Granted the article has only printed a couple of lines from the Minister, but all I can get from his comments is - "No Melbourne Teams = joke", and I just don't agree with that view. I'd like to hear the Minister say something constructive.

Not sure why the minister feels the need to bag the league, particularly when the two Melbourne teams voluntarily withdrew.

And their withdrawal means fewer job opportunities for Melbourne players, coaches and various other staff, and less money going through Victorian sport.

It might be an up-hill battle and the remaining owners making sacrifices to keep the game going until the next reform opportunity, but it's not a joke.

No NBL/League = No Men's basketball representation (olympics/commenwealth) = no government funding or junior support = bye bye basketbal?

Would the REAL Seamus McPeake stand up please?
One minute, he's the owner, the next he's sold it off, and the next he's co-owner!
Through all of this Larry & BA are sticking to their guns, and I perceive that Seamus has been outplayed here, and having no room to move now, has taken his basketball and ring and gone home.
Strong leadership is necessary for success and the reaction of Seamus and the Vic Sports Minister shows they know they cannot get their own way here.
At this point in time IMO Larry is doing OK.

BA are working very hard to get another Vic team in - for 8 team league - Larry said today.

What constitutes ok?
Does losing your most identifiable and marketable brands from what was your largest market constitute ok?
does having no tv deal, no naming rights sponsor, players agreement or government funding constitute doing ok?
Or does having a league made up of, almost exclusively, regional teams with little to no pull for corporate sponsorship dollars constitute ok?
Cannot believe that people honestly think having Perth as your biggest market is ok for a supposed national competition. That having no teams in the 3 largest cities in australia is ok.
This league is a joke and anyone who actually thinks what BA is doing is right and a deluded fool.

Falkman, do you understand that this isn't the reformed league, but just something else?

They're saying that Perth as the biggest market is better than absolutely zero product at all for 12 months. You talk of no TV deal and no sponsor, but that's what they'd have if they postponed anything anyway.

Up to speed now?

I would rather that the league postpone the season and spend all the time, money and effort they're going to use putting together this half assed season more effectively and use it towards getting the actual launch season ready.
I appreciate what the teams and ba are trying to do. I appreciate that they want to keep ties with fans, sponsors and keep players employed and i applaud them for that, but sacrifices need to be made for the good of the game and that means that sometimes the employees are the ones that loose out.
It happens in the real world when businesses have to cut costs to survive, it should happen in the sporting world when i league that isn't financially viable needs to reform.
Putting all this time and money into something that's taking the place of something else that failed while they work out how to replace what failed in the first place in not going to work. It will end in tears.
And i need to pose this question.
When a club like the tiapans, or the hawks, who have lost money every yr for a long time join this league with it's supposed 900K salary cap (which is more than what it was last season) and the league has no tv deal or naming rights sponsor and the club get little no media exposure, do you really think the sponsors are going to hang around?
And if they do hang around do you think they will pay the same amount for less exposure?
No, they won't.
The net result of this will be these clubs losing even more money than before. And for clubs surviving on donations from the community this will spell death. This is what Cowan and McPeak were talking about when they said this interim season is not going to be financially viable.
Now, how is losing another 2 maybe 3 organisations going to help the league going forward? How does it help the perception of the sport? How will it help gain corporate sponsorship?
in 12 months time when they go to do the proper relaunch and they've only got 6-7 teams again how will that make the sport look? how will that make the reform process look?
Pretty terrible in my eyes. And i can tell you that's the general feeling of most people i know.

For one thing, Cairns weren't spending under $900k last year!

And another, if the battlers are killed by this season, the top clubs can continue without them - Fox doesn't want to cover regional teams and I don't think McPeake wants to be held back by strugglers.

And that is entirely my point Isaac. Why do we seem to be pandering to the lowest common denominator as opposed to striving to be the best that we can?
What McPeak and Cowan wanted to do is raise the profile of the league. Raise the level of talent in the league and put forward a product that is both marketable, entertaining and profitable. After all, you need to spend money to make money.
Having what is essentially a bush league for any period of time, whether that be an interim season or not, is not going to be profitable.
Whats worse is that this is not going to be a "interim season".
Senstock has come out today and said the reforms are going ahead to be implemented in the upcoming season. The relaunch and rebranding slated for 2011 with all rules etc being implemented this season.
What they're proposing is not going to achieve anything for the game and will likely only make the public perception of the league and the game itself worse.
Having no team in the 3 major markets is a deathwish. Especially in Melbourne which we all know the basketballs heartland. Not having a team there is like not having an NRL team in Sydney, or an AFL team in Melbourne. it's madness.

I don't think it's idiotic to start with some of the reform ideas early - dipping a toe in the water.

And where you mention the disparity between types of owners/clubs, this is why I believe two tiers are the answer. Provide for both categories.

8 or so team NBL run by BA, mostly association based clubs, lower cap ($500k-700k at the most), etc. Then an elite tier of $1.5m rosters run by the Melbourne teams, Perth, NZ and so on.

Spreads the load of supporting BA, gets professional basketball out in front of more juniors, spreads the load of paying players and keeping them on court in Australia.

Make it accessible for the regions that always want to get involved but are deterred by high costs (Hobart, Canberra, Wollongong, Cairns, Darwin, Hunter and others), and then make it elite for the clubs that want to put on a show.

The article tells me the Vic sports minister is in bed with Mcpeake & Cowan. And thats to be expected. Sometimes as parents we don't punish our kids because they are blood - even if they are naughty!

Falkman - no one made the Vic teams bow out. They made their bed & now they must sleep in it.

Life, however must go on. It's as simple as that. What is a joke to you looks completely different to me. Trying to back the reform boys into a corner might come back & haunt the Vic clubs. Don't expect miracles from this 7 team season but it is a start to a reform.

I'm sitting back with my popcorn. Imagine a league in 5 years with 14 teams from all over Oz & all financially viable because Sengstock hung tough & was prepared to take some early hits.

Give him time....

Falkman, if your Rolls Royce was buggered, and was going to take a year to fix, would you drive a Falcon for 12 months or walk everywhere?

No-one wants their sport to be compromised, but sometimes a lesser option is way, way better than slowing to a walk.

In regard to the Melbourne teams owners; Seamus is a highly successfull business man who is used to getting his own way ALL the time, and perhaps you could question whether or not that would be good for basketball; it has been reported that the Dragons are broke. Brian G has won a lot of championships, but has been coach of more now defunct teams. So would you suggest that is good for basketball overall?Have team owners, in pursuit of that elusive pot of gold, spent too much money getting there only to find the pot wasn't what they expected it to be??
Is that good for our sport?
You mention businesses in your post. LEGITIMATE business will scale down in a crisis; it will cut costs; it will do things that upset it's employees and shareholders; it will operate ON A SMALLER SCALE until things improve. BUT it will NOT cease operating for a year in the hope that things will suddenly get better.

Remember that a sporting team is not like a regular business selling something 24/7 365 days a yr. Basketball clubs sell entertainment. And they sell that 4-5 months of the yr when the season is on. Shutting up shop for 12 months to stop them bleeding money is not like shutting down a regular business because 8 months of the year they're not selling the game.
And most importantly, right now, what the sport needs to be selling is the fact that it is markatble, stable, and most importantly profitable.
It has not been doing that, and will not be able to do that with what has been proposed.
Furthermore, to answer your question, if i could afford to buy a rolls royce and it needed to get fixed, chances are i would have the money to just buy another rolls. cos anyone who can't affort to do that probably shouldn't have got the rolls to start with.

and just finally i don't view a season off and the sport grinding to a hult. i view it as an opportunity for the league and the owners to focus all they're time and energy into getting this process right FOR THE GOOD OF THE GAME. That is what's most important here above all else.

If BA are wrong in all of this (as the Melbourne clubs believe), what will expose that better? A year of BA quietly planning things, or a year of them messing up a league rolling out a few changes?

Which is what the Vic teams are doing, Good for them & Good for those who choose to play.

What i would prefer is BA get this reform right. if that means that sitting quietly for a yr and taking the right steps to get the reform right at the expense of one season then so be it.
I would rather we have a yr off with a big relaunch than another yr of blunders and negative publicity for the sport. and i can assure you that what has gone on in the last few weeks has not generated positive publicity.
A yr off would have shown people that BA were taking this seriously and so were putting all their time and effort into getting it right.
Now the perception is that it's the same old crap in the same old package with the only difference being that there's some other clown at the top telling everyone that it's going to be different this time.

Falkman, why wouldn't BA be working on getting the reform right whilst an interim competition was underway. You don't have to shut up shop altogether for a year whilst working on it. I don't get your reasoning. This way Basketball is still in the marketplace although not in as big a way as would have been expected. Its still better than nothing. Are you from Melbourne and pissed off that you don't have a team to follow this coming season? That was entirely the doing of the 2 Melbourne club owners, not BA or any of the other clubs participating. As for the Sports Minister of Victoria, is he embarrassed that his great sporting city is not represented in Elite Basketball? Does he feel that BA has kicked him in the guts by standing up to their principles and not allowing the 2 Melbourne owners to take matters in their own hands. If he is that concerned about no Melbourne teams in the league, perhaps he should have had a talk to these 2 clubs and persuaded them to play by the rules rather than have a swipe at BA.

I don't think the ABA quite provides what I've talked about.

Sucks to be Melbourne lol.

Debate it all you like, but the league will go ahead this season and BA will implement the reforms it needs to make for the season 10/11 relaunch.

McPeake moved all in on a bluff. BA called him for once. Time to leave the table while everyone else keeps playing cards.

All of which makes me a happy camper.

Falkman - i am with you 100%.

BA and owners wake up, dont waste precious funds on an adhoc competition, spend the money on developing a better league in one years time.

I doubt they will be running a high cost comp.

And it doesn't take a lot of money to come up with a philisophical change for the new season format and other necessary changes. Just time and debate.

Hmmm - the quotes from teh Minister are placed in a context that puts them across as a criticisn of BA's plans. On their own, isolated from the Melbourne based reporter's comments, they could equally be seen as criticising the Victorian clubs concerned. i.e., "if basketball in Victoria is booming and two Vic teams played off in last year's grand final, how come we can't put together a viable team to play in the national competition".

Interesting point Peter

True - I wish the media could be postponed for a while as all this conflicting coverage is dominating proceedings. As Earnie Shavers said on OzHoops, right now the prevailing 'messages' going out are the "league is crap", "BA are idiots" comments from Anstey and Wortho, and maybe some faint "we're still optimistic" heartbeat from Sengstock.