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You could see the 36ers for $1, with the new owner taking on the debt of the Powerhouse loan.

A media darling?

*cough*

You would really have some great mature decisions then! Why don't you clowns grow up. What is needed in this organisations and basketball in general is experienced basketball people, who can make intelligent long term decisions for the good of the sport. Not from some flighty 23 year old kid who can hit a tennis ball reasonably well!

Avanti, care to elaborate? Lleyton gets in his fair share of newspapers and I can't think of a more succint term for that.

Jay, care to make a bet about Lleyton and the 36ERS? I think the chances are pretty reasonable, and I've heard enough rumours about it to take it at least semi-seriously.

Isaac,

May have mis-understood your definition of "media darling"...

I was thinking "darling to the media" which I wouldnt say he was after the couple of run-ins he has had with them..

What's really scary about this idea is not that Lleyton would be involved (although that is pretty scary) but that his parents would be involved.

And sorry Isaac, but I'm with Avanti on the "media darling" - Hewitt is renowned for being an anti-media type, notwithstanding the stupefying Cartwright stuff.

While I can imagine Lleyton proudly posing for photos out the front of the DHD - or perhaps it will be rebadged as the LHD, the Lleyton Hewitt Dome - in the early days, try asking him a tough question or two when things aren't going so well.

Satish, the difference is not in the coverage but in the type of coverage. Maybe I've bent the term "media darling" too much but I figured that people would know what I meant -- e.g., that he gets more coverage than all basketball in Australia combined sometimes! Whether the media love to build him up or bag him, he still gets in the paper an awful lot. (Buys a car, front page news. Reckon it'd get the same treatment if he bought a basketball club? I don't see why not!)

BTW, try asking the current admin a tough question (shit, any question!) some time and see what response you get. Please see the official forum for a thread on merchandise that includes:


"i ordered a singlet 12 weeks ago im only getting it now cause i took it up with there management in sydney the staff at the dome store dont give a rats toss, ring sydney champion HQ and get what you want from there

the staff here did not place and order until 6 weeks later when i complained and even then they BS me and when i rang sydeny after 11 weeks they still hadnt put and order in.

the only responce i got from staff here is and quote" this job doesnt pay enough for me to bother placing orders and chasing things up" " i start a new job monday so i dont care"

Not a single response from the club related to this.

Or have a look at the old thread on attendance figures when club representatives went awfully quiet when it was pointed out that their attendance figures were obviously incorrect.

i cant really see it happening. But if he or someother person can get them out of debt and have the clubs best interest at heart its work a look.

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If he is willing to expunge the debt on basketball in SA then I say all the power to Lleyton! Offer him a spot in the backcourt with Maher & Farley if it gets the deal across the line... (People, indulge me in a Wayne's World flashback moment here..."packed house at the Dome, scores are tied with 30 seconds to go between the 36ers and the Kings in Game 3 of the 2006 NBL Final. The 36ers run their new 'Cobra' play, the one they call with the patented arm flex and self salute made famous by their new owner/point guard. Lleyton, who has been distracted most of the evening arguing with the umpires over some dodgy 'line calls' sets up on the wing. He recieves the ball from Maher with just seconds left and drives over a Cooper pick into the lane and dunks on Ben Knight. GAME OVER - SIXERS WIN! The 8000 fans go wild. Lleyton bellows out a 'Come on' then runs to over to the home team bench to hug new 36ers assistant coach Roger Rasheed")

But seriously, why would you begrudge anyone who is willing to put money into 36ers. I am sure if he was involved he would be very much in the background focusing on his tennis and let the front office people do their jobs. The media hype and subsequent interest from the corporate sector would be huge, not to mention the renewed interest by basketball fans.

Satish, no need to be sorry for agreeing with me is there???!! Ha ha!

Isaac, as you say, Lleyton gets a lot of coverage but Id say it's begrudgingly so.. Im not sure how much ongoing publicity he would "be worth" to the club, when a) he is overseas for a good portion of the year, and b) he doesnt like talking tennis as much as he has to already.

Absolutely Anonymous. Him and Pauer would be backcourt partners for the Sabres in the Winter and doubles partners in the Summer for the Australian Open.

There's a difference between an owner and someone who manages the club. Well, sometimes there is.

I am suprised at some of the comments made by people here and assumptions as to sport success doest not equate to business success.

Couple of names for you. Jordan, Norman and Schumacher.

All of these guys make more money out of off court/field business than they do buy playing a game.

Norman has made more money out of one boat than his entire prize money to date.

Great sports people are often savvy and great gut feeling type investors.

As pointed out the business of being a pro athlete often comes with top flight advisors.

These advisors would run the club whilst Lazer would concentrated an pressing palms when in town.

Satish, I agree with you!! Please keep his sycophantic parents out of the club! Talk about riding on one's coat tail! Stadium doors wide enough?

Three possible local buyers; George F from Distinctive Homes, Gerard Family and Cooper Family. All three built their highly succesful SA businesses from nothing! Some "real world" savvy is needed combined with strong and dedicated basketball knowledge to make such an idea a great success.

Kent,

While I agree taht the 3 examples that you have cited have done very well you must agree that they are the exception rather than the rule.
All I was trying to say was that just because a person makes a lot of money from their talents in sport does not make them a good businessman. Just the same as a musician that makes millions from their songs it doesnt always mean they will be able to run a record company profitably.
And as for Norman's Boat - It certainly cost him more than all him combined prize money to buy but did he actually make that much on its sale?
It sems rather obvious that the time has come for the Sixers to become a completely separate entity to BASA and the 2 be run independently of each other. If as we suspect the sixers are a viable profit making organisation then there would be a long line of suiters ready to invest!

I've not heard anything negative regarding Andrew Gaze or Shane Heal having an ownership role in their respective clubs. Also, see Luc Longley and Perth as another example -- the worst you hear out of Perth is that AV is a tough/tight negotiator.

It might be that an investor is required to get the 36ERS and BASA separated?

Anyone with the money such as Hewitt could actually make a good profit from also taking over ownership of the stadium. It could then be used for other functions such as concerts or any other presentations that places like Thebarton Theatre is used for. It is a far superior outlet to Thebarton Theatre because of its layout and car parking facility and mid size which seats around 8,000 people. It is a great venue when the Entertainment centre is too large. I can't see any reason why the Dome can't be used everyday, 12 hours per day.

EC,

Isnt the extra use of the Dome" for functions and concerts etc prevented by an agreement with the government in order to protect the profitablility of the Entertainment Centre?

I guess this would be wiped out if someone took over and paid out the debt owing on the stadium?

I thought it was more to do with the Building of the Entertainment Centre and the Government giving money (taking off the debt) or a extension or something to do with the debt if they didnt hold concerts at the Powerhouse, so that these concerts would instead be held at the Entertainment Centre.

If a function is not big enough to take 12,000 people as is the case with the Entertainment Centre, then a small venue like the Dome would be more sensible. The Government could not have a say as far as protecting profitability of the Entertainment Cenre if it was privately owned. I don't know the details right now under BASA, but if the loan has to be repaid to the government, then wouldn't BASA take ownership and make its own decisions on how it is used? It seems to me that the Government wants its money but also wants to keep control over the use of the Dome.

If the government has such a say over the dome,why did they bother building both venues?
It would be great to watch the sixers play at the entertainment centre with 12,000 plus crowd.Im not sure if the seating layout is as good as the Dome's,but the facilities and the location of the Entertainment Cent is much better.
Its a shame(and a waste) the sixers can't use the Dome for many other events besides basketball.

The backroom deals and threats of the time would be a great thing for an investigative journalist involved in basketball to take up. There were many rumours at the time of building the Dome and the EC ......

BASA got sick of waiting for the government to build the Enter Centre. Does anyone remember when the 36ers played at the Convention Centre in a few pre-season games with a new white import called Chad Kessler amongst the team? In the end, BASA bit the bullet but the problem is that the government is holding the gun ..... still, and it's aimed at BASA's head.

If Ley Ley can pay off the debt, I'll start wearing a backwards cap and say "c'mon" every time I score a basket.

Maybe Lleyton could bring back the half court shot or those crazy dunkers using the trampolines for half time entertainment. Even murray magpie got upstairs a couple of times and threw it down hard and heavy.

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outstanding post - at those prices i would get a season ticket for my family.

That is the point. There are a huge amount of people who would love to go to 36ers games and would do so if priced accordingly.

The only gamble is if prices were reduced and numbers did not substantially increase. A report providing evidence to that effect is not worth the paper it is written on.

I am certain that reduced prices would see an immediate increase in crowd numbers simply because there already exists a huge community of ppl who love watching the 36ers but do not do so because of the price.

At the current prices they have tapped into the market of casual fans who will go to 3 or 4 games a season and lost a lot of the die hards who used to camp out the front of Apollo in the rain to secure tickets.

Gone are the days where your entire row (and the row behind) is full of the same people year in and year out.

Sell outs are the first step towards a return to power for the 36ers.

I said it before last season that the reduction in 2003-2004 would be nothing compared to this year if prices were not reduced substantially.

Instead, a decision was made to insult fans with a nominal reduction offset by an admin fee. This was at a time where Farley wasn't signed, Cat was in limbo, we had been out-bid by Melbourne for Stiff, missed out on Moore, stuffed up re Newley and insulted Rychart with his initial offer!!

I will say it again, and I'm sure others on this board will agree that crowds will get even worse next season unless MAJOR changes are not made.

Sorry to reply to my own post but another initiative that would be great to bring in would be a Vlahov/NCAA Uni-loonies competition

Can you imagine it. Every home game, 600 discounted seats for Adelaide Uni students on one side behind the basket, with 600 seats for say Flinders/Uni SA on the other.

Side that makes the most noise and is most creative (ie drums/wearing same colour tops/chants/banners/heckling) gets some free beer and bragging rights! LOL

No insult to the current cheer squad, but if this sort of thing didn't give the atmosphere a shot in the arm, I don't know what will.

Stephon,

Excellent posts. Agree with everything.

Next year is an election year. Maybe putting pressure on the government with petitions in marginal seats to wipe the BASA debt could work? Not sure what kind of number you would be looking at.

It is true the government would never bankraput BASA it makes no sense at all.

Quite frankly I'm really thinking that a petition for management to step down by fans is a good idea to organise before season ticket renewals are sent out.

Stephon: Any chance that you have enough money to buy the Sixers? Could be the best move by far at this point... Great posts.

//R

How much does a lawyer earn these days?

Not enough EC unfortunately. There is no rocket science in any of the ideas.

They have all been done before to some degree by successful sporting organisations that know a thing about selling tickets.

That is what is frustrating.

You can work your way through my list and current management are pretty much doing the opposite.

Excellent post Stephon, I know we both come up on the same side of the arguement, and have both tried talking to 36ers admin, with very little success, even though you come out of the meeting feeling very positive.

The 36ers could do worse than recruiting some of the posters from this forum to their marketing team.

We have already done the marketing work for free for them with the various ideas that have been made by posters on this board.

Will any of them be used by the people who are paid to come up with the ideas next year? No.

But best be sure that there will be several sandwich making competitions followed by some thrilling entertainment provided in the form of blind folded people wandering aimlessly around the court.

Money gone to great use. I mean the marketing/game night entertainment team out did themselves with the sandwich making competition. Fun for all ages and oh so relevant.

Does anyone else take entertainment out of the thought of these paid people sitting around a board room table coming up with the sandwich making competition and all looking at each other aimlessly saying, "mmm, sandwich making contest, great idea".

Next year, they should just get the floor wipers to sweep the court the entire half time break while dancing along to the 'Good Guys' theme song before the grand finale...wait for it...Mark Davis coming out onto the court to have a...half way shot.

Sorry for spoiling the surprise for all the die hard fans but didn't want any of you to miss out on buying season tickets. Pre-book now regardless of the price.

$10.45m.

Isaac,

Interesting to see Boti running this "story" this morning...

I thought it was just your wild imagination at work!!

Do you share sources, or are you his??

Avanti, have some confidence!

I first heard of the possibility re Lleyton a couple of months ago and the rumour flared a couple of times since.

I'd bet on a change of ownership coming up, but not necessarily on it being Lleyton (does seem like a decent fit though). I believe that Lleyton, McLeod and Maher are good friends, so it seems plausible that two or three of them would become involved in the club.

I've never met Boti and I've only exchanged emails with him a couple of times. He would have enough sources of his own!

First things first, Stephon, get your arse on the 36ers committee and shake things up a bit. I think that the fans need to have a representative on the board so that people with local/SA basketball knowledge can give a different opinon on issues such as ticket prices etc. They should be there to put across ideas, help look at different alternatives to what is currently being suggested and report back to the local basketball community on ideas of what management has suggested. I am not suggesting they go to rip the club apart and constantly create arguments.

These ideas Stephon has listed, are great, but at the same time have been going around now for a few years and have been suggested by others such as Isaac, DJ, Yogee numerously. I think a pro-active stance would be great, get some petitions/meetings going so that we can have people meet with management to discuss issues. In some ways, I can understand the (perceived?!) hesitance of Management meeting with fans when they must hear a lot of grumblings and calls for the board to be sacked. Reassurance that the sacking of the board is not what is being seeked at the moment, but simply more input by people which could genuinly help improve the state of basketball.

As for Lleyton Hewitt buying the club, i think the potential positives far outweigh the negatives.

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Well Yogee, at least you know how to get a reaction. Write another article, mention Bongohead as being a Bongobrain or something like that, and wait for the email and phone to go crazy.

I'm fed up with the 36ers (off court, that is). I just wish the North Melbourne Giants were still in it so I had another team to follow. The Twin Boulders, Mark Leader, Dave Graham, Wayne Carroll ..... would've loved to see Wayne Carroll take on Willie Farley!

Moses...I have met with Adrian (Bongo) from JABA, and trust me, the problem does NOT lie with Adrian, or JABA in general.

They are facing exactly the same issues that Isaac was facing when he was running the website for the club, in the fact that basically the staff responsible down there either have no idea, or just dont care, or possibly even both.

[Should declare my interest here - I am a paid-up Port Adelaide member.]

Maybe they should go down to West Lakes and spend some time with Neil Craig. I'm no Neil Craig fan, but you have to give him credit for rattling the cage and trying something different.

As for your defending Bongohead ..... nah, it's easier to lash out at someone and after his initial post here, it became fun and meaningful too!