Daws said categorically that 36ers are not for sale.
Ali agreed that the 36ers should not be sold.
Both (in addition to Nagy) focused on the fact that the 36ers are Basketball SA's number one asset and the focus should be on ensuring that improvements are made in terms of economic efficiency rather than privatisation.
I thought Spears did a great job as host and I believe by the end of the show he said he was sitting on the fence re privatisation.
Caligeros played devil's advocate (his own words) and stated that Basketball SA would have to look at any potential bid if this bid meant an extinguishment of the Dome debt and an undertaking to continue the Lightning/Fellas program.
Daws stated that meaningful discussions have been taking place with the Government about the debt but not much could be revealed at this stage.
All in all, an informative show given they were bound to discuss privatisation in a completely hypothetical manner.
Unfortunately in my opinion, you can't really debate the virtues of privatisation in such a wide-open hypothetical manner.
For example, I believe that the 36ers should not be privatised.
This is only because I have seen too many teams come and go over the years and some that have managed to survive are doing so year by year.
Perth Wildcats and Melbourne Tigers have been talked about as success stories by managing to turn around years of losses but have done so via cut backs worse than any the 36ers have made over the years.
Regardless of how efficiently a privately owned 36ers were run I believe our financial success would still be tied in with the rest of the league.
IE no free to air tv, no hyped up superstar players on opposition teams such as Grace, Heal, Gaze, JC, Loggins, etc, little to no NBL marketing at the same time most codes of football are booming would make the investment a relatively risky one.
Having said all of the above, the main reason I am against privatisation is that I can't see anyone with pockets deep enough would be interested in purchasing the 36ers, ensuring a stacked line-up, cheap tickets, etc, etc even if it meant a few years of loss to get basketball booming again in SA.
Look at how rich Longley is and even he jumped ship after a few years of losses at Perth.
That is why privatisation is impossible to seriously discuss in a hypothetical sense as the potential owners would be the most important factor into whether you would even consider it.
If you told me that Mark Cuban was going to buy the 36ers with the goal of ensuring the 36ers finish ahead of the Sydney Kings for the next 30 years it would be a no-brainer.
