Imagine trying to splinter fan bases into so many teams, and have contract situations where teams coming in would need to build up quickly to become NBL level and relegated clubs have to shed their contracts to afford to stay afloat and have insufficient infrastructure to succeed at NBL level and able to provide what limited sponsorship exists even less confidence and security that their money is worth while.

There is absolutely zero sense in a promotion relegation system - it would ruin the NBL and be a straight up disaster of an idea.

There is so much due diligence required to allow a team into the NBL.

Do they have the population to build a decent fan base?
Do they have the facilities?
Do they have the financial backing until income starts rolling in?
Is the new team in a location that is not covered by an existing NBL team?

I doubt any team could go from NBL1 budgets to $1.Nnm in Salary soft cap, not unless there is a benevolent owner.

Yeah an nbl1 team with a $100k player budget a 500 seat arena will go great in the nbl

She's too busy getting into an online fight about gender

nope

Are Western Magic making a resurgence?

Yeah nah.

The closest we could ever hope for would be, say, a second tier league in the summer, like an NBL D League, where potential new franchises could establish a brand and a fan base before, after achieving certain other milestones, moving into the actual NBL. You could potentially have some of the bigger NBL1 teams in each state enter this comp too to provide additional teams.

Again, this is super unlikely as the money for second tier guys to travel around the country simply isnt there, but its WAY more likely than teams being able to win their way from NBL1 straight into the NBL

In addition to anon 127, England's small geographic size means tiered systems like this are much more possible.

Obviously after the NBL, the next level down is basically several state leagues wrapped up in the NBL1 umbrella. We havent yet really worked out whether some intra league championship can even work.

Contrast that with English football where after the premier league, they have FOUR more tiers of national competition (Championship, League 1, League 2 and National League) before you start getting into leagues that are split by region.

A few interesting ideas and posts. I have started 3 times with an idea and thought, nah ... get laughed at, but here goes.

End of NBL1 season, each conference picks an All Star type team, the very best from their conf.

These 5 teams, North, South, East, West and Central do battle during the NBL season. Play each-other 2 or 4 times.

Rosters:
Head Coach: C'hip HC of conf.
Roster: 3 imports, 10 locals selected from their own conf.
Venues: Regional centres with suitable stadia. Share it around the NBL1 communities, if possible.
Funding: To be jointly shared between NBL and NBL1. I am thinking a team budget of around #400,000 each team. So it would mean $1m from both NBL and NBL1. Teams can spend more if they want but no real point to pay overs as no-one else can have them (remember, own conf only)(may be legal issues there?).

This would/could supply several benefits.

1. Locals.... Keep NBL1 players involved locally. The best of them to be rewarded for their current season. Pay them well enough (all players should get a decent reward/payment) and they have no reason to go OS and less chance of our losing them to those markets.
2. Imports.... as above but more so.
3. The whole team ... game-ready to fill in if required by an NBL team for injury or roster replacement.

**In my first sentence, I wrote, "I have started 3 times with an idea...". That was in response to the thread-title and expanding the league through promotion. IMO, no-way that any NBL1 team could get up to speed with the NBL. You would be inviting 5 x Cairns/Illawarras/Townsvilles-like teams, community owned , run and financed.
NBL expansion must continue as is, with and through private ownership, vetted by whatever standards you want, but most importantly, financially stable (read "rich enough to own a sports club).
And that's why I ditched it 3 times. But as others have opened up alternatives, so did I.

Now you can laugh!

Final benefit!

We all would know which conference was the best (each year).

Hey, I really agree with your "All Star" statement. Really, what I meant was "all stars" (no capitals). I that know I used caps above. should not have.

Not a weekend event, NOT an All Star event. The best players in your conference to play, for good money, opportunity and for your conference. Could be that all our serious, better NBL1 players AND up-and-comers will actually strive for selection.

An NBL1 all star league that's probably more expensive with less crowd and sponsors than a WNBL.

It’s hard to make basketball leagues viable - this would be mixing many of the unviable aspects together and ditching the viable parts.

I think the NBL has visions of an NBL "second" league. I don’t know how that would work - especially in the context of NBL 1 existing.

The NBL well and truly covers the “local” bball market in Australia, there isn’t room outside of that save for regional towns and grass roots - both of which NBL 1 covers.

The reason they’d change things would be to #1 create a better situation for development of players or #2 improve how the NBL clubs operate by providing a development type league G League style - that way they can have game form players to slip in when required.

With the potential for the NBL to expand to 10 then possibly to 12 teams, there are plenty of “professional” local spots around. The question then is, how can we have more money to to help fund these players during the offseason, and how can we develop young talent during the NBL season and have them in-form to step up of necessary.

Consolidation of NBL 1 clubs to be able to have better quality teams and have extra funds for players? Merger with NZ NBL as well?

An NBL D League that battles against other NBL D League teams and NBA Academy?

Becomes a question of costs v benefit.