" To allow fans to attend games" like they do for AFL and NRL right now?

This isn't good news and undertones of LK being under immense pressure

By the end of January people will have forgotten the nbl even exists. Early December or people will move onto other summer sports.

Who willl fund a hub? League?

Amazing questions haven't been asked about how this all eventuated? Like how did Melbourne United have a COVID-19 outbreak? When they had permission from the Government as a professional sporting team?

Like who was responsible for protocols at their trainings? Who was training with the contracted players?

Bit of a shit show from an organisation that claims to be beyond reproach when it comes to their image within the NBL.

It's a virus. Protocols are not fool proof. SEM also had an outbreak. Daz you forget basketball is an indoor sport and this the crowd limitations will be different. Vic and NSW won’t be able to host big indoor crowds. QLD now getting new cases things could shift very quickly over the next 2 months. A January start will be the earliest in a best case scenario

NZ has plenty of towns that could have a hub at reasonable costs. If you're going to wait till late January you might as well cancel the season. The afl, league, premier league and various other sports will take the interest away.

We’ve been told how well the nbl has been travelling for the last few season, all to find out that players have to take pay cuts and now no one got any money. Same old same old.

Every professional league has taken pay cuts!!

No outbreak at SEM

Victoria is going to open up and state travel will be forced open shortly as well.

Thank god its about to be over as everyone is running out of cash so bring on crowds and the NBL!!!

Its great news lets get back to business and the NBL can't wait!!

It will be awesome and saves the league for disaster

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article245382320.html

This explains the 6% myth that dipshits are making viral.

@me you need to understand LK's other business' that fund the NBL. Rental income has seized in Victoria, assets are depressed and tenants are vacating. He has had lawsuit after lawsuit before COVID started about his last apartment deal. Pressure is well and truly on.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/buyers-fail-to-pay-up-in-glittering-south-yarra-mega-development-20200514-p54sze.html

https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/retail-is-not-dead-larry-kestelman-toasts-grand-leasing-success-20200130-p53w4n

He's still worth $750mill. Pretty sure that didn't disappear in the past six months.

Who says he is worth 750m?

His biggest asset sold for $203m 7 years ago

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/dodo-chief-larry-kestelman-tells-smartcompany-why-i-just-sold-my-company-for-203-million/

What makes everyone think it's going to better at end January than start of December, this shit isn’t going away, find the money to start it in hub conditions or call the season off.
In all honesty LK has done great job these last few seasons but he has to much money in a few teams, United, Hawks, Bullets, and is probably over stretched. It happens so maybe approach, Perth or Sydney owners to take some of the business over, both have supposedly large funds.

It's called tall poppy syndrome Issac

His estimated wealth is widely available if you bothered to google something more recent.

Why did he firesale his super yacht to Clive Palmer last month?

Maybe because there is no need to have a yacht when you can't travel anywhere?

The guy has hundreds of millions in property's in extremely desirable locations his also about to start a 150mill property development in Tasmania on the waterfront land he got for sweet fuck all in the deal with the tas government while he may be hurting a bit like most businesses people his not exactly on his knees

Don't know where you’re getting your info from mate but it’s not accurate Larry kestleman does not have anything to do with the dec deal itself the government will be keeping ownership of it and redevelopmenting it Lk will be leasing for the nbl team to play games in there’s nothing for him to sign off on plans for the redeployment are currently in the approval stage work was never due to start until the end of September I know this as my partner works at the council his property deal was always goi to be signed off on at a later date I believe a 24 month timeline was agreed to with the government for works to commence

An in addition to "NBL to be delayed again" do you think someone like Brookhouse is going to leave a plum job at Golf Australia for some pie in the sky job that is never going to happen in Tassie due to the reasons you claim? If you're going to talk utter rubbish you might want to make it slightly believable.

#525 learn to punctuate please

No offence but you are 100% wrong mate the nbl team has already been signed of on and agreed to buy both parties. Larry and nbl couldn't pull out now even if they wanted to do unless they wanted a large lawsuit also do you really think the state government is going to hand over 2million$ or start paying for team related things if there was not a agreement or contract in place ? As for the dec that doesn’t even meet safety standards and is close to being in a unusable condition it was always getting a redevelopment of some sort nbl or not. The practice courts training centre your alluding to had nothing to do with the nbl deal this was funded for at the last election well before the nbl . And like you said Lk property deal was always going to happen at a later date it has no bearing on the nbl team even if Larry kestleman pulled out of the development the government would have no trouble selling the land to other developers

Hub POINTLESS without a TV deal....
LK will delay delay delay until borders open

Its for Larry Junior!

It's a bit of both for LK. He’s extremely passionate about basketball in Aus at all levels, but also hopes to build the NBL up to be a profitable league at some point

BeeGee, he's been quoted a number of times as saying he's passionate about basketball in Australia. That said, he seems pretty keen on making money in the long term. He's sunk a shedload of money into the league so far (figure reported as $30 million in the first couple of years, presumably more by now) and it seems pretty unlikely he's gained anything other than tax write-offs and unpaid personal advertising so far.

I kind of think of him as like Bendat with the Wildcats - motivated by a mixture of passion and belief there's money to be made, or at least he can break even, if it's run right.

Long term, I wonder if his plan is to get the league to a break-even/profit stage, then sell his controlling stake to the fellow owners/investors. He could keep a stake in it, either through investment in the league itself or in one or more teams. That would feed his professed passion while still allowing him to realise a return on his investment.

Not Until our population is 45+ million will sports be profitable in this country.

Bring back First Ever! Great quality apparel

#567 the AFL says hello

# 575 lot off afl clubs afloat because of hand outs. Some clubs very profitable but most aren't. The afl is held up tv deals. The new generation of young people don’t watch tv, it will be interesting to see where they land in the next 20-30 years.

Yeah I can see why the AFL are struggling when last season was the single season attendance record so as no one is going to games they are in trouble aren't they.

AFL clubs dont make money from AFL , they make it form outside investments.

Larry has done well til the last few years in my opinion.
The cash splash should always be noted, but when it is constantly brought up in regards to any critique of the NBL, its gets very old. How do you move fwd?
When its always, yeah he saved the league and put up big $, Ok cool, how do we move forward after the pat on the back?

It's OK for Larry to continue to spend his own $$$ and put a product out there for people to consume.

The problem is that no one is going to want to buy it this summer. Anyone watching the news today can see the level that discretionary spending has gone down.

1) People don't want to spend money on luxury items (going to a sporting event)
2) People aren't going to want to sit in big crowds while there's virus on the loose in the community.

The AFL doesn't need fans to "exist" - it's existing without fans quite well. It has TV money. Basketball isn't so fortunate. Could be a lean summer followed by a lean couple of years.

#583 have you seen crowds at the NRL in QLD? They do not care about social distancing and they love to go out to sport. The only way NBL21 doesn't go ahead is if QLD has a Victorian style COVID crisis. And between now and January that is entirely possible

The AFL did announce Adelaide is on standby

dumb decision by who?

What KET was asking is how would it be any different if QLD'ers didn't get it. There would be manufactured media outrage too, plus there'd be selective social media posts to make it seem like the entire state is on edge....kinda like what you're doing now.

https://www.news.com.au/news/nbl-nsw-government-says-homebush-and-wollongong-are-perfect-nbl-hubs-to-get-season-underway/news-story/cff4d1a01068435a215f17e0aaadab5a

#650
Now that would be excellent.

This article by Uluc provides more details and context for the options being considered - https://www.espn.com/nbl/story/_/id/29799146/how-2020-21-nbl-season-look

Selected quotes:
'December 3 had been marked by the NBL as a hopeful start date to the new season -- pushed back from the usual October commencement -- but that's moved back "at least 30-45 days", according to one source with knowledge of the discussions.'

'players across all teams began receiving salary payments in the middle of August.'

'The NBL's priority remains to work on solutions that would secure crowds at games, because any alternative is seen by the league to not be financially viable. Decision-makers within multiple teams have also privately acknowledged that playing games without fans is not feasible, sources said, though that sentiment isn't a consensus.'

'Four potential locations for an NBL bubble have been discussed as strong options, sources said: New Zealand, Cairns, Adelaide, and Perth. ... A bubble would feature all nine NBL teams functioning in one city, potentially on a temporary basis.'

'One option ... is for the two Melbourne teams to operate in a different state to begin the new season, before back-loading those teams' home games, sources said.'

'NBL has been working with Breakers owner, Matt Walsh, on potential solutions; one of which is relocating the team [NZ Breakers] to an Australian city for the season.'

'The lack of a firm start date to the season has also put a halt on the recruitment of imports, with multiple teams holding off on making significant signings until they know when the 2020-21 campaign will officially begin, sources said. '

'American imports who have signed ... have also pushed back their arrival date, ... many are now setting their sights on [arriving in] early-December.'

Interesting couple of articles published in the last couple of days:

Matt Logue (https://www.news.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-nsw-deputy-premier-john-barilaro-ramps-up-hub-talks-with-the-nbl/news-story/84de5c02a0c89cb02fc0c5c42d3d0654) reports that NSW Government may be willing to tip some money into a Sydney hub at Homebush:

"It's understood that the NSW Government has shown willingness to contribute and assist with a hub model, including costs and funding to teams to offset the league’s revenue hit."

Blanchfield touts Perth as the place for an NBL hub. Unfortunately this article is behind a paywall (https://thewest.com.au/sport/basketball/perth-wildcats-recruit-says-a-hub-in-wa-makes-perfect-sense-for-nbl-ng-b881662061z).

Perth still on the nose from their AFL snub. Also the ACB. The Nbl won't take any notice of that of course.

NBL officially announce today Mid-January start

"he NBL has announced the 2020-21 Hungry Jack's NBL Season will start in early 2021.


Hungry Jack’s NBL Owner and Executive Chairman Larry Kestelman said: "After consulting with the nine NBL clubs and the Australian Basketball Players’ Association and acting on the advice of our NBL Return to Competition Taskforce, we have decided the start of the season will be delayed until at least mid-January.

From the NBL website.

“The main reason for pushing the start of the season back to the new year is to give the clubs the best opportunity to play in front of as many fans as possible.
“We will remain flexible about the exact start date and this will depend on a number of factors including travel and border restrictions, community transmission numbers and availability at venues across Australia and New Zealand.
“We intend to play a full season and, if needed, we will play in one or more hubs to achieve this. We are currently having positive discussions with a number of interested States about potential locations."

Should have started in a hub in December and moved on from there, if states open and flying is ok then back to normal, if not should have just continued the hub. We have been led to believe that the nbl was going gang busters, teams in nba preseason etc, probably would have been better putting a few bucks aside for the rainy day instead of tell all and sundry how great it was. Disappointed.

Exactly, regional centre would have been great, starting in December. There is no certainty that it's going to be much better in late January, certainly after everyone flouts the rules over Christmas.

While euro money is still very good most contracts this season have covid clauses re money. Israel has just gone back into a national shutdown again, parts France and Spain struggling and other countries to follow. It why a lot players in the end returned to Australia’s nbl.

Two main things that are impacting NBL are Melbourne allowing crowds for sports and WA allowing travel into the state, both of which are unlikely until after Christmas.
So it is a very smart decision at this stage to delay until mid-January.

If WA are letting the AFL have a travel exemption I'm sure the great Wildcats could swing it for the NBL

When do you see crowds being allowed in for sport. WA, SA and Queensland have done remarkably well and still only allow about a third of stadium capacity. Not enough fans in that scenario to even make it worthwhile. Regional centre with low cost was the way to get rolling.

Adelaide oval allows 25,000 so that is a little more than a 3rd of stadium capacity

That will be and is the million $$ question Cram

Did the bunnings cairns stadium need to ber built then, don't they finish works in February.

CCC opens mid March.

If you have watched any of the BWA WCC their crowds don't appear to be too affected and there is definitely no social distancing going on in the stands

"Most teams struggle to get enough people to their own games. Who is going to turn up to neutral games?"

Honestly, at this point, and with the benefit of hindsight, this is a very dumb comment.

nbl hub in perth w/ games at rac, hbf stadium, hbf arena, and bendat basketball centre

#275 that would have worked, certainly to start the season.

If the WA Government allowed it. One of the issues they will have is how they source their officials for the Hub. Referee's, stats, scoretable, all these people have jobs and have probably been affected by COVID already.

What are you talking about? They are already there surely.

Who are already there?

Referees, stats score table I'd say at a guess. Would’ve thought NZ would’ve been a good hub.

WA have 4 NBL referee's. 1 of those 4 has 1 game to his name. If you want to play at 4 stadiums as alluded to above you're going to need a few more. NZ has 2 ANBL referee's so that is going to be a problem. Then add that both areas only have a certain amount of qualified scoretable and stats and you have a bit of an issue with your officials.

Yes I forgot about the home cooking that the locals provide. Fair point about neutral refs. Stats are usually wrong so nothing to see there.

NBL wont be running a hub...no cash and if no crowds it will be a bigger money pit than it already is!

#293 and you know this how?

NBL to now run to June?!?

Players contracts finish at end of April.

well that will be interesting if players contracts stop before the end of the season

They will just sign contract extensions.

Might be a good excuse for clubs unable to make finals to jettison some baggage and save some $'s.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-talking-to-victorian-government-about-melbourne-basketball-hub-20200917-p55wjr.html

seems totally arse-about I agree

Cos LK can't be stuffed quarantining anywhere else. It's his comp after all. Agreed though....stupidity.

Yes if it's going to be a hub start in early December, let players have ten days at home over Christmas, New Years and then hopefully continue in a home and away season or back to the hub there or elsewhere.
Ballarat and Bendigo would be great for hub and limited spectators, Cairns, Wollongong also could do it.

You would have to expect that if they are even entertaining the idea of doing a Hub in Victoria that the Andrews government is throwing buckets of cash at them.

only reason for a hub is that Victoria is not safe, so it cant be there.
However, if Victoria becomes safe then no need for a hub?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-23/foxtel-benefited-from-fast-tracked-federal-government-funds/12690954

This should help, it's to help sport, they millions every year. Basketball is an international sport and deserves this.

Article by Matt Logue on preparations for NBL 2020/21. Includes Loeliger referring to chance of a normal season (albeit starting in January) with contingency plan(s) for a hub, if needed.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-victoria-has-emerged-as-the-favourite-to-host-a-hub-to-start-the-2021-nbl-season-with-games-in-regional-centres/news-story/c7cac53c2f72a5979f436783fc00fb9b

They hoping Vic can have crowds...indoor crowds might be the issue as criket/footy/tennis are outdoor events so hard to compare unless they open the roof at Melbourne Park to get around he rules.

Open roof games in Melbourne.

NBL put out a statement today (on nbl.com.au), confirming a mid-January start for the 2020-21 season and a deadline of December 3 for release of the season schedule.

That's it. No additional details in the statement.

Reckon SA might throw a spanner in that plan?

Australia needs to find a way to deal with it like other countries have.

SA may be irrelevant to the NBL's plans

All the places who don't shut down when one family has the sniffles!

"All the places who don't shut down when one family has the sniffles!"

Loser right there. Idiot.

#634 +1

All Brisbane players and coaching staff now require 14 days quarantine after practice matches played in Adelaide.

ME and that is the issue. SA went about life as if it was normal and until there is a vaccine nothing will ever be normal. No one social distances, no one cares about COVID protocols. So it took one cleaner with a big family to bring down the whole state because like most of Australia SA was complacent. It only takes one infected person at the NRL in Queensland to blow that state up too. Until there is a vaccine life will never be normal. You look at social media in WA, they are living normal pre COVID. One case and it's all over.

well said ME , it sounds like a massive over reaction to one outbreak (unless they know a lot more and not telling us) and all from the same case which they are contract tracing.
NSW seems to be able to manage these spot fires with less restrictions and has way more overseas travelers than other states.
Total lockdown cant be the way forward as strategy for every new case that arises.

They didn't catch it early hence anyone who went to a pizza shop between November 6 and 16 have to isolate. They have no clue where it is or has been. You only make these decisions when you are behind the curve.

There is virtually no flu this year due to covid. The problem apparently is this is a new strain of COVID and only takes 3 days to pass on to the next person.

It cut lose again due to a quarantine issue again, no different to Melbourne or the ruby princess again. If the federal government had got off there arse and put in place federally controlled quarantine centres months ago maned by doctors and nurses Australia would be able to go about business as usual. There are federal bases all over Australia that could have been made operational quickly. The states have had to take all the responsibility when it's not even there jurisdiction. You get what you sow.

WA didn't do a harsh lockdown of its citizens. The only two in Australasia who did a genuinely hard lockdown are Vic and NZ, and they are the two that have had a second wave of any description, albeit NZ's was small.

SA's approach has been close to the best the whole way through, high levels of testing, their contact tracing has been good and their restrictions lesser than all others in response to the science that lockdowns aren't the most important part of handling this virus.

Their current response is unscientific - COVID is very rarely spread outdoors, so preventing people going outside to exercise has very little justification. It will be interesting to see how well they get back to a measured, scientific response once they feel their contact tracers have caught up.

However, the biggest learning from this has to be state govts get their act in order around what people employed in hotel quarantine are doing, if they need to be paid extra to only have one job then so be it.

As for the federal govt, they did an outstanding job early, but got caught up in politicking which now makes it very difficult to get together a national plan for handling small re-emergences of the virus.

The current knee jerk approach isn't going to produce good results, credit to NSW and Vic for their more mature approach to the SA outbreak.

No one is talking about letting the virus run riot. The discussion around this is far too binary, it's not a case of shut everything down or let COVID spread, the majority of Australia has been an excellent case in point, as has Taiwan.

Effective testing, contact tracing, improved hygiene and reducing interaction in areas where transmission occurs (close contact of late teens/adults in indoor environments) are the keys to limiting the spread to those who are susceptible to COVID.

If you listened to ABC radio this morning apparently it's a British strain of the disease, far stronger and spreads within 24 hours.
Yet again if the security / cleaning in the medi hotel was spot on this would not have occurred. Glad I didn't have a pizza from that pizza shop.

#701
Do you work trump, most of what you wrote is dribble.

Go hard go early is what's best worked around the world.

The problem is again been brought in through the quarantine zones, the federal government is in charge of this and has been woeful and just passed it onto the states.

"SA making the right play getting in early placing restrictions in order to bide themselves time."

Agree, they just haven't got the measures right. For example, there is no scientific basis for not allowing people to exercise outdoors. This will not prevent the spread of the virus as it is spread by close contact and overwhelmingly indoors.

States limited gatherings to 2 or 10 during the initial wave, this has basis as a precautionary measure, but not preventing people going outside.

So how will the HUB work? Where? Is ISO involved? So many questions and time is rapidly running out.

#712 not sure I am going to believe from and anon on a hoops forum that the people making decisions are not doing so without any scientific basis. Forgive me if I do not believe that you are the scientific expert in this area.

"#712 not sure I am going to believe from and anon on a hoops forum that the people making decisions are not doing so without any scientific basis."

That's been confirmed in the case of Victoria, where politicians made decisions that weren't supported by the chief health officer.

If genuinely interested, find studies on the locations where COVID is mostly transmitted, and you will see outdoor exercise (and indeed most things outdoors) and very low risk.

My initial comment stands. I am not going to take you as a scientific expert as an anon on hoops. Nor blindly go googling for your supposed studies that prove you so called theory. Had said pizza staff not lied and therefore thrown everything your so called studies suggest is fact there wouldn't have been a lockdown at all least of all a ban on outdoor exercise.

There is no theory, just data showing the overwhelming transmission occurs indoors, and transmission outdoors is in large, densely populated crowds.

I did get a chuckle though out of your blind faith in politicians!

Their decisions matter. Your anon statements do not

I wonder if the people that say to let the virus run it's course, a few old people die, just like the normal flu, would do the eulogy at a loved ones funeral, or in fact, any funeral, for someone that passes away. Would it go along the lines of, good old aunty Beryl had a good run, pity she's dead, but it was for the greater good. Anyway, I'm off to watch Cairns vs the Phoenix, because that's the most perfect thing, no restrictions.

"In an average year the Flu kills about 300 thousand worldwide. Covid19, with the restrictions, has already killed at least 1.3M."

The flu has a vaccine, COVID does not.

The flu vaccine is about 50% effective. That's scary.

And I'm sure those in the third world have access to the latest version of it.