They should've tried a team in the Philippines (PBA) - that's a strong, televised, popular league.

It's just another great thing that Mr Burton did for the league during his Tenure. All hail Mr Burton.

Philippines. westadelaidebearcats took a team there many years ago and you should have seen the publicity in Phillippines front page news stuff huge. Basketball so very strong there.

The stupid thng with the slingers is that they even went to Singapore in the 1st place. Lets make our NBL (N meaning NATIONAL)a strong healthy comp before we get to far ahead of ourselves.

i will repeat myself...

Did i miss something, whats the problem with the slingers being in the league, this is about producing the best quality ball...now i admit that at the moment they arent top of the tree, but hey...we need this competition to grow, evolve and improve.

If we think thats going to happen by shutting ourselves off and not letting anyone in (nz, singapore) we are mistaken, see the asian cup in football as an example, the aussies were supposed to be the best around...thats fine when your playing samoa and fiji etc ...but bigger, better competition brings recognition of inadequacies and therefore..improvement.

my question is, whats with the xenophobic hatred of singapore?

Phillippines would have been better. about the right standard and the game so popular there.(bigger following than in Aust. and Sing. etc.)

Singapore has it's own soccer league yet people will still find a food court to watch the EPL live at 2am in the morning.

If Singapore had the opportunity to have their own team in the EPL, they wouldn't care if all foreigners!

The issue is not the players in the team. Fact is, even the national table tennis players are Chinese who were poached from PRC!

Singaporeans (young ones mostly) will follow basketball and follow winners.

It's not an Asian team anonymous... just the same as mainland Aust and NZ... you don't seem to mind a team out of NZ with Aussies in it. AFL footy started the trend when football relocated to states with rugby as the No 1 code. Basketball is being developed well in Singapore and it will not take long for skills to catch up. Just give it a chance.

(#145439)"xenophobic hatred of singapore" I think you are trying to find something more sinister behind the reason why people are saying to cut them loose "me".

I dont care if the team comes from Singapore, Vietnam or Alaska; what I am saying is we have enough teams in Oz going broke now, why admit a team that is struggling to field a team in only it's 2nd year?

I guess the only criteria for joining the NBL is a cheque book to pay for the licence. Worry about where the money for player salaries is coming from later...eh?

The NBL have seen what the V8's have tried (with limited sucsess) and seems like they have jumped at the 1st offer that came their way.

Any team that enters the NBL should plonk down the licence fee plus a garantee of being able to fund the team fully for at least the 1st 3 seasons, instead of showing that they can bleed money and fold in their 2nd or 3rd year. Hell, I could put together a team and enter it, seems like!

NBL basketball has become a part time hobby for rich business people and entertainment for many people.

It would only be the NBL players union who would care if the game was deregulated and attracted more international players to help raise the standard and make the business of NBL go around.

NBL basketball still do not attract money easily and without ABC and other money men , the league would be in real trouble and we would be watching ABA instead . Maybe time to get real about what you can expect of professional clubs if we want to have a league.

Fair point, maybe being a little harsh in regard to xenophobia (although find it odd that the slingers are singled out..when NZ struggled early too), however...

how many "adeliadians" are playing (real minutes) for the 36ers this year..last year?

Can the Pigs finance their Basketball team?

Can the Queens finance their basketball team?

2 years ago COULD THE 36ERS FINANCE THEIR TEAM?

i see this as similar to the Afl, when thew rest of the country joined the Vfl, bailed them out of financial problems, produced a better (supposedly)competition improved the tv revenue and finances of all clubs. You have to grow into new areas in order to grow the game.

Give them some time, let them import players, lets face it..we got plenty of imports playing in the NBL right now anyway. Lets hope they produce some exciting players and games that we may one day see on free to air TV.

Fair points me; however I would still like to see some form of garantee or deposit laid down when a new team enters the NBL, otherwise we will be chasing our tails when a new team enters its 2nd season.

I think they demonstrate funds, but it's easy to blow through more than anticipated (see Dragons, 2006/07). Then they can run into trouble having to re-prove financial position (see Kings, 2007/08).

Plus they have the added burdon of covering visting teams travel costs for the first 2 years.

13 teams at say 14 seats per team is a lot of frequent flyer points.

They don't have to send them Qantas. Save some money and send them 'Cattle Class' on China Air.

But Kent, shouldnt that have all been taken into account before they put a foot on the court? I understand what you and Isaac are saying; however it gets back to bad decisions, bad management combined with not enough money available. The 1st of the bad decisions was made by the NBL; why are we trying to expand into new countries when we cant get the formula right on our own doorstep?

I also understand the point Me made earlier about how the 6ers have been in the same poor financial positions, but the fact remains in 07/08 we will put a team on the floor and looks that way for the forseeable future.

I look forward to the day when our comp is a truly international one (not just NZ); but lets get the game fixed in Oz 1st.

Yopu need to walk before you can run, and we are crawling at the moment.

I'd say that they have long eyed Asia as an opportunity to source a better TV deal. Just prior to the Singapore introduction, there was talk of four Asian teams coming in over the next few years - Singapore, HK, KL and Manila I'd guess.