no money in that !! join the Asia League - that's the way to go

I wouldn't renew my season tickets for the first time in well over a decade for an interim league.

asian league baby!!! shoulda been part of the reform process from day 1.

Loco, if game tickets were $10-15 and the team was just short a couple of the top dogs?

Who Me!, why would they join a league with a high cap that was likely to lose them a few hundred thousand a year for their troubles? "I own a basketball team", ego stroking, trying to win, etc. I think there could still be takers, but it would still be challenging to make the numbers work.

e.g., try to hold 3k fans at $15 tix over 10 home games. Wouldn't even cover a budget roster. But it'd be pretty challenging to lose anywhere near $1m like I'm sure many owners do now.

It cant be run as a business, its gotta be run by basketball enthusiasts. Theres few pro teams in Australia which generate enough profits for it to be run as a money making scheme. Even then collingwood, west coast, adelaide etc would be happily run by an enthusiast of those teams at a loss if it meant their beloved clubs existed and were competitive in the top flight league.

isaac - i agree.
here is my angle, the standard of the australian nbl,which to me, is to high and costly.
the revenue that it is able to generate is not enough, no matter what amount of marketing....ever.
(the reasons include venue sizes,sport saturation,limited corporate $$, demand etc)

let's position ourselves in the world basketball landscape.

highly unlikely we will ever be a world powerhouse,although it could be argued, if we kept all our o/s players at home.
imagine having bogut,jackson and co in oz all year round.bums on seats wouldnt be a problem!

we certainly wouldnt be in the position we are now.

but we are...and i understand europe and america are'nt going any where real soon.

i feel our on-court product should be somewhere between NBL and ABA.
i recently went down to cairns and watched the marlins (ABA)play.
wow,i hadn't been to an ABA game for years.
the energy they played with ,diving on balls etc was certainly a breath of fresh air after the taipans debacle.
i saw 2 or 3 kids that can go to the next level,that to me, was so exciting.
there is no question in my mind where the NBL should be aimed.

i stated once before that an NBL gig must be the cruisiest gig going around the international circuit,with basically no demand on players other than to turn up and train/play.
the commitment to club/fans is minimal,swapping at will to who ever pays more/goes broke quicker.

try 4.5k fans @ $18 over 15 home games......

Yeah, ABA is still an excellent level of competition. If the 36ers hibernate this off-season, I would like to see them replace the front page of their site (their call, obviously) with a list of ABL teams, when they play, and notable players (especially former and current 36ers/Lightning players involved).

4,500 people paying $18 is back in the 08/09 NBL. Works for some teams, but not for all, unless the league can very strictly police the cap. Run a league on either side of that kind of budget (4-5k+ at games in one tier, 2-3k watching a $500-700k team in the other) and I think you'll get basketball in front of more people.