I notice they also announced that it will be a Final 6. Thank heavens for that!

This is the 3rd thread on this topic...why did you get the ball Isaac?
; )

could NBL have done more to keep Slingers . Espec as they had a more competitive team and a better link to Asian community and might have led to some decent sponsorships etc. I dont know where sponsors are going to come from with loss of Syd. and Brisbane and how they are going to convince Fox to continue coverage. You have to feel for plyrs coaches etc left out in cold by the 3 withdrawals and how the sport is going to re avitilze itself.

SLINGERS SETS SIGHT ON ASIAN PRO LEAGUE


July 30, 2008, SINGAPORE - When the Singapore Slingers tip-off for the new basketball season on Sept 17 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, instead of going up against the likes of NBL sides Melbourne Tigers or Perth Wildcats, skipper Ben Knight and Co could be taking on the likes of professional teams from Korea, Philippines, Japan or China instead.

This was after the Slingers management announced that the Singapore-based team has
officially pulled out of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL), and will not be taking part in the upcoming 2008/09 NBL season.

"We had every intention to play our third season in the NBL and had recruited a team to be very competitive and more relevant to Singapore, with three players of Asian heritage on the roster", said Slingers Managing Director Bob Turner.

"In spite of the team's financial readiness to participate, the recent withdrawal of two key
teams from the NBL has had a negative impact on our business model and led to an
unanticipated increase in travel costs. When the NBL could not accede to our request to help defray the exorbitant and rising travel costs, the board of the Slingers took the painful but necessary decision to leave the NBL and pursue the possibility of playing in a professional league in Asia instead".

The withdrawal of the Slingers means that the NBL has now lost its third team before the
start of the 2008/09 season, after Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets both pulled out of the competition in the past weeks, even as major restructure of basketball Down Under
continues in earnest.

Explaining the decision to withdraw from the NBL, the Slingers Chairman Tony Fernandes, who is also Group CEO of Air Asia said, "Since getting on board six months ago, I've firmly believed that the long-term future of the Slingers is in an Asian Professional League rather than in the NBL. The recent turn of events provided the catalyst to start looking more closely at the feasibility of playing professionally in Asia."

"I am a big believer in ASEAN, with its fantastic market of 600 million people. Considering the potential sponsorships and television viewership, it makes tremendous commercial sense to go in this direction and take advantage of the popularity of basketball in the region", he added.

Said NBL interim CEO Chuck Harmison: "Whilst the NBL is disappointed with the Slingers' decision, we do understand their rationale, especially with the cost of traveling continuing to spiral upwards. We have therefore reluctantly accepted the Slingers' decision to surrender their license. We do however remain very keen as a league to explore with Singapore, and more widely Asia, other more cost effective ways of establishing regular club and national team competition."

Local basketball fans need not fret about the lack of top-class hoop action. In place of
regular NBL league matches, the Slingers will be inviting some of the top professional teams from Asia's basketball powerhouses China, Korea, Japan, Philippines and even the Middle-East and Europe, as well as clubs from the NBL, to play in a series of challenge matches instead, having already started talks with several possible opponents.

Known as the Slingers Challenge Series 2008/09, the tournament will utilize the 15 home dates penciled in at the Singapore Indoor Stadium between Sept 17 and end of February.

Prize money will be at stake, with the visitors walking away with the cash of up to $10,000 if they manage to beat the home team, guaranteeing that the matches will be competitive.

The Slingers board believes that the Slingers Challenge Series will be the perfect platform to give local fans a taste of what they can expect of an Asian Professional League, while showcasing the standard of basketball in Asia.

That vision is not far from becoming a reality as the Slingers are in talks with more than one party who are keen to set up the inaugural professional league featuring top teams from all around Asia. It is also working closely with basketball's governing bodies FIBA and FIBA Asia.

While details of the proposed Asian Pro League still need to be finalized, it is envisioned that it could take off even as early as April 2009, and will comprise pro teams each representing their home nation, as they battle it out for supremacy and boasting rights to be named champions of Asia.

"Being based in Singapore, it is a matter of time and in the Slinger's best interest to position itself in the region as part of an Asia-based league. This new direction is the future", said Michael Johnson, Head of Basketball Operations and a NBL Hall-of-Famer.

"All the players, including import Eric Sandrin who arrived over the weekend, are excited to take up the challenge and show that Singapore's very own professional basketball team can compete with the best in Asia".

The Singapore Slingers are now working to finalize all opponents for the Singapore
Challenge Series. A full schedule of dates is expected to be available in the coming two
weeks.

How nice of them to stab us in the back like that!

So, technically, they "bought" the Hunter Pirates licence, used it for a few years and are now holding that licence and not using it?

Do they loose that licence via forfeit now?

Would be good to see them in the league, but as many threads have said, "we need to revamp the league"

DB5 - new topic balls don't count, they signify major news.

"I am a big believer in ASEAN, with its fantastic market of 600 million people. Considering the potential sponsorships and television viewership, it makes tremendous commercial sense to go in this direction and take advantage of the popularity of basketball in the region"

Isn't this the same reason why the NBL sought to enter that market?

Great move by the ownership and their stakeholders.

Why do i get the feeling that within a few years they will be everyting the NBL wishes that it was

Main reason behind the move appears to be because they wanted the NBL to fork out the travelling expenses due to their remoteness and travel requirements.

Kind of sad considering they're dropping out in the year that looked most likely to be their biggest with a "potentially" decent fan base, considering their signings.

Oh well.

If you were the owner of a NBL licence, having built your own business around it, would you sit back and wait to see what BA is going to do with your league?

I wonder if Perth will make it to game 1 or will they join the Pro Asian League?

So does this leave Darren Ng without a team? What happens now? can he or other players be recruited elsewhere?

Vlahov has long talked about joining the Asian league as well as McPeake.

They used to swing that threat over the NBL a long time ago. If you dont do what we want we will go play elsewhere so the NBL would bend to their requests.

I dont buy the fuel thing.

The Sing gov has been splashing huge money around lately to take advantage of the opportunites that the credit crunch has given them.

To foot the bill for 100k in air fares aint that big of a deal to someone that deals in the hundreds of millions.

Particularly when you own the airline.

They have done it on there own terms instead of waiting to be sucker punched by the NBL.

If the NBL was serious they would try and jump into the APL as a conference and pitch that our skill level will rub off on them making them stringer basketball nations and we get a trade off of the extra $ by exposure to the asian audience.

I think the biggest question this throws up is which of the current NBL teams will go to the new Asian League.

I think from here on that will be the biggest problem. I reckon FIBA should step in a set up a proper Asian league.

Start with
NZ
Australia (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth)
China 2 or 3 teams
Singapore
Japan
Korea (North and South)
Phillipines
Malaysia
India
+ other countries I am sure would be interested

I am sure there could be something like 2 asians players, 2 non asians players and the rest of the team local country (ie the China team can have 2 Aussies, 2 americans, 8 Chinese)

Depending on how many teams you start out with, I am sure you could build it up to 2 or 3 10 team conferences in a short period of time.

Ok so my numbers probably don't add up initially but I am sure someone with a bit more time on their hands could work it out.

i just don't get it. apparently sandrin is happy to stay and play in this challenge and all- what my question is, and hoopers, please help

WHAT LEAGUE WILL THE SLINGERS BE PLAYING IN, AND DO THE PLAYERS STILL GET THEIR PAY PACKETS ETC? BASICALLY, WHAT IS THE GO FOR THE PLAYERS?

The NBL together with FIBA should DEFINITELY setup a new Asia/Australia league.
I know FIBA run a league in South America and the U.S where teams from Florida, Mexico,Puerto Rica,etc come together and play. It is quite a good league.
I think it is a good league because it is run up FIBA. FIBA know what to do-they are experts.

The idiots at the NBL offices do not have the marketing expertise nor the guts to make a new Asia/Australia league.
S.O.S FIBA!!

isaac1 - you are not quite on the ball. FIBA America endorse both a central american league and a southern american league and run a whole of america's league - the latter being more like an end of season knockout. FIBA Europe run euroleague, and endorse a small host of other leagues, most of which are separately run - adriatic league, eastern european league, nordic championships etc.

FIBA's last attempt at running a league was, for political reasons, a dismal failure - it was in 2000/01 and it was called Suproleague.

outside of Euroleague, which is a pooled competition in three stages (hence is more of a champions league than a "league" as we would know it), very few of these alternate "leagues" run as a week in - week out proposition across a lengthy season.

I would suggest that a Asia/pacific type league right now, unless it involves "champions league" type structure, would be extra ordinarily difficult to deliver - no matter how good FIBA Asia, FIBA Oceania, BA or anyone else might be.

Poor Ninja.

Yeh the ASEAN should've been on the NBL's to-do list a million years ago.

I'm an NBL fan in S'pore. I'm very pissed off at such news!!! I'm very curious if the players r happy w such decision. I doubt if the players have games to play in Sep. I think they join Slingers bcoz they wanna play in NBL rather than some fake league.

rocky, don't mind your idea but a team from North Korea? You're not serious are you?

HURRAY! Finally a team that meant nothing to most Aussie NBL fans has finally gone. The writing on the wall was plain to see after the 1st press relese announcing their inclusion to the NBL.

I have sat by and watched some great teams fall by the way side while these temporary pretenders took up valuable court space.

A team made up mostly of Aussie players, based in Singapore trying to get the locals excited? What was the NBL thinking?

Any talk of Australia joining an Asian comp is "pie in the sky" stuff. We cant get our own backyard in order, how the hell are we going to look in an international comp?

Heave the whole comp and try again in a year or so, if anyone is still interested by then.

NBL = Dead man walking.

"FIBA's last attempt at running a league was, for political reasons, a dismal failure - it was in 2000/01 and it was called Suproleague"

I think the reason was the name. WTF?

for a moment there i thought Playa was advising FIBA with the SupBroLeague

think the players don't really care that much... aslong as they get their games and money they will be happy... and if they are playing against different teams who are of good quality from around asia, australia and europe as they may well be, then they will be able to become a more marketable player, meaning they could find bigger and better contracts somewhere else in the world... prolly better for the players to have this invite tournament than playing in the NBL

If the NBL was in a position to give financial assistance (I assume they are or Singapore would not have asked)then they should. It was the NBL under Rick Burton that was keen to expand into the Asian market knowing full well that any team based there was going to have an unfair disadvantage in travelling costs. There should have always been some sort of compensation to both Singapore and New Zealand to help meet the travelling cost. Either that, or the schedule should favour them in minimising the amount of travel they have to do. Its all very well to get excited about breaking into the Asian market with the potential sponsorship that comes with it, but you also have to render so assistance. Its a bad sign that 3 teams have withdrawn from the league just this pre season alone. Its all happening under Chuck Harmer as well. I personally think he is killing the league. He filled the position temporarily when Burton left but someone has forgotten that he has been keeping the seat warm for far too long.

Chuck Harmison is the name.

I think placing blame at his feet is unfair. The review (that annoyed Singapore) was out of his hands as it was already in place. The financial fun enjoyed by Eddy Groves, and the issues with Tim Johnston are out of the NBL's control too.

Can someone confirm or correct re the travel obligations for the Breakers.

Did the Breakers , after paying for 2 year all the travel costs for all the teams to go to New Zeland, get a dispensation in their third year ? In otherwords did the Breakers enter the travel pool ,where all travel cost are shared amongst the teams, one year ealier than their original contract with the NBL ??

No idea. Not sure that many outside the league and clubs themselves would know that.

Given the current economy and soaring oil prices, many companies are struggling. BBall is definitely not a high return investment, so companies will rather invest elsewhere. Not enough sponsorship is the common point in the leave of the 3 NBL teams.

My bad before - translation error.

Slingers are playing in the Brunei Cup.

I need to talk to Eric Lee Sandrin, can say that I am looking for him?


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