I don't care so much for big. Care more about quality.

i hope NBL will still be around in 10 years, Someone please tell me the first guys was wrong?

There is plenty of room for the NBL to grow. As long as clubs keep improving off the court and improve their connection to local grass roots and their communities then the NBL will see some success. And as long as clubs think big and aim for bigger arenas, bigger membership and bigger crowds - then success will follow.

The NBL operates on a shoe string budget, whereas the A-league (nbl's closest competitor) receives millions, spends millions, and loses millions and at the end of the day, their attendances are only double the nbls crowds on average. Both leagues crowd averages are inflated with Melbourne Victory and Perth Wildcats getting exceptionally high crowds in their respective leagues.

The gap between the leagues might seem large from the numbers and from a perception point of view, but the A-league is only a few big stuff ups away from being like the nbl was/is. And the NBL is only a few good decisions away from closing the gap.

A Brisbane and 2nd Melbourne team or Wellington side is desparately needed.

Wildcats fan, so you dont think the league will fold in ten years like the first guy you posted a reply?

A new structure is required and a junior development/AIS part of the league (in whatever form that takes) would help. Also some sort of association with Asia whereby income is generated from tv rights would be awesome. Of course this will likely not happen.

Jye, to answer your question - No I don't believe the league will fold in 10 years time. But in order to avoid that, massive restructuring of the league needs to happen.

Your original question was can the nbl be as big as the other leagues. I think we can compete with the other leagues, but the media needs to give basketball some coverage. They need to see that there is a basketball league worth reporting on. The NBL needs to work on ways to make it's product better so that it gets noticed.

I live in Perth, and basketball here has never been better. The Wildcats are bigger than the Glory (in my opinion and the opinion of others I know). Which other NBL club can say it's bigger than their A-league counterpart? Maybe NZ breakers? I notice that the people of Wellington are losing interest in the Phoenix.

Anyway - the league won't fold in 10 years time as it's better now than it was 5 years ago, so why should it fold? Constant improvement is the key.

Imagine if different sporting codes worked together and you could buy say a 15 game pass over 4 sporting codes. Or timing tthe 36ers road trip to Sydney with Adelaide united playing Sydney FC? Alas, another thing that will likely never happen.

i feel that they need to accually get the NBL name out there more, if you accually think about it, theres really no way new of people knowing about the league unless you stumble across it when its on t.v, there is no ads, harldy any merchandise in stores, or much coverage on news.
so if they would accually put some money getting the name out there, it would have a big effect on the popularity.

Jye back in the heyday in Sydney the players spent half their time at schools doing clinics and kids would get free tickets (then adults would have to buy their own at game). This was when 8-10k would turn up every game. As far as I know this no longer happens.

Curtley, I would love it if clubs from different sporting codes worked along side each other. Cross promotion is always a winner. Unfortunately, it will never happen as now each competing club fights for the same sponsors and crowds. Back in the 80s and 90s there was a greater community feel and you would regularly see cross promotion of teams. Now it doesn't happen as they are competing against each other. That's how it seems anyway.

I remember Bernd Stange (former popular glory coach) always raved on about the wildcats and how he loved them... Do you see coaches today doing the same thing? No.

At the very least, the clubs could do a better effort ensuring that competing codes don't clash on game day ( eg united not playing at the same time as the 36ers etc).

I want the Nbl to fold and go to a semi pro comp in expanded seabl/qbl/abl/wall/waratah/big v ectc

They said the NBL would fold in 10 years, 10 years ago and they will be saying it again in 10 years. The NBL has made modest gains of late... I expect it will continue to soldier on, it could be doing much better however. I am not sure why these clubs arent investing more into there marketing. only club having a decent go of it is perth

I want the Nbl to fold its a joke. Also most NBLers wouldn't get overseas jobs so Standard wouldn't drop too much. Imports would still be decent thanks to USA buggered economy.

Only the top 10% would play overseas. Salaries can still be decent at avg 50k

Blu shut up...

If they can get one more team they will be as big as the WNBL!

In terms of attendances or finances - NBL will never be as big as the A-League.

Probably currently about the same as the ABL - Australian Baseball League.

You can't generate interest for a competition when the best young players don't come back from college to play NBL - they now stay overseas.

The NBL was so succesful that they were responsible for every other sport lifting their game. NBL was first sport to be a national success in Australia. Other sports poached NBL staff to copy what they did.
The NBL had the big sponsors like McDonalds and Coke.
The NBL was the biggest national sport across Australia at one point.

And the someone thought it was a good idea to give Steve Carfino a microphone.

The league is damaged goods. Had Sixers tickets for over 12 years and stopped going about 3 years ago. Couldn't tell you who played for who these days.

The league is dead to me.

The big question is will the league ever become as big as Acie Earl?

Interesting we bring up cross-code promotion - Breakers/Phoenix will respectively be playing the Wildcats/Glory in the same weekend in Auckland (Phoenix do one game at Eden Park) and the clubs have worked out a double-header ticket for a very reasonable price. Mutually beneficial - great way to get the exposure up for both leagues.

Would be good if the league/clubs bothered more with promo and grassroots/community activities - the Wildcats and Breakers are streets ahead of the rest in those respects. But as someone said up the page, the NBL is growing modestly, it could be better, but it does have a future.

As an absolute worst case, I can see the NBA doing something similar with basketball as Major League Baseball does with baseball in Australia.

Junior participation rates are still high (way, way better than baseball for example). As a result I don't see basketball at a national level dying in my lifetime. At least not for any significant period of time, I guess there could be a transition period if/when the NBL in its current guise falls over.