http://linky.com.au/vlv41

Yep its true...

Kings survive to fight another day...can Brisbane stay afloat too?

I hope Brisbane remain. I have a soft spot for the Bullets and miss Leroy Loggins.

Back in the day, he was the owner that everyone loved to hate.

Can I see a cage match between him and McPeake brewing for halftime entertainment at the first SYD v MEL game?

My house on McPeake to win.....Now THAT would be a body slam to behold.

Welcome back Mike.....whether it was because of you, or in spite of you, the Kings heyday was during your reign. I hope it returns.

Kent, why do guess that the NBL will be back to playing in winter soon?

If there is good evidence that the NBL can pull bigger crowds in winter I am all for it, but I'm not sure there is any time of year that will improve NBL numbers significantly at the moment. The sporting market is pretty saturated these days.

I just can't see how a change of season (again) would be a good idea. The crowd issues aren't because of the time of year!

Fix the things that aren't working first. Make it as easy as possible for media to get information (results, injuries, etc) - basically do their job for them.

One big Eastern-states paper was going to use results posted on the OzHoops forum last year because they couldn't get a reliable score from the NBL web site. In the end, they just pulled the mention/story because they weren't confident that the results were correct.

Mike W jumped when the league switched to summer, Chuck has mentioned that the switch was a big problem.

So i would expect to see it go back to Winter with these 2 persuasive players now on the block.

In summer people want to go to the beach spend time in the sun etc.

In winter people want to be inside out of the cold, which basketball has a big plus next to its name.

Yes the winter sports market has afl and rugby to compete with.

However i dont recall the media coverage in the summer being that much more than what it was when the game was in the winter.

NBA playes in the winter as does Euro.

Chuck's mention, IMO, was more about how they went directly from one season to another and how that was a financial hit for clubs.

In winter, people don't want to bother leaving the house, IMO. They're more inclined to just stay at home.

Spotted on OzHo:

Mike W was just on Long Lunch on Fox, being officially interviewed as the new owner. He said some interesting things - including that the league should move June to December. The NBL should also take a year off to get their stuff together.

Care to list the right/wrong issues?

IMO, there have to be a number of teams, they need to play each other multiple times, they have to fly to fulfill that, there should be some sort of measure to achieve parity (e.g., either or both caps), etc. They're the main things and there are only so many ways you can achieve them.

There are other elements outside of the control of the league and clubs: competition for customer wallets or in the media, media coverage, etc.

Within control of the league, you have the number of clubs and where they're located (I don't think they're far off with this), how they interact with media and present themselves (see my earlier post about the paper who gave up trying to get a game score) where they have a lot of room for improvement and centralised marketing for the league which is probably the biggest issue*.

If the review says re-brand, do it next off-season and avoiding meddling too much. Give people a year off from buying season tickets and they might get used to the idea.

* You see AFL ads, NBA ads, WNBA ads, etc but who can remember seeing an NBL ad? The best we've had are ridiculous slogans mentioned on the league site.