sounds like a good idea... finding the money and sponsors is the only issue however further expansion into asia and having player from other southern hemisphere counties may open that up... nice to see someone thinking outside the square... bravo

I have some issues with this:

Put an AIS team in Canberra which is made up of Aussie players 21 and under, give them a degree so they don´t go to the NCAA so readily

I think most degrees need to be earnt for them to have any weight in the employment scheme.

Allow Asian players as non-imports as well as all players from the Southern Hemisphere (Argentina/Brazil etc)

This could work.

Put a team in Darwin and one in Jakarta - (population 15 million) Put a team in Tassie

The NBL franchise from Tassie folded years ago. I don't think these two locations have the population to field teams as a viable money making venture.

Put all teams into divisions regarding their geography - Southern Division (2 melbourne teams, Adelaide, Hobart) QLD (4 QLD teams), E Coast (2 syd teams, Canberra, Hawks), Nth OZ Asia - (Darwin, Perth, Jakarta, Singapore), Nz etc = 20 total teams.

Each team plays 3 games against each other team in their division to determine a divisional champion in a league format while also playing each team in the league including in their own division twice = 49 games per team. A Divisional Champion is crowned and that team & the 2nd best team in division advance to playoffs.

I like this idea as it works in the US but if it would work here I doubt it, there just isn't the population and finance available.

Ideally have a naming rights sponsor, a central logo sponsor for the league, a key sponsor, a jersey sponsor, an mvp sponsor e.g. hummer (and all awards for that matter) etc as well as each team having their own team sponsor.

Sell package deals and vary ticketing prices depending on whether the game is a divisional only clash or a league clash.

Don't we already do this?

If for instance each team had a squad of 10 (with 2 dev´ players) it would be made up of say 5 Aussies (or kiwis in the NZ division), 2 asian players, a south american player and 2 american or world imports, meaning the quality of local players in the leagues would actually increase because there would be the top 100 aussies and kiwis playing (whereas now there is roughly 120 local players spread across only 13 teams.

That's assuming every aussie that is playing in the NCAA, NCIA, NBA, NDBL and NCIS (OK, I made the last one up) return to our shores to play in the NBL.

Stick it on free to air for goodness sake, with the divisions broken up it heightens local rivalries so individual partnerships with FTA stations would be more feasible - e.g. East Coast div on 9, Southern on 7 etc, even if its on at midnight.

I don't think Foxtel would allow this to happen. Don't they already sponsor the NBL. Would the FTA stations do this. There would have to be the market for it.

Curtley, you have some very valid points. There would have to be a revamp of the league and a crap load of cash thrown at it (like the A-League). This would have to be backed by more than just Frank Lowy. It would probably need Eddie Groves and James Packer.

While I admire Curtley's enthusiasm, though don't think he has thought through many of these points. For starters, four teams from NZ!! The one NZ team is struggling as it is and so are most of the other teams in the NBL. The last thing the league needs is a further dilution of talent and drain on funds. If anything, the league should cull the number of teams to 10.

Though, I think Darwin would work, but a team should be moved there for reasons stated above. Move West Sydney, Singapore or the South Dragons there. The NBL can't support two teams adequately in Sydney or Melbourne.

Jakarta! Thats just nuts. Ever met an Indonesia that plays ball?! Its an even nuttier idea than the current team in Singapore. That Bob Turner, since he won in the 80s with the Cannons, all he has been interested in is marketing and gimicks.

AIS could work, might be possible to get some fed funding to help support the owners. Maybe limit the number of AIS players to the starting five from the graduation class (or best five available from that class). Don't think the rest of them would be ready for the NBL. Don't see it stopping the best players from taking up offers to play NCAA. NBL is nothing compared to NCAA.

The best point in my opinion is the no import status for asians and south america. Though, you'd have to look at how much players get paid in the Argentine and Brazilian leagues. They wouldn't bother coming out here is they get around the same in their home countries. There wouldnt be many players coming out from Asia. Asia is shit, besides a few extremely tall Chinese.

I think it is a great idea. We need to make this league a more national legue, becasue at the moment they should be calling it the EANZBL (East Australia/ New Zealand Basketball League), not the NBL. #14845 desserves a medal for thinking like this.

All good however, FTA has shown no interest in the NBL over the past 6-7 years. The Fox Sports deal expires at the end of this season.

Honestly, to fix the league, I think we should do the opposite. Forget adding anymore international teams, doing that won't help the league at all. Hell, forget adding any teams at all for a couple of years. Singapore hasn't helped the league one bit, because it hasn't added any more fans here in Australia, let alone getting fans in Singapore.

That's the problem with the league. We need to market the sport better, we need to get people excited about the NBL. If more people come to games, then comes interest from potential sponsors is gained. More sponsors equals more money, which in turn means that we can have clubs running comfortably year in, year out instead of struggling wekk by week. The only way we get on FTA TV is by gaining enough support that networks can make money from broadcasting games. If they don't, we'll be stuck to showing replays of games on Sunday mornings.

This country is pretty damn good at basketball, better than we are at Soccer. Yet people believe what they are told to believe. Young kids get caught up in the hype, the casual sports fan get caught up in the hype. We made the World Cup, we had a new soccer league, people got excited about Soccer. We need to generate that hype.

Unfortunately, the league seems to be doing nothing to get that. When was the last time anyone saw an NBL ad anywhere? The AFL/NRL are on TV and in the news constantly, they don't to market as much, yet they do a better job than the NBL. The A-League has built itself up off hype and the fact that we managed to make the World Cup.

As a second tier (maybe third?) sport, we need to do anything and everything to let people know that we have guys who are NBA calibre like Julius Hodge, young soon to be NBA players like Nathan Jawai, Joe Ingles, etc. Buy full page ads in the local newpapers, who care who much it costs, because no one is making any money now anyway, you might as well take a shot.

I don't believe at all that the league can't at least take a shot by putting on a big marketing campaign. We're going nowhere with the current mindset, we might as well take the risk. If it fails, blow it up and start again.

In an ideal situation, it'd be nice to have each state represented in the league, it'd be nice to be on FTA TV constantly, it'd be nice to see people walking down the street wearing their local teams jerseys, but none of that can happen until people give a damn about the sport.