Out of interest if you take Perth out of the equation then what is the average?

Following in Townsville is at an all time low, FWIW.

Without Perth is 4300-4400. If you also take Townsville out of it as the lowest drawer the average is 4500 which is prob a good reflection of the overall.

Compared to the same point last year Perth are up 7000, Melbourne 1100, New Zealand 1000, Wollongong 600 and Sydney 200.

Adelaide are down 800, Cairns 400 and Townsville 400.

It's good overall, now we just need more people to watch on TV so the league can take some bigger steps forward.

Its sad isnt it. none of us want to see this great game in this state. I still dream of the good old days of the tigers v magic at the tennis centre, the bullets v kings at either the kingdome or Boondal infront of 12,000. Oh how i wish my name was Marty Mcfly and drove a Delorean. 1992 here we come

NBL should capitalise more on the boom in popularity of the NBA in Aus over the past three or so years, like they did in the early 90s. 5-10 years ago you would walk down the street of a big Australian city and NO ONE would be wearing NBA jerseys.

Fast forward to now and every young hooligan is rocking a Derrick Rose or Lebron James jersey.

Not saying these guys are hardcore fans, as most are just following a fashion trend like the sheep they are. But at least there is now a pre-existing trend in the market to take advantage of, whereas in the early 2000s no one in the "non-hardcore-basketball-fan" demographic in Australia gave two tosses about basketball in the NBA or locally.

The question is, how do you cash in?

it would be nice to see more australians in NBL jerseys than NBA jerseys

Paul's numbers are great, because they expose why using overall crowd averages is a not the way to gauge success.

This is a league unfortunately that, with 8 teams, is only as stable as its weakest teams. It's weakest teams are Adelaide and Townsville right now, who were not so long ago league darlings in terms of crowds and avidity.

Adelaide isn't really a problem in my opinion, the fans haven't dropped off that badly when you factor just how bad the team has been for the past several seasons. Once they find some on court success people will return.

Townsville, on the other hand, have made the playoffs for the past six years and still the numbers keep falling...

Mick in terms of cashing in from the NBA I think legally the only thing the NBL could do is have their season opener the day of game 7 of the nba finals, hence interest is at a peak.

Regarding the average increase in attendance, might this also have something to do with there being less teams then there were in 2008?

Brisbane, Singapore, South Dragons, Sydney Spirit/Razorbacks and Brisbane were all in the league in 2008. If you halve the amount of teams in a city (like happened in Sydney and Melbourne when the teams mentioned above left) won't the amount of people attending the remaining teams games rise?

Sure you'll lose a portion of the fans who were one-eyed supporters, but there will also be a lot of people who love basketball and will go to whichever team is still playing in their city. And it can be argued that the defunct Melb & Sydney teams weren't around long enough to grow a loyal following.

As for Facebook, I'd attribute that more to growth in the popularity of social media than the popularity of the NBL.

if the Jerseys were made by Nike, Jordan Brand, Mitchell & Ness or Adidas of similar quality to the NBA Jerseys they would be more popular.

p.s. if my post above is overly negative, you can attribute that to my disappointment at the content of this thread.

When I read the title I thought it might be about Shaq or Yao Ming using the NBL to make their basketball comeback.

@Beekayz - not sure if srs?

Why did they hold the allstar game in Adelaide in front of a pathetic crowd when they know they would have got bigger crowds in say Sydney or Perth? What an embarrassment for the league. It's supposed to be a showcase of the best talent we have in Australia and the stadium is half empty. No Atmosphere what so ever.

@dribbler
THANKYOU! i was thinking this, the allstar game was easily going to be the biggest thing all season in the NBL (other than the final), yet it was infront of 4,000-5,000 people in a small stadium that wasnt even sold out.
everyones going on about adelade being the best basketball city in australia.
No, they have a terrible attedance

@PlaymakerMo serious in first post, not serious in 2nd.