I bet you can align the decline of the NBL to the switch to summer

Basketball is a great winter activity as far as spectators are concerned.

Inside a stadium out of the rain and cold.

Summer competes too much against the beach, cricket and your mates BBQ that you really should go to and not the basketball.

Winter = humans inside

Summer = humans outside

it is that simple for me.

Plus players being able to play overseas and at home must be a huge positive.

Yes there will be issues of cross over and some players arriving late or leaving early but we will still get to see the best aussies play at home.

Plus the pressure of payments to players would be less as there may be a trade off that the NBL money may be seen as bonus money to a Euro contracted player and tehrefore teams will be able to suit world class players for not much more money

I agree with a switch. The league is almost broke now. I reckon they cant get any worse but have a great product and a differentiation in the fact its international with Singapore and NZ. People are super busy over the summer and really prefer outdoor activities. I reckon a switch to the winter will provide:

- better teams as guys from Europe will be able to play.
- Better crowds. People prefer indoor activities in winter and have more available time then.
- use the olympics to generate more interest in basketball. everyone is interested in olympic sports and the league could leverage of this mid season to generate some excitement and run some promotional activities (Eg state of origin etc.) over the olympic break.

I agree with Anon - the issue of Fox would probably be the main thing that could stop this?

Firstly my spin on Kent's simple formulas above

Winter = Footy = Humans outside
(except sometimes at Docklands)

Summer = Hot Outside so turn on Air Conditioning = Humans inside!!!


If the NBL switched back to Winter, would many fans be affected who also have football season tickets/memberships?

There's no way I'd be paying for both Blaze and Titans (NRL) season tickets/memberships at the start of the year. (Titans would lose out by the way!)

I suspect most who had to choose would stick with footy. This may not translate to 1000's of fans but may offset some ticket revenue possibly gained with a move back to Winter.

Would only be the last couple of months of the footy season though, would not clash too much you wouldn't think.

Agreed that the best part would be getting players back from Europe, instead of competing to keep them here(which does not happen due to the $$$ obviously) but as I mentioned earlier what about the Olympics and World Championships? Do they leave a 1 month window for when those clash?

A few people have suggested that changing the season would allow for players to go to Europe and play here. The problems may be though, that clubs may not be able to afford these players anyway and don't their points go up for having played in Europe?

I wonder if the fact we don't get thes players here really has a lot to do with clashing with Europe. Most NBL clubs can't afford them, salary cap prevents them being paid much anyway and after a full on Europe season, some players may simply not want to play here for pocket money.

If the switch is made with the intent to get players from America (minor leagues) and Europe to come over to Australia during their offseason.
Then the season would need to be condensed into 4 months including finals.
Say May to August.
This would also mean the season would finish before the NRL/AFL finals take over the TV.
Every team would have to play 2 games a week. Play every team twice home and away, ie 12 weeks then 3-4 weeks of best of 3 finals.

I would expect a lot more players to be interested in coming over for 4 months then the current 7.

It would also make it easier for Aussie players to get some extra cash playing in europe or USA minor leagues. As they would be able to do both if good enough.
Ie Ingles, Mackinnon, Ballinger, Maher (a few years ago)

This would also give coaches more opportunity overseas as well

All this also assumes that players would be released by their European Clubs or US to play at home.
Nielsen wasn't released to play for Australia because of the insurance that Lietuvos Rytas wanted. Same deal is now on for Ilgauskas who isn't being released by Cleveland for similar reasons. Rumour has it that the US don't want him to play for Lithuania because he would make it more possible for them to beat the USA.

Dana just to clarify Neilsen was cleared to play for Australia but BA would not stump up the cash to make it happen

Mark Cuban has some interesting takes on players in the Olympics from an owner point of view

"I've writting about this mutiple times before, but its been several years. - NBA and the Olympics -Team USA - What we get for our moneyI've said it before and I will say it again, the NBA is making a huge mistake by letting our players participate in the Olympics and its qualifying competitions. Anyone who thinks the Olympics are anything more or less than a business ought to try to bid on the TV rights or talk to any of the many businesses who have been sued for trademark infringements .(they even challenged a company for calling their Robotic competition the RoboOlympics). Here is a frame of reference for you. The combined TV contract for ONE Summer & Winter Olympics is MORE than every year of the entire current NBA TV deal combined !The Olympics may be litigious, but they aren't stupid. Where else can you get to use another compay's products for free ? Maybe CBS will lend Katie Couric to NBC every couple years. According to the NBA, its good business.The underlying issue is how we buy into..."

Spinner i see it as an oppurtunity for the NBL to be the euro /nba off season comp. keep fit and earn a few dollars on the way through, a lot like what happens in the NZBL post NBL season.

Players dont amek huge money but that is not why they play there

The move to summer was (I beleive) not the start of the downfall, rather it was an attempt to stop the slide.

Bball, will never compete with AFL, NRL and now soccer to garner FTV air time during the winter months.

The question must be asked as to why (even when there is nothing on tv over the non rating summer months) The NBL still does not get FTA coverage, if we dont have coverage we dont have sponsors...no sponsors..no money..no money = no players...no players = no league.

As was mentioned in another thread, if gilligans island is rating higher we are in trouble. but at least over summer we are not competing with the traditional sports.

We need to go to the FTA networks on bended knee and ask...
what would you like us to do
when do you want the season to run
when do you want games
tell us what you want.

Not sure that getting better talent here is the key and should dictate the season. The level of talent is pretty good already, we need to focus on what suits existing fans and what brings more fans back to the game and to their first game.

So, it all comes back to free to air television really.....

And why would that be anon?

AFL, FTA rights from memory were $650 million dollars.

I think the NBL would be happy with 10%...no..wait 1% of that revenue.

Yes, Dwight Howard will be shaking in his boots at the thought of taking on the Big Z! :D

I understand that, in theory, having a season during the NBA and Euro offseasons may equal some greater talent here, but the likelyhood of it happening isn't great at all, IMO.

NBA guys either rest/workout themselves during the offseason, and the ones fighting for roster spots either play Summer League or sit out all together to aviod injury. So NBA players are out of the question.

Euro guys, I guess depending on how their contract system works (the Nielson situation is a good example, no matter who he wanted to play for), could play. But it's the same sort of thing. There would be no way that we would get an Anderson or Nitro, and the same probably goes for other top players.

I see good arguements for both choices of seasons. However if the League returns to winter season I'm telling you now that I'll remain loyal to footy and footy will come first.

As for the season starting around season's end of the footy, that becomes a finals pending issue for your team.

Brisbane Lions will always win here for me.

There's many problems with switching to the winter months. AFL is the major sport here in Australia and many NBL fans are also AFL fans. Basketball will lose out to football. Its all very good to think that many American & European players will come out here to play if it doesn't coincide with their season over there but fans are still needed to attend games and pay for tickets. Also, if there is no spare crossover time, then we would be faced with players leaving Australia without participating in finals. Also the fact that they would come and play here for extra "pocket" money means they would not give it everything they've got because their livelihood does not depend on it. Also the body gets sore and tired. Time is needed to heal from these ailments. This is another reason why they probably won't play hard because they need to preserve their bodies for their main jobs overseas.

IIRR, one of the reasons for the switch to summer was that during winter, concerts go indoors, in summer they go outdoors. Sixers are the only team with their own stadium, everyone else has to book their local Ent Centre. Not only was it difficult to get bookings in winter, with consequent scheduling nightmares, but the NBL had to pay top dollar too. In summer, there are more empty dates to make scheduling easier and booking rates are also lower, I believe.

However, I think if the NBL went to the northern off-season the quality of the product would improve, we'd get better quality imports with fringe NBA players looking to work on their game. I don't know if we'd get Euro-based Aussies back, they might want the off-season break.

Winter - cha cha cha, winter cha cha cha.

NBL games in Melbourne used to thrive during Winter - it was common for the 'Sell out' sign t be posted on the door of Rod Laver Arena with 15k+ watching Tigers vs Magic games (local rivalry). For heck's sake, they sed to get 8k+ to games involving teams such as Illawarra and even the defunct GC Rollers! There is no longer a Magic team, the Giants and Titans have folded and the Tigers now play home games at the Netball and Hocky Center (3,500 capacity) as opposed to Rod Laver or even Vodfone arena. The Tigers just manage to get 2,500 to each game, and they sell out for South Dragons.
NBL needs to switch back to winter, and focus on establishing moe rivalries between teams, with obviously the media being required to help play a part.
To say it won't work in Melbourne is not just right, and history and the facts should be better explored.