Would prefer a second Melbourne team before this. It's all about the $$$ though

I tend to agree Watto, would prefer to see us expanding in Australia first but I guess we have been flogging this horse for 15+ years now with no real headway made to getting the league and clubs to a position where they are self sustaining businesses.

If a Chinese team can be the catalyst for increased sponsorship revenues then I guess its something that definitely needs to be investigated.

Hasn't anyone worked out that sporting teams based on the GC just don't work out?

Nature of today's professional sporting landscape.

Look at Super Rugby and the Expansion into Japan and Argentina.

Although a watered down and vastly unfair competition (to NZ sides especially), it's making a killing money-wise.

SA got their 6th team purely because of the TV deal and they sit with a 1-9 record.

Hopefully, the NBL could source a massive TV deal with China's inclusion and that could really pave the way for the league to take off.

I mean the TV deal is surely the saving grace of the NRL and probably the Super Rugby too. NBL has had its struggles financially sure, but we haven't being blessed with the type of TV deal those other sports have. This could change it bigtime.

Yeah, I would imagine any Chinese TV deal would be huge revenue for the NBL, in comparison to what they can get locally.

I don't mind a Chinese team in the NBL that is based in an Australian city.

Their home crowds maybe small, but their TV market would be huge. All of sudden bumper sticker sponsor logos will be seen by 10s of millions of Chinese people.

the China to NZ road trip will be massive though!

The league & clubs couldnt sustain a Singapore located team based on travel & accomodation costs that were too high.

China would be no different if not worse.

Would be a bit more confident but not sure if they replaced the guy they had with unrivalled Chinese basketball knowledge previously helping them? Those would be big shoes to fill. Can't just go over there with your hand out for the RMB - very specific market from a cultural perspective.

What's in it for the Chinese team? I'm not sure "playing against good team" is enough.

Is it a CBA or a Chinese NBL team?

If the latter, will they get smacked each game? If they load up with imports, will chemistry suffer and they still struggle?

"China would be no different if not worse."

China is completely different Singapore in every way when it comes to basketball and the commercial support available.

@ Isaac, from what I've heard it would be neither, it would be a new team made up of Americans, Aussies/Kiwis and Chinese. Will be interesting to see if the NBL can pull this off, they've opened quite a few doors already over there, so who knows?

They should call the team the "Chinese Burn" in homage to the GC Blaze

Gave me a good chuckle, Watto. Well played.

paul, would the Chinese players be CBA regulars or CNBL-level? I don't know anything about the latter, but I gather it's a poorer quality league. It'd need to be competitive to last.

As I said, my concern is that I don't think the guy who opened the doors is still there. I've caught up with him a number of times and his knowledge of basketball/business in China is really strong. When I heard he'd moved on, my reaction was "Now they're in trouble."

As long as there is no Chinese refs that report to Chinese officials (you know, like the ones that did the All-Australian games) then I'll be OK with this.

It would be weird having just one team wouldn't it?

What about a super-grand plan:

CBA is currently made of two divisions (Northern and Southern). They have 10 teams each.

Let's have an Oceania Division. Current NBL Teams.

Teams play within their conference but also play outside occasional games outside of their divisions. (ala Super Rugby). When Chinese teams come here, they could fit in 2 games from a Wednesday to a Sunday and likewise when we go to China.

Would China and the CBA allow it?

I've had 7.8 coffees today and I've got big things on my mind.

The CBA season runs from July-September AFAIK. That would fit fairly well with the NBL schedule previously running from October-March. No 'major' timeline changes required at least.

The article specified that the team would predominantly comprise "Chinese free agents". Does that exclude contracted CBA players in their offseason?

A CBA-representative team would surely generate some buzz over in China, paving the way for additional TV revenue. Although I expect Gold Coast attendances will flounder - is that a big deal?

I would rather see an Asian super league or something.

China - 6 teams
Australia/NZ - 6 teams
Rest of Asia - 6 teams

3 divisions:
play divisional teams 4 times
inter divisional teams 2 times
42 game season

Top 2 from each division go through, plus 2 wildcards.
5 game series for all 3 rounds of finals.

You can fly G/Coast to China cheaper than Cairns to Perth! As for the name,has to be the Sichuan Heat!

The Peking Ducks?

See, this is what happens when people smoke crack.

I'm fine with it, but who owns the Chinese team? They would need to have actual quality Chinese players (ie. national team level) rather than the token nationals the Slingers kept on the end of the bench for it to stand any chance of success, I would imagine.