Strange, there are hyperlinks to spam pop-ups in this post. Same thing happened at Ozhoops overnight.

(Sorry to hijack the thread, just pointing it out to Isaac)

Posters - and the League, I suspect - need to define what they are talking about when discussing entertainment/being entertainers.

The key is what happens on court, not the hoopla that goes on around it. The peripherals are important, but they need to support the game; not get in the way of it or distract from it.

In cooking-show parlance, the game must be [and be allowed to be] the hero/champion of the 'dish' that is a night at the baskeball.

"was that the issue with Bevo and Marvin?

Marvin wanted a more entertaining game style? "

If you read the article, you'll see it had nothing to do with the brand of basketball they were playing.

Its pretty simple the NBL is a business. Ask your kids if they remember the game or if they remember the experience of being at the game. If you want the NBL to be successful you have to bring in the experience as well as the sport.
Goto an AFL game..theres no downtime between entertainment, it might be crap but somethings ALWAYS happening. Keep people entertained and they come back.

"The key is what happens on court, not the hoopla that goes on around it. The peripherals are important, but they need to support the game; not get in the way of it or distract from it. "

The "peripherals" are what bring in the crowds, if you wanted to go see a basketball game and only a game you would visit local leagues for $5. The NBA isnt successful because it has the best players, its successful because it represents an entire experience. The lack of rules and proper referering highlight this the most. The thought that its just the basketball is niave at best.

Can't say I agree with skud at all on that one.
During times when the game is not in progress there is a lot more other stuff happening at Wildcats games than there is at the Dockers or Eagles, which have 2 x 5 minute breaks with nothing happening in the way of entertainment and a 20 minute break with only a junior match & some auskick games, which most people don't watch. The breaks are all about either consuming beers/food or relieving one's self of previously consumed beers/food.

I agree that peripherals are important to basketball, but only because the basketball itself is followed a lot less closely by joe average than the footy. The peripherals are an edge that basketball can have over AFL, which can potentially attract for example kids whose attention spans aren't great for close to 3 hours of footy action but can deal with basketball that has a lot of breaks in play that feature entertainment & competitions.
It's an edge that basketball needs to take better advantage of. The Cats took some small steps this past season at Perth Arena, and hopefully they build on that by improving some of the things they do (eg. DanceCam. The American's do it well in the NBA. The Cats' version was half-arsed and a bit lame, but can be fixed) and adding some new stuff (such as making better use of the video screens).

... the occasional dunk & flashy move doesn't hurt either, btw. I think Nick is pretty aware of that too. I think this season's Wildcats has the lowest "wow" factor for a long time and it does hurt.

Big wins were largely boring for the home fans this season, and we had plenty of them. Throw in a couple of showtime moves and perhaps the perception changes a little for the average fan.
I'm a bit of a purist but even I'd like to see an alley-oop or an ankle-breaker move more than once every 2 months.

Yes, I think it's fair to say that we were the most bland team in the league last season. That can't continue if we want to keep filling Perth Arena, and Perth Arena by all accounts is very expensive to play in so we do need to keep the crowd levels up.
You don't want to be a losing team. Everyone would rather win. But I suspect that an exciting 16-12 team would keep more bums in seats than a bland 22-6 team.

The wildcats sent members a survey via e-mail after the regular season wanting to know our thoughts on absolutely everything from the court side announcer to the price of food to the length of games and if we gave under 6/10 then they wanted to know why we gave such a low number...

I'm hoping what the Wildcats are doing is taking this feedback and seeing what NBA organizations have done to rectify any issues.

With the mega stadium there for us to use I'm sure it's more a case of half time entertainment and promotional ideas and other ways to interact and excite the fans.

Say what you like about the Perth Wildcats style last season, I thought it was the best fun I've had in a very long time and I can't wait to be a member again next season

Can't believe this ended up with getting James Ennis and the Championship... good times.

Wonder if the other clubs have done similar trips since.

Cats doing a terrible job of entertaining the punters. Pathetic crowds despite the bargain ticket prices. Oh wait

Gee, I have no idea how Perth has become the most successful team in the NBL, with the biggest crowds, when apparently our CEO is an idiot who knows nothing, and all we do is waste money on holidays to the USA?

Well he jacks up the prices of all the merchandise over retail to pay for his junkets.

He also gets bootleg stuff made to avoid paying royalties to the NBL and the other Clubs.

His lovely staff will also not comply with contracts when it suits them.

The CEO is not an idiot, he is actually just a conniving liar that will bankrupt a League to line his own pockets.

It's all about supply and demand boys, the Wildcats are one of the hottest tickets around. The club has set the standard.

They're run so much professionally than any other club in the league and they'll charge accordingly to not only survive but thrive.

Without the Wildcats, the league might as well fold. ;)

They need to charge more, gotta make 2 lots of payments