.

I get the feeling that sometimes the NBL post season is kind of like, let's get it done and move along', which is not how we should feel about it at all.

So, with such an exciting and unpredictable season already brewing, NOW is the time to launch a spectacular media campaign with an announcement to the sporting community directly from the CEO that this season's NBL final will be the best ever!

Formats:

So, having said all that I would propose formats similar to this:

Semi-finals - Home, away, home

Finals - Home, away, away, home, home

Any thoughts?

The NBL played best of five grand final series from 2004-2009.

Anyone know why the decision was taken to move away from that model? e.g., were crowd numbers lower for the 4th or 5th games due to expense and unpredictable timing? Did teams not like it?

Have things changed enough to make it worthwhile returner to that format? Is a five game series more likely to make (more?) money for the NBL now than back then? Things to consider:

- how many NBL teams these days can guarantee game 4 and game 5 will get preferred dates at their home venues?
- Does having people watching through NBL TV make a difference?
- NBL finals clash directly with women's AFL season and men's pre-season, both of which Fox and 7 will broadcast
- a five game series would probably end a week before the first AFL (men's) games
- NBL finals start a week earlier than A-League finals and a five game series would go close to a direct clash with A-League grand final (not sure of timing of A-League GF)
- a five game series would have at least the last two games (probably more) clashing directly with the first couple of rounds of the NRL season

PJ, all valid points, on the issue of clashes with other codes, I see no issue whatsoever.

The start of the NBL season clashes with finals of other codes too, so what?

If we are going to be confident enough to promote basketball as a world game that is exciting and of a high quality here we can't be worried about capturing NRL supporters who don't care about hoops regardless.

Games times can sort out clashes and the media will always do their own thing here by placing NRL and AFL as the top priority stories in their papers, on the news and in the radio no matter what the NBL does...

I think we need to think more about moving forward with our product and worry less about all the possibilities that something else out there will interfere, otherwise we could suffer paralysis by analysis!

If we were to go to 5 games, a good 5 game series format would be:

Home, away, home, away and home

When the Taipans made their GF run a few years ago I ended up spending half the price of my season ticket again just to watch it. Extend it even further and I'll be skipping a few games, as I suspect many of the other season ticket holders would too.

Part of a sound and clever marketing campaign I would have thought will include reasonable ticket pricing according to expected and prior crowd numbers and which teams make the final CT.

I think it goes without saying that if the NBL gets it wrong they will put fan's noses out of joint, however you expect to pay more for finals tickets in any sport, do you not?

You don't need a best of 5/or 7 game series to determine who the best team in the league is. Keep it short and sharp and intense.
Case study: Melbourne Tigers vs Perth Wildcats 1993, that series was awesome. End to end stuff it was exciting and fresh.

What format did the NBA use for its five-game series? I don't see any issues with HHAAH, and travel would be the same as the current best-of-three.

@Bear: To go to four playoff games in Perth, you'd pay almost as much as your entire season ticket.

Thanks Bear. I take your point about not worrying about the clash with other leagues. I was thinking more about how hard it might make getting TV coverage on board. I think you'd have to get TV coverage to make it a strategically worthwhile investment to subsidise a 5 game finals series for a couple of seasons.

Marketed effectively it might then be possible to start selling sponsorship of the finals series? The belief in the game is not really important for the 5 game thing to be adopted, it's whether it will be commercially successful in the short or medium term. If it can;t pay its way, it will undermine the NBL's long term viability.

I bring up the NBA because it worked for years there, and that would be the target to aim for if the NBL was going to go in that direction.

The NBA used the HHAAH format.

Pro-Con arguments are important, valid reasons you do or do not do something are always worth considering. Trying something sometimes fails, but at least trying something with the right due diligence applied has a chance to succeed.

In this case we will need the NBL and its teams to comply, to make it work, it will need to be supported by the media, it will need common sense and clever promotion, careful planning and consideration to all of the things we have mentioned, plus much more, obviously.

Are we lacking in the confidence still, after one of the best, potentially closest and most exciting seasons ever?

I just wonder, in the conversation of NBL expansion, etc... is this not worth a crack, before we look into an Asian invasion, additional teams or other more risk adverse ideas for the league's future?

The NBL has just announced this year will be a five-game GF series running between 27 Feb and 12 March.

I had nothing to do with it :)

Neither did I ;)