Surprised me too. Have had a couple of average seasons though. They have traditionally had a few quite expensive seats that would dissuade a sell out.

my guess would be that patty helped but isnt the main driving force behind this. i think there has been alot of fan faith restored now that they have a team thats in contention for some glory this season. if sixers started winning the crowds would start flocking back.

but yes agreed that stadium isnt really that hard to sell out, but i guess it shows how many people didnt want to watch them lose.

4.5 Million people. Stadium capacity 3500. 2 years to get a sell out.............Wow

Sad but true. Venue is small but you are close to the action. Tickets are not cheap. Parking is a pain and costs $10. Sometimes you spend as long getting out of the car park as you do at the game. Also the fact that it is far from the 'basketball heartlands' east of Melbourne make it an unpopular stadium.
On the positive side there does seem to be an extra buzz about the NBL in Melbourne this season. Anybody else noticed it?
Having the Boomers game here helped and the fact of having Mills and possibly Bogut playing on home soil is certainly a plus that has got the interest of many non basketball fans.

"4.5 Million people. Stadium capacity 3500. 2 years to get a sell out.............Wow"
Especially when people in Victoria keep boasting it's the home of basketball in Australia!
Obviously the club has lost the connection with the local players.

Look at the way the treated Corletto...........

IMO I think that it is more the price of ticket and location that keeps attendances low, no one wants to pay $30-40 plus $10 to park to see a nbl game on the wrong side of the city (I come from near bendigo so ideal for me and my mate but shit for melbournians not in moonee ponds) NBL & Seeeaaaamuussss! need to do a better job of making it appealing.

Oh! maybe raise the age of the melbourne cheerleaders it makes for really awkward viewing!

I don't quite get the hard location to get to from the East?

As opposed to Hisense or RLA?

Is just as easy to get to on a Saturday night (when most of their games are).

Straight down the Eastern Freeway past the cemetary and your at the zoo (free parking) short walk and your in the stadium.

As opposed to the sporting precinct that requires you to come in via hoddle street or through richmond!!

$10 parking is a bit rich considering the venue, but there is plenty of Zoo parking free which you end up getting redirected too as car park overflow pretty quickly anyway.

Agreed that driving to the stadium is direct from the East, but doing it at anytime on Friday nights is a pain when the road there reduces to a single lane.
Only discovered the free zoo parking after the regular park filled up at the Boomers game.

Biggest knock on NBL from non-fans is the price. You can go see a great game of footy at the G between two world-class teams for what? 10 or 15 bucks?

If you're a "sports" fan and not a "basketball" fan, why would you bother shelling out triple that for a league that would struggle to rate top ten in the world, when you have so many other world-class sporting options on your doorstep?

Mick, agreed. I was amazed at how cheap it is to go to the footy in Melbourne! Tigers should really drop their prices to fill the stadium more often.

Good news for the NBL in Melbourne. Mills is the best thing to happen to the Tigers in years. Even more so given the Tigers lack of PR and clear disconnection with grass roots hoops.

Melbourne Tigers play our of a very good venue for watching basketball, but it is in a horrible location, with tickets very expensive, and parking costs on top putting many people off.

I remember the days when Rod Laver sold out with 15k at games when Tigers vs Magic played. Easy venue to get to, cheaper tickets, good viewing.

Aussie Rules is the biggest sport in Australia and it's not even close.

You're an idiot.

Challenge Stadium is a pain to get to, expensive parking, ticket prices are near the same as above, but sold out/close to sold out most games with a slightly larger capacity and half the population

???

I also live in the East of Melbourne and it is a two hour round trip to go the the Cage. Then you have to pay $40 for an average seat (I buy the cheap ticket and move to a empty seat later on).

The basketball community is in Melbourne's East (Kilsyth, Knox, Nunawading, Dandenong, Waverley etc). If an NBL team play in the new stadium I would go often as it would take 5 minutes to get there.

AFL kills cricket. There are what 5 tests and about 10 one dayers played in Australia every year.

AFL has 200 games and broadcast rights worth a billion dollars.

Cricket is a sport followed in all states of Australia, but not sure its close to the biggest. The 20/20 game was introduced as test match games were dying.

Perth, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide its AFL....then daylight.

Bronze for $25 is still what 13 rows from the court on basket ends not bad seats IMO.

2 hour round trip from the east, yes. But so is MCG, Hisense, RLA, AAMI Park, Etihad etc etc.

The biggest downside to SNAHC is public transport, yes there is a tram stop and a train station there but all running out from city, need to get into the city and than head out again and do in reverse post game as you can imagine the demand isnt there so no increased services (Melbournians are used to Footy transport running constantly) 20 minute to 30minute waits for tram/train. Is time consuming coming in on public transport but doable.

Given the location of the SNAHC versus Hi Sense Arena, I am unsure as to why the Tigers didnt go for a bigger venue?

Or at least aim to get one of those unique type atmoshphere's which is open roof. They draw a crowd. Shame the centre only hold a few thousand. Its always a big deal when you can get a massive 8-10k crowd in for a match. Make a lot of difference and gets people into the game.

Oh well, Melbourne's financial loss

Teams at Hisense lose money most game nights, the Tigers make money every game night at the Cage. Simple as that.

Despite their on court success with titles etc over the past 6 or so years, the Tigers disconnect with grassroots level got wider and wider.

Mills is helping them turn that around - whether they like it or not!!!

I'm also in the eastern suburbs and getting to SNAHC is a nightmare compared to the HiSense or Rod Laver.

The big issue with getting to the Cage is perception. A lot of people have to go past the city, and in their minds it seems like a long way.

A two hour round trip from the Eastern suburbs by public transport might be true, but via car it is an easy trip. I come from the southern Mornington Peninsula and it is 1:10 each way, Friday nights a little longer on the way in.

I will be happy to have a new team that splits games between the city centre and Knox though.

Hisense rent required a crowd of 6,000 to break even. This figure is probably even more now.

The Tigers are operating out of a smaller venue for financial reasons and it's hard to fault them for that, but it does hurt the leagues growth.

Bring on the new Knox stadium and hopefully a second Melbourne team.