No argument from me. Easily one of the most exciting players I have ever seen with my own eyes.

If only it was as easy as that...

I don't want to throw a bucket of water over your sums but you can't seriously expect him to draw an additional 3000 fans per game can you? Next season's team is already more exciting than last and as such I'd expect crowds to be in the 5-6k range from the start, even if we haven't signed a second import.

I'd love to see Hodge back here and I think your idea about the extra revenue additional fans bring in is very valid, but I'd suggest an extra 500 a game is more realistic.

I think we are getting a little carried away with Hodge hysteria. Plays with passion yes, but not being an outside threat means you have to have the right players around him. This grab him at all costs mentality is wrong.

hodge would be a gr8 player 2 have in the sixers team but if he deosnt make an NBA team why would he come back here, why wouldnt he stay in the D league and show that he dominates that and he would get a call up by an NBA club soon enough doubt he will come back

hodge will make the sixers more money than he will cost. if we have hodge ill pretty much go to every game, without him i may go to 2 or 3 but thats it. dont mean to sound like a bandwagon supporter, but there is no other player on the sixers roster i wanna pay to see play. luke is a great player, ballinger also but if i want to watch lay-ups and non exciting basketball ill go to lightning games, there cheaper.

vanexel31, I agree. One expects more for their money when going to see an NBL game. The tickets are priced to provide entertainment. Hodge provided entertainment. Before him, it was like going to see a boring movie. That's also the reason I give little value to arguments about development players. I regularly go to ABA games and pay $6 a ticket, not $25 like the NBL. The entertainment and value for money comes from the key players. No expense should be spared there particularly if other clubs are able to outbid us. If Hodge ends up back in Australia, there is no way Adelaide should just stand there and watch him being snapped up by another club. The only way I would accept not getting Hodge is by taking the view that he is not a certainty to return and therefore immediate action is taken to find a good alternative. I am not of the opinion that Adelaide should wait around for an uncertain player at the risk of being caught out at the last minute if he doesn't return. We have recent experience on this with Newley. I always wonder where we would have been last season if Newley was part of the team. I do believe one player alone can make the difference.

(Mod: Spam.)

Just having locals like hill, holmes, luke and others in the team will bring in the fans. Family members and friends are more likely to go to support their mates also. The crowds started coming towards the end of the season as the sixers started winning, yes julius had a part in that but if the current team can start well then people will come out to the games.. People support winning teams or competitive teams, its an aussie thing. I have season tickets and i know I and others get a buzz out of a good win or even a close loss, just seeing the team fight with passion towards the end of last season made it worth it in my opinion even if they didnt always come away with the W.

Said it before and will say it again: best player ever to play in Australia. Sign him at all costs.

Perhaps the figures were a bit exaggerated but putting that aside, the 36ers went from a losing team to a winning team once Hodge arrived and settled in. Many agreed that had he been with the team from the start, the end result would have been much different. That in itself is worth throwing money at to get him here if the competition is between Adelaide and other NBL clubs. Hodge knows the difference he made in his short time here. He is not going to donate his services for nothing. If Hodge decides to pursue the NBA and is successful, then you can't do much about that.

The crowd did not go up 3,000, perhaps closer to 1,000. And he doesn't guarantee wins (we still lost in Wollongong and to Perth which should've been wins, I thought), and asks for a lot of money. On top of that, what's to say that the club could even afford what he's asking?

The crowds last season were generally 4-5,000 (not 3-3,700). Before Hodge, from the stats I can find (all but three games), the average crowd comes to 4,401. For the five home games that featured Hodge, the average is 5,609. The season high last home game (7,009) was billed as possibly the coach's last game (and Copeland's) at the Dome - the two games before with Hodge playing were 4,086 and 5,023. If you take out the last game, the average is 5,259.

(And I think you could be underestimating his asking price?)

Now, Hodge is a drawcard (more than Chappell was, that's for sure) but what's not to say that a different import wouldn't provide the same excitement for fans? Hodge is worth going for, but not at any price. Bankrupt the club and you risk losing other key players too.

Hodge knows the salary cap in Australia and would only come here if his NBA prospects were exhausted. For that reason, I think its reasonable to say he could be obtained at an expensive but not outrageous price. If the price he is asking for is that outrageous then he should have to forget about Australia altogether. My argument is always that Adelaide has to be just as competitive as any other NBL club. I think its not going to sit very well with the fans here to see Hodge picked up somewhere else in Australia because they could afford him and we cant. Like #182071 said, why buy a professional team when you can't afford to run it successfully. You will have done the pride of South Australia a disservice and also the fans.

exactly EC, well said.

Firstly, who says he's going anywhere else? Melbourne are doing a lot of talking, but haven't signed him.

And at what cost? Adelaide's real shot at a championship comes next season when Ballinger should be naturalised and we have two import spots to use. Why overspend to that extent this year (with Hodge in last year's team, we were 6-6) and risk up-ending the club and losing players (as Brisbane risk doing now)? Is he worth $400k, $500k? If you can get a player who is a better fit for the team at $150-200k, I don't think that's a silly choice.

Right now, the chance of Hodge getting picked up by an NBA team for next season has to be high. I'm all for going for him, but not at absolutely any price when the club would be making a loss as it is.

As for ownership, go up and tell Mal if that's what you really believe: "If you don't match what other teams are spending, you are doing SA a disservice." If we were limited to a roster budget of $500k, I might agree, but I don't think that's the case.

Isaac, you are referring to $ figures where as I am not. Adelaide has to be competitive but if it means spending $400-$500K on him, I agree, you can't do that. But then a figure like that should be out of reach for any NBL club. I would hate to think that the salary cap is that poorly policed that anyone could get away with paying that much for one single player. And once again, Hodge will only be here if there is a personal need for him to be here. I and when there is a personal need for him to be here, his price will drop.

The last sentence should read - If and when there is a personal need for him to be here, his price will drop.

EC it was commonly known that Worthington was shopping himself to a few clubs at a quoted range of between 350k and 400k.

He got offers from more than one club so that should tell you that more than one club it paying a hell of a lot more than what the salary cap is.

One of those clubs had three players break the salary cap alone.

McKinnon has been talking to the Blaze but they could not afford him so the Tigers will step up and pay what he is after because they can, unless the new Vegas owners think an injury prone 10 point player is worth the moola.

If most NBL teams are losing money and there are 2/3 that can afford to blow the cap as they have owners who can top up short falls in cash flow then there will never be parity in the league.

My solution is that the NBL is the employer of the players and not the clubs.

That way the NBL knows exactly what every person is making by way of team payments.

The clubs would then be invoiced to make their salary payments each month directly by the NBL.

Of course that will not stop under the table deals but it will make teams work a little harded when getting cash to their players.

Should also point out that Julius and Ebi have the same agent so that would give Julius all he needs to know about what he could possibly be paid in Australia, so that would explain why he would be in the upper range of what NBL players get.

EC, of course I'm talking specific figures because that is exactly what this is all about. I am saying that Hodge is an excellent player but he doesn't guarantee a championship (we were 6-6 with him in the team) and isn't worth absolutely any price at all. There has to be a point where it is just too much.

what do you mean anon, i hope you mean that that is the day we sign Julius

Is the Millenium Bug back?

Kent, you said it and you are spot on. The NBL employing the players will do nothing but make the disparity even greater. At the moment, surely all clubs to some extent have some cap restraints or atleast conscious of it. Don't forget they have to try and cover it up to some extent. The NBL employing the players will appear to clubs that the cap has been fully taken care of by the NBL and therefore any other payments they wish to make themselves will be viewed as completely separate to the salary controlled by the NBL. The only way it can be completely controlled is by the NBL having complete access to players personal income, ie, bank accounts, group certificates. Even non monetary payments like housing would have to show up as a fringe benefit on their tax return. For privacy reasons, this is never going to happen.

why not ec it happens in the NRL

Go get him I reckon, if he wants to come back.....