I'd like to see

Within 6 years...
-
1. Canberra 24/25 season likely
2. Wellington 26/27 season possibly
-
Within 12 years…
-
3. Newcastle - stadium refurb
4. Townsville - stadium refurb
-
12+ years
-
5. West Sydney - new stadium required
6. Geelong - new stadium required
-
16+ years
-
7. NT - new stadium required
8. Sunshine Coast - new stadium required
-
20 + years
-
9. Christchurch
10. Gold Coast

16+ years

8. Sunshine Coast - new stadium required

I think that timeline is a bit pessimistic. If the LK wants to put a team somewhere bad enough, he'll probably buy the land, refurbish the stadium, get the state government involved and make it happen.

Gold Coast hasn't put in an NBL bid. It’s just some goose with no real connection to the game trying to create headlines.

Ten teams is enough. Stop diluting the talent pool. Let's focus on stability over further growth. The growth can come from the ten existing teams growing their fan bases.

Tassie was a unique set of circumstances

- Sports mad area with rich sporting history

- No other professional sports, except BBL which runs for about 2 months only, plus 6 or 7 AFL games each year.

- Consistently good crowd numbers at the sporting events which do occur down there

- Strong push over many years, led by their state government and supported by the public at large, to get more sports down there

- Specific cultural mentality of banding together and seeing themselves as different to the mainland

Very unlikely other areas such as Gold Coast, Townsville or Darwin could make it work in the same way.

We are talking over along time mate, population increase to 32 million in 2040 is expected.
+500,000 in the cities and up to 300,000 in the bigger suburbs.
+ Nz growth of 1.2 mill.

Talent pool will be fine, we are talking about only 2 more teams by 2030, that's 6 import spots and just 18 contracted locals.

Its probably more feasible to have a SE Qld team combining goldy and sunshine coast.

That makes no sense, sc is 100km north of brissy, gc is 75km south of brissy.

Geography fail alert.

I'm not certain half the clubs at present are that financially doing that well. Sydney, JJs, Melbourne look fine.
Quite a few seem ok but still have questions on the ownerships, SEM, Brisbane, NZ. Adelaide will be fine with a very good season this year, owner seems cashed up and willing to pay, Perth as well, but still new owners.
Cairns always on struggle street and hawks looking shakey again as owner now not will to spend big.

Future is looking good, but let's get the current competition strong. As discussed, Hawks and Cairns are continual question marks, Tassie are just a season in and doing well after a successful season. But what happens if they struggle for a couple of years, is the fan base strong enough to continue supporting them. And wouldn't surprise me if AFL expands there, maybe even moving north there. With the growing cost of living a choice will probably need to be made whether the casual fan would attend both teams.
A strong competition means that smaller clubs can be propped up, like Hawks and Cairns. But if suddenly you put another 2 expansion teams in, that wealth distribution is watered down and clubs will fold again and we'll be back to where we are now.

Vic teams have been playing all over the state for years. But OK.

I don't want to see any more expansion for about another five years or so now. We've just brought in SEM and Tassie and any more would dilute the talent pool further plus I would like to see everything get bedded down for the near-future now. Some teams don't appear to be travelling all that well financially.

If the next TV deal is similarly lucrative then maybe start thinking about things however I don't think Canberra or Darwin would be good ideas. I understand they're untapped governments to raid but perhaps establishing second teams in larger markets like Sydney and NZ would be the best way to go.

I agree with Ben on this one. There has been no Gold Coast bid. Just a fluff piece of an article to be honest.

True I agree we need another team in a city with a bigger market, I can't see Darwin or Canberra helping the talent pool for the NBL.

We don’t want to go gangbusters like the league did in 2008 before the financial crisis happened before you knew it we lost Bullets, Kings, Razorbacks plus Slingers then the Dragons in 2009.

I’ve noticed the United crowds are doing much better but if they start having a losing season I can’t see many members bothered to attend, same with Phoenix but they can’t even open the GA’s sections up. I still think if the NBL brought back history Victorian clubs like Magic they would attract more families. Really hope a new owner can buy out LK ownership and rebrand our Victoria clubs history back! Tigers, Magic back please then bring the Giants as the third Victorian team.

SEM have had around 11,000 to their first two games, those are really good numbers for them.

Agree the biggest challenge is the upcoming global recession. The league is in much, much better shape than in 2007/08, but it is still built on rich people putting a lot of money in, so the danger is there.

NBL has always been built on teams losing insane amounts of money in the context of a league that deals in much smaller $$$ figures than other leagues and sports in the landscape.

That existed pre-LK and exists now.

These days there's at least 1) broadcast money (!!), 2) more sponsorship and league revenue than ever and presumably on a cpi basis too, and 3) crowds than ever. Plus there’s more capital investment in clubs than ever, so in a way clubs aren’t in such a bad position and there’s much less risk of a club going under.

With that been said, the league is facing $ competition from other leagues more than ever with the rise of Asia and with Australia wanting to be a genuine second league to NBA with about 6-8 European leagues offering 5-6 times the wages for talent.

I want to see NBL continue the growth trajectory and in a sense expansion for 2 clubs in ~4 years wouldn’t be too much. An extra $3.5mil or so on the payroll of players wouldn’t hurt and may see more money allocated to luring guys like JLA, Kay, Brandt, Thonmaker to the NBL.

As chatted about in another thread - that probably means sticking to the big markets. Perthworld mentioned the A-League is a bit of a litmus test for that and I agree. I would say however, A-League is in a downward trajectory and requires more than ~10k fans to be deemed a success.

I do fear for the Hawks though, and to a lesser extent Cairns. Hawks simply don’t look well supported enough stadium and crowd wise, and probably sponsor wise as it is. Cairns aren’t struggling but would have a lower ceiling of potential and could be simply overstretched if the costs, in particular salaries keep growing. Nobody wants a perpetual budget Cairns side finishing low and left behind.

I’d be looking at NZ for a second side because I feel like it’s a big market in a sense and wouldn’t necessarily be halving the base, if anything it could make NZers more interested over their local league because they feel more properly part of the league instead of as a token side.

Question marks on infrastructure in a place like Wellington though.

Sydney is a weird one because Qudos is so damn annoying and hard for a lot of people to get to. Shame they destroyed the Ent Centre, imagine the corporates a revitalised Kings side would have had.

What potential is there for a Penrith or Paramatta side? Problem is zero infrastructure. A second Sydney team might be more Wanderers than Giants IMO.

Do you commit the absolute cardinal sin and split the Hawks between Illawarra and Sydney? Maybe with a touch of Newcastle. Could a shift to NSW Hawks completely ruin the team or save them from a rocky future?

What capacity is there for a third Melbourne team which splits its time between an imaginary Geelong and Melbourne representing North West?

In a sense they’re better options over Darwin, Canberra, Gold Coast.

If we had to choose a small town team to join, I’d say Canberra once the Gov finally gets on board.

Just don’t add a further small team, IMO.

"NBL has always been built on teams losing insane amounts of money"

Not in the era before LK, the focus for most was on minimising losses or making small profits. Obviously Perth were able to have a couple of years with decent profits.

Wouldn't be surprised if the nbl kept adding new teams rather then old ones.

You're kidding right?

Outside of Perth and Cairns being extremely frugal post-original financiers (where lots was spent) what sides didn’t or don’t struggle financially?

You’re telling me 36ers didn’t completely bleed for years pre-LK, the Hawks didn’t go into near financial ruin multiple times?

The Groves era Bullets didn’t lose significant amounts? The Firepower Kings under Goorjian didn’t lose big financially? Melbourne Tigers in their 2.5k stadium and team of stars?

The comical amount of clubs that folded, and some folded multiple times throughout NBL history?

Perth is literally the only outlier club.

[Melbourne Tigers in their 2.5k stadium and team of stars?]

Ironically they would've been one of the teams making small amounts of profit, on the back of

- Hiring a cheap stadium

- Jacking up the ticket prices

- An extremely slim operation- from memory they had about 6 paid staff in the entire office/organization outside of the coaches and players

- Making 4 straight grand finals

- Always having players playing for less than their worth, I think this was true of Gaze and D-Mac and possibly others. Remembering some guys just want to play in Melbourne and for some of this era they were the only Melbourne team (for 2 years anyway- between the end of the reincarnation of the Giants in 2004 to the South Dragons in 2006-07)

Thats how they went from losing stacks of money in front of 4-5k people at JCA to breaking even or small profit in front of 2.5-3k at The Cage. It was expense savings.

Expense savings and increasing the ticket prices by around 60-70% in 2002 when they moved venue after Seamus took over

So those 2.5-3k tickets would've earned them similar $$$ to 4.5k at JCA. And their stadium rent was much lower, plus office and overheads were reduced

And they reduced marketing too.

I like the LK approach much better but obviously it relies on having someone with serious cash, a passion for the game and an appetite for risk

It would be interesting to know what the NBL's finances really are and the clubs, but we can only guess

Such a slim operation with McPeake building a house for Anstey and possibly other players outside of the salary cap.

That does remind us on another benefit of the LK era is that the expenditure looks to be fairer opposed to those blatant salary cap cheating days where the rest just looked on in horror.

Now it's really just the Taipans and maybe Hawks where you hope they don’t get left behind.

But yeah, NBL clubs aside from Perth have throughout history bled money and relied on owners happily plowing money in.

"Outside of Perth and Cairns being extremely frugal post-original financiers (where lots was spent) what sides didn't or don’t struggle financially?"


I didn't say no teams struggled financially. What I said was the focus wasn't on big spending in that period, it was on more sustainable spending. It was a marked difference to what led up to it and what has followed. I know, because I was in meetings that detailed it.

Perth, Cairns and NZ had relative success with that, Wollongong and Cairns were able to survive on the community model. But others, most notably Adelaide and Sydney, still struggled to raise the revenue required to cover that model and posted significant losses.

That doesn't counter my comment though, my comment stands in its own right. NBL has always been a league where clubs bleed money and require deep pockets and/or league assistance and/or a white knight sponsor.

You’re just saying they spent less back then and the losses may have been smaller, but that doesn’t counter my point and goes straight to the point I make of not going regional because the expenditure is likely to only increase as NBL competes globally and those smaller market clubs will have lower ceilings/potential revenue.

Reality is, proportionate to the dollars and cents the clubs and league deal with, the losses have always been insane if sustainability and ongoing concern is the consideration.

We have just been ok with that on the basis of the white knight approach, but now there is serious actual investment demanding capital growth and eventual returns.

Unfortunately due to the size of Australia and the interest in the sport, most franchises will be doomed to struggle to be financially viable long term, unless like others have said through an owner with deep pockets or white knight sponsor. If we look at America as an example the population is 330 million and it has 32 teams, thats an average of 10 million people potentially supporting each team. Now I'm not saying its split evenly like this at all but the potential to have a larger fanbase in the States is there compared to here in Australia.

The reality is that there is only one sporting code in this country that would be worth investing in privately with majority of the AFL clubs breaking even/making profits. And even in this case the mens league is funding the women's league at this point in time.

It would be crazy to keep introducing teams without the current ones thriving or at least breaking even/being stable.

Using the weird logic above with 12 potential teams.

NBL

10 teams aus - 2.6 mill per team
(Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Illawarra, Melbourne, Perth, South East Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmania)

2 teams nz - 2.5 mill per team
(Auckland, Wellington)

The afl prop teams, giants and suns are financial basket cases if not for afl money. Norths have only just turn the corner. The swans took years to become viable. Same with Brisbane bears to lions. There are others.
It helps to have a massive tv deal to prop up clubs when required.

Pity there aren't uber rich owners, not just rich owners. For example if there were 10 LK's that owned the teams that could afford to lose a few million a year without a second thought.
Groves was spending and losing a shitload at Brisbane until he went belly up. And the whole Firepower debacle in Sydney. Just need owners that had solid and bankrupt proof finances (or not a total scam like Firepower).
There's always a bit of fanfare and publicity when an NBA player becomes part owner, but they're little more about buying a new toy to brag about. If the club kept going back to them year after year asking for a couple of million they'd definitely say no.
Shaq was interested in a stake in the Sun's until word Bezos was also interested, then backed off, proving there's rich and then there's RICH.
So there's no real way for the NBL to compete with the dollars overseas and will continue to lose the Kay's and JLA's. Tv revenue, sponsorship and bums on seats help offset costs atm, but to really keep and attract players and coaches, teams need owners with really deep pockets willing to lose major money for multiple years.

Super rich owners don't like losing money, even Smith who owns the kings and done well says he’s here to make money. LK is the same, he’s investing to turn a profit.

There's only one professional sporting league in Australia where the majority of clubs are profitable.

The AFL.

Suggesting it's unrealistic to ever expect the NBL will ever be in that boat.

Let's just keep hoping rich people will enjoy having the NBL as their hobby.

For most it's more meaningful than buying another Ferrari.

Turns out, the Australian league, the NBL, isn't even in the top 10, with ESPN ranking the NBL 12th in the world outside of the NBA.

That ranking was done awhile go, 2017 we were ranked 10th by espn.


Top 10 in no particular order

USA nba
Spain acb
Turkey bsl
France pro a
Russia vtb
German bbl
Italy lba
Adriatic aba
Greek a1
Australia nbl


I'd say we are top 8 these days.

It's bad when the nbl keep losing great talent but sadly we are just a feeder league for bigger leagues with more cash, this has to change.

The NBL is in the top group outside the NBA and Euroleague, that is obvious by the performances of players that come and go here from other comps, and also indicated by the performances of NBL teams against NBA clubs in comparison to European sides.

The performances of NBL teams against NBA teams in one off games have nothing to do with anything. Look at what just happened the 36ers beat Phoenix by 10 points then played a much weaker team in OKC also missing their best player and got smashed by 30+ points.

Nothing can be gleaned from all that other than the Sixers had an insanely hot shooting night against the Suns, they played their best players in limited minutes and it was their first pre-season game coming out of training camp so the objective for them would've been to just get the cobwebs out and have a look at their bench guys and training camp guys trying to get a spot on their roster.

Russia has dropped back due to the war and lots of quality players not going there. Turkey isn't as strong but still good through tough economics there.

Imo.
USA, nba
Spain, liga endisa, top quality.
France, lnb pro a. Catching Spain and excellent comp.
Germany, easy credit bbl
Italy, Serie A. Both Germany and Italy also probably similar and tough 18 team comps.
Nbl has less teams so it’s hard to compare but it’s probably just behind these competitions. I believe the refs don’t call some of the fouls in Europe as nbl refs call, again imo it’s more physical.
These above are club competitions and they also run there euro competitions.
Japan and Korea also paying good wages.

Euro are so lucky they have EuroLeague, EuroCup, Champions League and Fiba Europe Cup.

"The performances of NBL teams against NBA teams in one off games have nothing to do with anything."

When you get large sample sizes you can certainly pick up trends. Which we have.

"You're just saying they spent less back then and the losses may have been smaller"

Yes that's part of what I'm saying. At that point it was a different philosophy, two teams didn't have private owners, three of the eight teams weren't bleeding money at all. Now the philosophy is about attracting more and more owners and injecting more capital.

When you get large sample sizes you can certainly pick up trends. Which we have.

@Dunkman - I've said majority and you've literally named the exceptions to the rule, I agree with the tv deal point but the same logic should be applied to the NBL as well then. NBL franchises for the most part are money pits and that's not going to change anytime soon.

@Weedy Slug - I was just making a point that America has a lot more potential supporters for each team and a lot of those cities aren't competing with other professional sports teams in them. Australia literally has an AFL team in every major market and it's the top sport in the country.

Another nbl expansion article.

Source: https://nbl.com.au/news/loeliger-gives-expansion-update

Loeliger mentioned the potential of a second team in Western Australia as an option in the future.


"There's so many fans of the Wildcats and that it means if you introduce a second team, none of those loyal fans surely are going to turn their back on the Wildcats and support the opposition," he said.


“But then again, you look at the AFL model and you’ve got the West Coast Eagles and the Dockers both doing pretty well in terms of fanbase and following.

Bad idea for wa 2 Imo.
If it did come to fruition, you'd think it would be called the south west ?...



Canberra, Wellington need to happen. The rest of the locations mentioned require lots of things to take place for them to get up and running.

Could someone please unlock this story please.

Source: Link

Bypass Paywalls Clean extension.

Try it.

NBL co-owner Larry Kestelman will inspect the Darwin Convention Centre as a potential home base for a league team

The co-owner of the NBL will visit the Territory soon to scope out a likely home base for a league team as momentum builds for the proposal.

Ben Cameron
December 5, 2022 - 3:28PM
NT News

It could cost about $10m to run an NBL team in Darwin each year but there is "very strong" community interest in the concept, the NT News understands.

The league considers Darwin to be a “possible next expansion market”, with NBL executive director Larry Kestelman due to inspect its preferred home base, the Darwin Convention Centre, late this year or early in 2023.

The league is keen to understand what is needed to get the centre “NBL ready”, the NT News understands.

It comes as a feasibility report, commissioned by the NT government, into the viability of a local licence is due by the end of the year.

Major Events Minister Paul Kirby is expected to provide a submission to cabinet early next year regarding a potential bid.

The centre would also be an attractive location with fewer events using it during the wet season when tourism traditionally cools.

There would also be little competition for corporate sponsorships with other professional sporting codes in the Territory, the NT News has been told.

The league has outlined its desire for a potential team to have imports, a marquee player and one to two local players, and would prefer international players to be granted long term, multi-year deals to help with attracting and retaining high-end talent.

It is also keen to see the existing NBL1 North franchise, the Darwin Salties, to remain competitive and keep grassroots competitions thriving.

The NBL is also looking to leverage its proximity to South East Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia and the Philippines.

However, the NT News understands the league has concerns with travel demands, as the Tasmania JackJumpers and the New Zealand Breakers travelled long hours to get to Darwin for the league's pre-season competition in September, the NBL Blitz.

NBL commissioner Jeremy Loeliger told the NT News it had been an “incredibly expensive exercise” getting some teams in and out of Darwin for the event.

“The lack of direct flights is a challenge,” Loeliger said.

“We had teams who had some very long flights, in and out, because of those indirect routes.”

Corporate hospitality is also a concern with a “distinguishable lack of sales for courtside seats” at the Blitz, the NT News understands.

Loeliger said Darwin was currently in the hunt for a licence with “competing interests all around the country”, including in Canberra and the Gold Coast.

“There is nothing really that is fettering the NBL from being able to give a commitment in respect of a licence from a timing point of view,” Loeliger said.

“We have sufficient discretion to issue one pretty much as soon as we’re convinced that everything stacks up and that it is the best option for the next licence.

"There are pretty serious discussions happening with a number of other cities.”

He reiterated that the Blitz in September “did its job”, opening up “engaging and reciprocal dialogue” between the league and the NT government.

“It’s fair to say the Territory government has done a power of work on what they need to have in order to stand up an NBL team,” he said.

He said it would need to display commercial interest, sufficient infrastructure and public interest, which he thought was “definitely there”.

More Coverage
Darwin CBD location eyed off for possible new NBL team
'Their brand name is unbelievable’: Salties a chance of NBL licence

All Comments (3)

Michael
16 hours ago
Basketball is ok but it would be great to have a NT Rugby Union stadium that could host the Wallabies.

Concerned
16 hours ago
$10 million of borrowed money for a NT basketball league every year?
No thanks, the Territory has has
-multi billion debt,
-crime through the roof,
-a permanently Code Yellow hospital
-more non frontline government workers than we actually need.
There are hundreds of other things you can spend $10 million a year on!

Andrew
1 day ago
It would be nice if Cairns Tiapans went to Darwin, and have their rates payers be forced to chip in for their stupid American basketball.

Thanks Perthworld,

Not sure why most people are keen on Darwin Salties.

Is Darwin Dingoes already taken?

Just wish the nbl could pick the most popular name but it never seems to happen.

The Wellington Saints owner isn't interested in paying for a NBL franchise license, he went down that path years ago and publicly laughed at the figure the NBL were requesting.
Someone else in that part of the country may have that money to throw at a team and license but they are going to be starting from scratch with no fan base, facilities or players.
The Saints are basketball in the Wellington region as they are super successful and very well supported in the NZNBL.

Christchurch has struggled to continuously field a NZNBL team so not confident they can make an NBL franchise work unless someone has a ton of cash they're prepared to burn.

Long term, I'm predicting

N.T Dingoes
Canberra Cannons
Newcastle Hunters, over falcons
Townsville Crocs
Wellington Saints
West Sydney Razorbacks
Gold Coast blaze
Canterbury rams
Sunshine Coast ? Not the clipppers or rip
Geelong ? Not the supercats, too similar to wildcats

20 teams max
12 before 2030.

It's a lovely article but Darwin isn’t the next team by a long shot

Agree Seb, three comments, all negative, hard getting in and out of Darwin, can't see it happening.

Lol at the inclusion of the newscorp comment section, such a cesspool hahah

Darwin has a long way to get a team. Canberra Cannons makes most sense since the Salties only joined nbl1 last season.

Reading the article gave me the impression that LK is super keen on a team in Darwin yet at the same time outlining all of his demands which need to be met, as if the NBL holds the upper hand, to a city which isn't really all that interested.

For instance no corporate support during the Blitz was acknowledged as an issue yet the answer is that it's their problem to solve. Yeah, okay.

What a hype machine.

Lol at the inclusion of the newscorp comment section, such a cesspool hahah

Gold Coast looking like a possibility for 2025/26

Link

8,000-10,000 seats Gold Coast convention centre main arena...

Wow, LK is spinning it on high now and yet again the only name he can use is that of the drongo mayor Tate.

Six groups are apparently interested right now but later on he states the NBL would own the team initially? Mmmkay, which one is it?

What fluff, but hey, I guess it's worth a shot.

The location has a ready arena, not many other options available...

Canberras ais arena and Townsvilles entertainment centre need upgrades.

Newcastle, Geelong, Sunshine Coast, Darwin need brand new stadiums.

Only other option is Wellington nz in the short term or a western Sydney team sharing qudos.

No doubt but who is going to stump up for the franchise? It's what the league are desperately fishing for.

I just read the story. Not surprised at all Larry wants a team in the Gold Coast with some games played in Asia. It's funny at games I sometimes wear a Slingers jersey not far where Larry can see me. Must get ideas when he sees me wearing the old classic NBL jersey’s lol!

But where in Asia particular since there’s Phillipines, China, Japan or can’t be Singapore again?

Feels like this is déjà vu when the NBL had the Slingers then the Gold Coast Blaze. Then we had the 2008 financial crisis?

Lots of people are doing it tough now so got no idea how this Gold Coast team in Asia will work?

But guys it's looking like if the NBL can find a rich owner like they did with SEM Phoenix then a second team in Sydney sharing SuperDome with the Kings will most likely happen in 2024-25 season?

Surely the NBL can consider bringing back the old Kings, Razorbacks rivalry. It was one of the best NBL rivalries like the Melbourne ones of Tigers, Magic/Titans or even Giants, Magic and Tigers, Dragons.

Really do hope the NBL can bring back at least some defunct franchises since it’s a real joke we got 30+ defunct NBL franchises. Bring some back NBL please! Falcons, Cannons, Crocodiles, Cats are some to name a few!

Razorbacks don’t need to be related to the West Sydney Razorbacks since the Kings are basically based in West Sydney. Make them the South Sydney or East Sydney Razorbacks. But if they want a Sydney franchise by 2024–25 then yes make them share stadiums with the Kings till they can sort out a new stadium in inner Sydney. They should just call them Sydney Razorbacks which would be easier. Just pick a team, not that hard?

SEM Phoenix name is so long it drives me nuts. Yes they had an old Netball team called Melbourne Phoenix but both Melbourne teams should just share the name. They play at the same arena anyway. Basically both based in south east Melbourne.

Sorry, but a Slingers jersey isn't retro enough to be cool.

Those franchises are defunct for a reason

Agree totally on Sydney razorbacks, if only Sydney had somewhere for a second team to play out off in Sydney. It would be great if they had something around the cricket ground.

Gold Coast has a lot more permanent population now than previously, yes both the football codes struggle but they are miles from anything. Gold Coast playing near restaurants and pubs and it's a night out.

"Kestelman said talks with council on the issue had been positive and stated the Gold Coast Convention Centre would be the ideal location in his mind for a boutique stadium.

“My feeling is that it needs to be something that is easily accessible by the light rail," he said.

“The Convention Centre would certainly be ideal for us. Something that can hold 8000 to 10,000 people.”

That's a little confusing to me. Is that a suggestion to knockdown or renovate the current 6k capacity GCC?

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story?

Or he knows something that we don't, or he’s trying to pressure the Gold Coast powers into committing to upgrades???

Good on him if he can make it work. Wellington looks to be out, Sydney is too fickle, and everywhere else seems to be a closed shop.

6000 seats would be ideal, why do they always want larger stadiums, it's not Tasmania, there is lots of other attractions on Gold Coast. In most European leagues 6000 is large except for s few of the main centres.

Not sure why a Euro comparison helps - they might be able to fund teams via connection to soccer clubs, more sponsor money, more rich benefactors, or simply more willing to let clubs struggle.

What counts is what a future GC franchise would need to succeed, be competitive and continue to operate.

6,000 capacity wouldn't be much of a long term plan, given ticket sales are important for NBL sides, they may need to be getting 7-8k per game in the near future.

With that said, things like stadium agreement is super important. No use having a 10k stadium if it prices you into oblivion.

Wasn’t that a bit of an issue last time and a re-occurring issue with the Hawks?

The Asia thing is weird - what’s the target exactly? Singapore and Indonesia, I feel like they couldn’t give a toss about bball let alone NBL. Philippines is probably the big one, but why should they care about the NBL?

It would be tough to be genuinely engaging enough for those tourists to want to spend their money on a bball game rather than theme parks, restaurants, casino etc.

Philippines only makes sense to me. Phillipines number 1 sport is basketball.

Singapore, Indonesia wouldn't be that interested in the AUS NBL.

"6000 seats would be ideal, why do they always want larger stadiums, it's not Tasmania, there is lots of other attractions on Gold Coast."

Agree re the 6000 seats, but have to chuckle about the lack of knowledge of Tassie. There is probably more to do in Tassie than most places in Australia, it's just not what big city folk are used to.

Tassie they really stuffed up the seating capacity. Barely any tourists can watch a JJ's game sitting with their families. The stadium upgrades were all rushed.

They should have waited another season for the JJ’s to build DEC properly to 6,000 to 10,000 seats. But again lucky they got a team but would be a waste of money if they need to built another stadium in Tasmania.

They didn't stuff it up, there was only money to refurb the existing shell. Extending out the southern side will be a different project and didn't have govt funding at the time.

I doubt they anticipated being anywhere near as successful as they have been.

Good recruit has helped them big time plus good coaching staff and culture.

https://nbl.com.au/news/stevenson-provides-expansion-update

No teams till 2025-26 season, that's a downer. We need more teams in this league.

Agree, two more would be great.

Reason we need 12 teams is then the NBL can finally have the top-8 quarterfinals back. I miss it so badly, stuff the elimination/play-in games.

Gold Coast are the only logical team to have an NBL team by next season. But question marks on Canberra/Darwin till they have a proper stadium upgrade.

Can't see teams in Asia, look at the Bay Area Dragons, import teams in other countries don’t usually work unless the whole country gets behind the team like the Breakers. If the Asian team is full of legit players from Asia maybe but it’s all unknown. Another Sydney team makes sense.

Yes, two rounds, 22 games plus final eight in best three and best five from semi finals on.

Both Gold Coast and Wellington have ready stadiums. Wouldnt discount Townsville.
Canberra and Darwin would need infrastructure approvals soon to be ready in that time frame.