It's still five months away, at least. I wouldn't be surprised to see it delayed further.

You wouldn't want to be Phoenix/United.

What's the solution? Delay their home game fixtures and back-load it?

What's the likelihood of Australian Open happening in some form?

Will that affect the NBL and mean that United/Phoenix don't play home games until February?

Is the Phoenix home training ground big enough to hold a couple of NBL games if there was an Oz Open/NBL clash just to avoid those United/Phoenix home games from being pushed so far back?

All the questions.

Plenty of time before a decision needs to be made.

Base the two Melbourne clubs in Tassie if need be.

Is the Phoenix home training ground big enough to hold a couple of NBL games if there was an Oz Open/NBL clash just to avoid those United/Phoenix home games from being pushed so far back?

I suggested a couple of days ago to put them in Tassie, or even Wellington!
Maybe put (dis) United in Hobart and perhaps The Wellington Phoenix...

An alternative 'home' would get over one particular issue, but what about :

- Availability of venue?
- Suitability of venue (NBL level?)
- Will the fans there adopt their new team for 1 season? I don't think so.
- Who is going to pay for the team plus staff plus possibly family to stay there for 4-5 months?

Unlike the AFL, and the NBL of seasons past, it is nolonger absurdly Victoria centric. Plus LK has shown he has a vision for the whole league.

A few weeks back, I though the Melbourne clubs might have been hesitant, but since FA opened they have moved ahead with some good (albeit mostly young) signings.

I thought the biggest impact would be to their pre-season, but if they're allowed full training, that's not a really an issue.

The problem with games isn't so much whether you can play in Melbourne, its getting the teams into the other cities. And at the moment Perth is one of the biggest problems. Serving 2 weeks iso before every Perth game, just isn't going to work.

It's still 4 months away, so a lot can change, but we might for example wee a scenario where there are no games played in hotspots (eg Melbourne) and teams behind hard borders (eg Perth) may have to relocate for a prolonged period.

I think at a bare minimum, the NBL will need to consider:
Reducing travel, so no-more crossing the continent every weekend;
Condensing the season, so two games very week for every team;
Playing double-headers, so you fly to your opponents city and play both away games;
and ultimately perhaps shortening the season. If the start gets pushed back any further, then I don;t think they have much choice.

I haven't done enough research to say.

In other countries with this level of community transmission, has anyone really got the virus under control within 2-3 months?

I'm guessing the Andrews government wouldn't allow crowds at sports until the community transmission is back in the single figures every day. Is that even feasible within the next 2-3 months? If not, there's no way the NBL goes ahead of Melbourne in December.

And I should add, I could be wrong but my gut feel is, I don't think the NBL will do hubs etc.

I doubt the NBL would even bother going ahead if 2 of the clubs won't be getting crowd.

Who would pay the salaries of the United and SEM players without those clubs getting much revenue?

Or maybe Larry would just stump up and offer to keep United and SEM running? Maybe. Possible I guess.

They're not going to nix a season because of two teams, especially if there are options. If "no crowds in Melbourne" was the only problem, then they'll have to start with a bunch of away games, and if still not solved, they either sell their home games elsewhere, or play behind closed doors.
The bigger problem will be if there are still real restrictions on their travel,
OR if Covid actually gets into the teams.

I think at this point the critical thing will be to see if Community transmission cases start to drop off over the next couple of weeks, meaning their lockdowns have worked, or if things just continue to go to shit.

At the moment I'm a hell of lot more worried about my daughter, than the NBL

see if Community transmission cases start to drop off over the next couple of weeks, meaning their lockdowns have worked, or if things just continue to go to shit.

So if things go well and the season can start, will our clubs have any issue having our imports arrive in time, will our teams even be able to find imports or will it be more about finding players that formerly were in the league rather than the unproven imports we get each season?

Nostraballmus sees that we are truly farked. An he can't even blame Lemanis for this.

Yeah the SBC just off high street

see if Community transmission cases start to drop off over the next couple of weeks, meaning their lockdowns have worked, or if things just continue to go to shit.

The lag time is about two weeks. Melbourne is on week three, so we should be well into lockdown-affected numbers by now, and case-per-day numbers are still climbing.

If no crowds in Victoria there will be no NBL

I was thinking that, based on the 14 days, but hoping I was wrong. Maybe due to people taking longer to get symptoms, or delaying getting tested?

A lot can happen between then and now. Things might be okay again in Victoria and NSW, or they may not. 129 days ago, Victoria announced 17 new cases, 139 active cases and 6 people in hospital. Today Victoria announced 532 new cases, 6 new deaths, 4,542 active cases, 245 people in hospital and 44 people in ICUs. So a lot can change in 129 days. And they're talking about shutting down more industries and workplaces, not opening them up.

I'm from Melbourne, I can not see any crowds by December 3rd how where going. There has been cases were people are getting tested but the tests are not working. If a test is wrong then people are spreading the virus shopping, working and so on.

I personally want Victoria to go to stage 4 to make sure we control this virus before Christmas. It will effect the economy but at least it may be under control. It’s a waiting game for this Vaccine....

Prior to the season start date, everyone can come over to WA for two weeks quarantine in WA. Play a couple months of games at Bendat, Challenge or Perth Arena, stay at Joondalup Resort or Crown and enjoy the summer weather. Next couple months do it in SA (no idea if they have resorts or extra stadiums), then hopefully/if the east coast gets their sh!t together, have the back end the season over there or head over to NZ.

Fingers cross it gets better but can not see games being played in Melbourne by December.

#813508 Got Collingwobbles & Geelong in WA right now... and Hawthorn & Carlton swapping in next... AFL obviously have much bigger squads & support staff so 2 AFL teams is probably equal to house 4-5 NBL teams.
Sport distracts folks from life, all Govt's know that is essential, even more so now.

Now vs a month ago....very different propositions for the NBL sadly.

Unfortunately the politics is getting into it.

Federal Government and media criticised Victoria for being too heavy handed, now they're criticising Victoria for being complacent.

State Government is criticised for hiring security firm to do security instead of the military, I cannot imagine "security guards will bang infected residents" was much of an anticipated risk.


If people are going to be that dumb in society, we won't get over the infection very quickly, if the Federal Government is going to play the game of politics then we're in trouble because that is just as dumb a thing to do when it comes to avoiding the spread.

We need the Federal Liberals to stop being numpties, and the general Public to stop trying to party and bang infected people.

KET I wonder who you vote for.

Please continue to ignore that it was one of the biggest stuff ups in Australian history by the Andrews Government which is having devastating effects. Don't let facts get in the way when you are making up a story.

"State Government is criticised for hiring security firm to do security instead of the military"

No they are being criticised for hiring incompetent people which you blatantly failed to mention.

" and the general Public to stop trying to party and bang infected people."

You mean the people the Andrews government hired

"Brunson I wonder who you vote for. The Hyperbole Party?"

Regardless if it was Liberal, Labor, Greens or Dad's army political party I would say the same thing.

"all states have been using local security firms to manage the quarantined people so why is it only Victoria that had an outbreak"

Because the rest of the states picked competent security firms.

It's hardly political to suggest there's hypocrisy in "The Victorian Government were too strict" followed by "The Victorian Government was complacent". If you're believing that line of argument, you're going to believe anything critical of the Victorian Government.

Realistically, you're then criticising those in Victorian Health advising.

In respect of the Federal Government and Aged Care - the Federal Government threatened the Aged Care sector with penalties if they didn't open up - against the advice the Aged Care providers. I was part of that call.

"No they are being criticised for hiring incompetent people which you blatantly failed to mention."

One could reasonably expect when hiring a Security firm that those things would not occur.

If we are in the business of criticising Governments for their hiring of Security firms, the Federal Government are no better, I was part of that litigation no more than a few years ago in the Manus Island Class Action.

The National Cabinet recommended ADF personnel manage quarantine, and offered ADF Personnel.

Other states ran with this recommendation.

Victoria said "No thanks, we'll use private security guards".

We know some of those guards were recruited via WhatsApp, paid $25 per hr as contractors, and received no training on COVID whatsoever.

In other words, Victoria could’ve had professional military personnel managing quarantine. Instead we ended up with lowly paid and untrained contractors. They probably drive Ubers on Fridays and do security on Saturday.

Victoria is now the only state with a major outbreak. All of Victoria’s cases could conceivably be linked to hotels (Chief Health Officer Sutton said this a few weeks ago).

Politics aside, if those are the facts, which they seem to be, then someone has to be held accountable for this. Absolutely appalling. Very important decisions in crisis management, and they effed it up monumentally.

[We know some of those guards were recruited via WhatsApp, paid $25 per hr as contractors, and received no training on COVID whatsoever].

I should add, we also know many of them weren't taking their roles seriously, or trying to stop the spread of COVID

It's also strongly rumoured (and I heard these whispers well before this was mentioned in the media, so I'm pretty confident it's true) that guards were sleeping with quarantined guests

Now, of course it's possible that military personnel would also fail to take COVID seriously. But, how likely is that? I know plenty of ADF and reserves people, and they're all professionals who take their duties seriously and know how to follow a chain of command.

Compared this to security guards- where companies are run for profit and contracts given to the lowest bidder, staff get their security licenses from Weetbix packets, get paid peanuts, and many had no COVID training.

Consider which group is likely to manage quarantine better.

United and Phoenix trainings suspended after two positive NBL tests in Melbourne.