Just to clarify on the above. A Bank Guarantee is not a matter of plonking a $1m in an account.

It is bacically a contract between sixers the bank and the nbl that says, that if the NBL wants to redeem these funds from the bank they can. The contract can be secured with normal thing banks will take as security be it cash, resi property, commercial property, etc.

They are not really that expensive, I think for $1m it would be around $10k (correct me if im wrong)

Im pretty sure that there would be no problem in the sixers or mal being able to afford this, I just think he may be unwilling more than anything

I really don't see why anyone would buy a business and that's what the Sixers are if they know they will lose money each year.
Surely the Sixers must be one of the most viable teams in the league considering we have one of the best supporter bases. South Dragons get about 2k supporters at each game on average, we got 4k on average. How is this company not making money???

Expenses exceed Income.

Player payments are high

Skin, You are incorrect sorry to say.

I deal with bank guarantees a lot and you can assign a term deposit as security, but you would still get the bank interest.

If you use property then yes it is a different story and you do pay a fee of around 1%.

No clubs have been making money- that's been a well known fact for some time, irrespective of the supporter base.
Don't forget the ridiculous amounts of money teams are paying for a player's signature that they can't afford, as well as most having average, if not, non-existent effective marketing and management plans.
When you consider these facts and others that contribute to the pigheadedness that exists in some clubs by too many chiefs and not enough indians, you can see how these sorts of issues not only occur, but continue to do so.

Panther - The Dragons & Perth have owners with deep pockets, like Groves was when he was running the bullets, thus they can cover any operating losses from their own pockets.

Skin - In regards to setting up a Bank Gtee, the financial institution will charge an establishment fee & an ongoing line fee normally paid quarterly. 1% line fee ($10k) per year would be around the mark IMO. Before setting up the Bank Gtee the financial institution would want to ensure that there is a profitbale business model in place so that the chances of this being called up is remote.

The Bank would also want sufficient security to link into the transaction. I would suggest you would need a combination off commercial or residential property wih low LVRs to even consider. Bank Gtee's can be given partial secured or unsecured basis but given the problems of the NBL & the 36ers I am pretty sure the Bank would want to be fully secured.

I cannot see the Government wanting to take this on either IMO

Lets hope someone with some deep pockets can take this over & adsopr the losses until they can turn the model into a profitable business for them.

The only rule the league appears to have changed is providing an alternative to the $1m guarantee in the form of demonstrating $50m in tangible assets.

The exact wording in the EOI is as follows:

Demonstration of working capital and security
(a) $1 million unconditional bank guarantee in favour of BA in place,
or an alternative security acceptable to BA;
(b) $500,000 in paid up and available working capital.

Not sure that a term deposit would fulfill this requirement.
It is my understanding that a $1m guarantee would be of the order of $30-40k. I may be wrong though.

So Isaac is that why South & Perth had the fees waived? Anyone else have the fee waived?

By fee I mean Guarantee.

Does anyone know who the consortium is made up off?

IMO if they are not strong enough financially & don't have a strong asset backing to be able to gain a Bank GTee they really not be looking to purchase the 36ers at this stage unless further investors come on board.

Jake, I reckon I could try and guess 3 of the 4, but at least a couple of those I'd guess would be reading this and can out themselves if they want.

Nutwork, possibly. But someone told me that Perth campaigned for that option and then went with the guarantee anyway? Not sure if that's accurate.

Contortium shuld make an accoucmnt

I'd guess that Crows partnership was pretty ornamental - share helping charities and maybe a promo or two. Not necessarily in the interest of the Crows to support the 36ers out of anything but charity. If sport fans have extra money to spend in the absence of a basketball team, Crows might get more merchandise sales - who knows.

Panther, clearly you dont attend games very often if you think the sixers average 4,000 and the Dragons average 2,000. The sixers average 5,200 and the Dragons average 4,600. And I myself as a Dragons supporter do struggle to understand how the 36ers ;lose so much money?? Must be really bad owner. Oh well hope the sixers pull through and make it into the new comp. Good Luck.

Sorry Hayden, I didn't get to any South games in melbourne this year condsidering I LIVE IN ADELAIDE!
But I am a season ticket holder for the Sixers and only missed a few games and I would still guess that we only averaged 4k, perhaps Isaac knows or could ask Potsy.

Attendance, per game:

^ Adelaide:    5,023 (up almost 300/g over 07/08)
^ South:       4,414 (up around 600)
  Townsville:  4,234 (down 232)
^ Perth:       4,109 (up almost 100)
  Cairns:      3,590 (down around 600)
  Melbourne:   2,835 (down 340ish)
^ New Zealand: 2,689 (up just over 500)
  Gold Coast:  2,572 (down almost 1,000)
  Wollongong:  2,514 (down 700ish)
  Sydney:      1,443 (down 800 or so)