I like the Idea. Not sure how all the Northern Cnference countries would feel though about having only 1 or 2 teams when nearly all of them have a much larger population than Australia.

I agree with you skip, but they might need to also look at the FIBA rankings. Most of them are very low. We are looking for the 'best' competition. It would be a great thing for their country to participate in and help develop their players.
China might be a hard sell as they are eyeing the NBA, but we could sell it as a good lead up to that entry (if it ever happens) and then they could use the Superleague to develop their players for the NBA.

Great. I agree totally. Who is paying the $$$$ for all the flights. Our sport needs a rich sugardaddy with bottomless pockets, like Lowy.

now wouldnt this be a huge step for australian basketball. full support, just wish it was possible. need someone with big cash pockets.

Flight lengths are an issue, although I guess only playing the other conference teams once helps reduce it. It could be done in a similar way to the NBA where teams will play 3 or 4 games in succession on the opposite coast.

Why not Townsville,Cairns Dragons & Wollongong????

You just lost half of the current support base PFF

Has basketball even been introduced to Darwin yet? :P

On a serious note that does sound like a good idea getting something like that going!

Here's Boti's take on a future league structure:

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23776051-5006371,00.html

We need Richard Branson to get on board...solves all the flight cost issues!

KC-gone Some teams need to go. The Darwin team I'm not convinced about, but Boti seems to think it is a good idea.
The Dragons I would suggest no to as one team in a city makes more sense in a competition like this.
Wollongong?? Are you serious they barely even survive now!!
Townsville and Cairns I would have to consider strongly, but one team from this region and one from the Gold Coast seems to make more sense.
Flights wise, I'm sure there would be a carrier keen to jump on board to advertise the fact they fly to all of these destinations! Costs would be covered partly by this and partly by the additional TV rights (which would have to be huge).

Boti idea seems too similar to what we have now. Where's the vision?? :)
I'm also not convinced we need someone with mega-bucks. I want to get away from relying on one person with deep pockets. We will need someone with the coin to pay for the lead up to the competition, but after that it should be self-sufficient. Imagine the TV rights in these Asian countries!!!

Panther...now there is a bloke with vision and a perfect person to get it up and running. Anyone have his mobile number? I'll give him a call and tell him about this wonderful opportunity!
James W you are spot on about Southern teams playing a Northern Conference swing of two or three games in a row and vice-versa.

His number is 0464 534 444 or as most people know it... 04 MILE HIGH!!!

Gold Panther! Gold...

Just reading the Boti article - I wrote something similar on here last year

http://linky.com.au/1fi2t

The A-League has to be the model used ... they have reinvented themselves and have proved that it was not the sport of football/soccer that people hated it was the league and the quality of football/soccer being played (amongst other things).

I like the idea of getting someone in that has succeeded at top level management of sports in Australia (like A-League did with John O'Neill).

And before we get to the "Tigers people won't support the Dragons and Pigs people won't support the Kings". Rubbish ... Melbourne Knights people and South melbourne people now support Melbourne Victory (and they had a bigger hatred for each other due to an ethnic rivalry). People will support the team that is their team cos they like the sport and their city.

I think we need to go back to 8 - 10 teams and 4 make the finals.

I have been saying this for ages ... less teams, better players, better product = more fans. You would go not just to watch your team but to watch other good players from other teams.

The teams

Adelaide
Perth
Melbourne
Sydney
Central NSW (can play out of Newcatsle or Wollongong or both)
Brisbane
North QLD (can play out of Cairns or Townsville or both)
NZ (if we have to)
and 2 others - Darwin, Gold Coast, Tassie

Anon. which problems would not have been addressed by the Superleague concept?
TV? Yes.
Sponsorship? Yes.
Media interest? Yes.
Supporter interest? Yes.
Quality of basketball? Yes. Extra money and greater level of competition means better quality of player stays.i.e. no need to go to Europe!

While i like the idea its simply not possible. If the nbl allows asian players to be deemed as non imports then Australia would have to qualify for the olympics via asia group instead of oceania.

The reason its ok for NZ as they are part of the OCEANIA group.

Anon. You might want to actually read the initial proposal. This is not a new name rearrange the teams concept.

Anyone can create the league. The collective wit of this site to conjour a league of awesome proportions however billionaire forum surfers are far and few between.

Having a superleague that focuses on capital city teams only is a smart start. Branching to make local rivalries would have to be established after a good 5-8 years of the new league running.

The idea of an international league does sound nice; but you're potentially looking at a system that is bigger than the NBA and rivals the coverage of the Euroleague. A league of that design would require a good 2-5 years of planning to consider getting off the ground.

Big Marty I agree 100% with you. Still it's a nice dream isn't it??!! The idea is to create something that does rival the Euroleague.
Who knows someday down the track we could have the Champions league with the top 2 teams from Southern and Northern conferences playing against the top coupple of teams from the Euroleague. The NBA still stand apart as the top competition.

Personally I think this is something FIBA, the NBA and Euroleague should all encourage!! It will boost the profile of basketball (a truely international sport) around the world.

Richard Branson would be good. The only problem is that he normally ivests in ventures that actually MAKE money.

At the moment it seems like FTA is not that interested in Basket ball. I did like Boti's idea of screening games on the internet. I know that I would reather watch interstate games streaming live or with some minimal time delay than live scores any day.

It may impact on home games with people prefering to stay at home and watch than go to the game. Port Power seem to have this problem already at AMMI.

I feel that this idea should be explored further.

Sponshorship models already exist on the internet. Could have several members of the crowd operate hand held cameras and mix the feed prior to sending it out.

Just some ideas.

Get the NBA right on board and create the Asian NBA and scrap the D-League.

rather not reather TYPO

There has been some softly worded talk that the NBA may get involved with our league for awhile now . Possibly more interest now with Bogut as a no 1 pick with Jawai , Mills , Newley , Ingles , Ogilvy and Maric on the bubble .
Be a nice tax write off to create the BAA league , and yes , NZ would have to be part of it .

The only problem may be the D league investment , maybe we could have an affiliation with them , player integration , etc , etc . Some possiblities i believe .

Isaac, where are you? Opinion?? Can I have abll please?? :)

abll means a ball...obviously :)

TV? Yes.
Sponsorship? Yes.
Media interest? Yes.
Supporter interest? Yes.
==============

Weren't these all going to be solved with the move to summer, kings winning the championship, introduction of NZ, introduction of an Asian team.

i recall hearing the money from hummer sponsorship was predominantly going to be used on promotion. probably went towards the awesome nbl.com.au

I really think the Australian leagues just need to stick to Australian teams. I have nothing against NZ or Singapore, but I don't see why they were in the NBL, when we have Australian-based teams that have in one form or another been around forever (such as Woolongong) struggling to keep going. NZ has its own league. Singapore probably does too. If the players want to come and try to make it on a squad here, that's fine. Just keep the Australian leagues, be it NBL, NRL or even AFL (who want to eventually try to expand beyond Oz) for Australian teams.

The NRL is an international league the New Zealand Warriors are not from bondi, even thought there are more kiwi's than aussies living there. I feel that a combination of this post and Boti's competiton outlined in the Advertiser today would be good, however the vital part of any new league has to be the administration...

The A-League is a prefect example, i'm sure Mr Lowy has put some of his own coin in to get it off the ground, but it is very well run they got what the game needed. They promised world class soccer and delivered a product which is just that. Any new basketball competition in this part of the world needs to deliver a high quality product that you can compare to international competitions. Adelaide Uninted's preformance in the ACL has proved that the local comp is as good here as it is in any part of asia.

Unfortunately this league would have need to have been a concept in the late 70's and have had at least 25 years to develop (AKA this should have been the idea in the first place).

Advertising and Media showings are the only reason Basketball is limping. No one is interested because there's nothing that can be used to jumpstart a campaign like this.

The league needs to be redeveloped at the end of next season with a year long break for a 2011 release date.

They should borrow the old "I'd like to see that" ad campaign that AFL used to jump to the top back in the early 90's. Best way to do that would be to make the final season of this league more of a show-off showcase. Play more NBA style of lighter 1st half defence and more dunks/oops. Get a good season of highlight material and use that as an ad campaign for the next gen league. With ACTUAL players promoting the league and why the fuck they're actually wanting to play here in the first place.