Breakers had 7000 for a pre-season match against a Chinese Team so that figure prob isn't far off and may even get up to 8500 as it's the last week of school holidays here in Auckland.

I agree, my estimate was a little off.

Imagine if the general public knew the NBL even existed, maybe even break that down to the general sports fan.

According to Ticketek, everything on the lower bowl of the Arena is "limited availability" except Gold which is "single seats only". When you search for a block of ten, best available you get Silver Section 312, which is (I think) pretty close to the last block to fill. Bronze is up to 302 (those odd shoulder blocks on the wings of the stage stand), and Nickel is back to block 309, the far corner. I don't think 4th tier will be open.

With four days to go and the marketing kicking in, I am rather optimistically hoping for ~12k.

Man alive we need to win this one though, and in style. I think a lot of people are holding off on the memberships to get a sample of the new look Wildcats.

I am not sure about the Wildcats this year. Does anyone know how many people need to attend Perth Arena on game nights for the Wildcats to break even?

Also just found out that Crocs tckets go on sale tomorrow. It is a bit lat, don't know how many willgo to their game on Saturday. Anything under 4000 is embarrassing.

"Imagine if the general public knew the NBL even existed, maybe even break that down to the general sports fan"

How does the general public find out information for other sporting events? It seems to me the general public is able to do their own internet/website searches for relevant sporting information but when it comes to the NBL they expect to be spoon-fed the schedule and start times without doing anything for themselves.

@NBL Fan,

The rough-cut figure I was told was approximately 7,500. Obviously there will be a lot of fudge factor depending on which sections sell out, how thirsty everyone is, etc...

Situation, I have ten guys, (young at that) in my office that love, follow and play all sports other than basketball, we also support many sports and sporting organisations but not one of these guys know when the NBL seasons starts or if the NBL is still around without myself keeping them informed. I am not having cheap shot at the NBL, I love and support it and believe the new NBL group have done a great job thus far. But this is how the gereral public view the NBL at the present time.

Yes, but my point is, why don't they look at the website if they want to know? How do they find out other information for sporting codes? I understand the market share for NBL is minimal but for fans to expect the information to slap them in the head when its actually pretty easy to find stuff out is a pretty poor criticism.

Currently, I know that the NBA season starts either end of October or early November. I don't know for sure what the exact date is. I am going to find out for myself though.

I agree with The Situation, is it the NBL's job to educate these people in the ways of www.google.com?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't take a water trough and shove it into the horse's face.

I can see both sides, here is my example (oh, and I hope the NBL does this, I will wait and see)...

At the start of the AFL season, the NRL season and as we are now seeing it the A-League and cricket season for example here is what you will observe in the local news papers:

1. At least a two plus page spread of the local game/games featuring the home teams (Melbourne if in Victoria etc...)

2. At least another two or so page spread of the team lists and some stories, information and pics of all other games for that weekend (including Friday night).

3. Stories in the lead up, draft picks, young players coming through, journo's writing up all manner of news and points of interest about international players (A-League and cricket), players at new teams, crossing over from team to team, press on star players etc...

Now, here we have an international sport with all of the above and at least as much as the A-League or cricket as far as international scope is concerned, but where are the stories, where are the team lists highlighted by a two page spread with big colourful photos and where is the sport of basketball being represented by main-stream media?

I get the internet and how you can search for this stuff, don't get me wrong I am not being negative on what the NBL is trying to do with TV, social media and technology, but the sports fans out there want to open a paper and have a read of what's happening while they sip a coffee and munch on a scone...

That's what I think the boys in the office are missing out on!!

I'm not disagreeing with that and hope one day to see our share of the sports media improve.

And it isn't all about the NBL either, let's face it they can push and push but if the media moguls are more interested in cricket and soccer they just won't put the same effort into it or give basketball a fair or equal amount of space...

I bet the stories and news are out there, circling in a holding pattern, they just need a landing platform!

As they say, you can lead a horse down a runway but you can't make him fly because horses don't fly, idiot.

Townsvilles home games against cairns always get topped up by taipans fans who drive down, so it should be one of their bigger crowds for the season.

FWIW Townsville averaged 3600 last year, last place in the league with wollongong not far ahead. If they dont drastically improve that number I cant see how they will be viable beyond this season.

How many do you think they will get Mick?

Well I know Perth invested in 28 different bus/bus stop advertisement designes and have been running a picture taking comp with a free polo on offer for everyone who snaps 3 different ones.

Plus the lighting pole banners, plus full page advertisements in community and state publications; yet there are still people who claim to not know the NBL/Wildcats still exist.

I have had people who I have spoken to about the NBL for years suddenly turn around and say "oh is that still going?" and laugh. Some people are just obstinate and contrary for the sake of it.

As Situation suggested there is only so much the NBL/a club can do before people need to do some research themselves.

There would be plenty in Melbourne who dont know much about the Storm, but certainly it's not an issue in the heartlands for those two sports.

If they don't know the NBL exists then they aren't the fans we should be going after.

While the Storm gets a great free media ride from their owners, outside the media their overall reach in Melbourne is still pretty small, not much bigger than the Tigers when they made four straight grand finals.

Some people get involved in conversations, others live their life in an argument.

Paul was simply making a point that not everyone in melbourne knows about the storm despite playing in the high profile nrl. That would be understandable in a city where AFL comes 1st, 2nd and 3rd all year round, but they're well known in rugby hot spots.

They enjoy a few easy rides with the media that gets them coverage in the papers, but it doesnt look like that many people in melbourne take notice of the articles...

Idiots, mainly.

No one cares about crowds? If thats so then no one cares about a healthy league - or any league at all.

No crowds means no sport.

Sorry, I just wanted some peoples thoughts on the upcoming season's popularity how everyone thinks it will go. Sorry about a bad topic.

Don't apologise to that anon clown. It's a reasonable discussion, considering the league is being revamped.

@Mystro/the situation

"I agree with The Situation, is it the NBL's job to educate these people in the ways of www.google.com?"

If the Nbl is happy with the current level of fanfare, don't bother going the extra mile.

If, however, you want the nbl to attract a wider audience, I would not endorse the notion of discounting a market sector on the basis of their lack of interest or ignorance. To me, this appears to be a very small-minded perspective.

@nbl fan:

I think they wont be much better than last year's numbers. Prices are down but local media coverage has been poor and fan response to the community model also poor when compared to similar "floats" in cairns and wollongong. It also doesnt help that the crocs havent finalised their shit with the townsville entertainment centre yet and tickets are still not available for purchase a week out from tip off.

Hopefully as the season progresses people will respond to Dennis's blue collar style and people will jump on board. But I don't predict a great start, numbers wise, even with the renewed interest stemming from the restructure. They will have to prove they have also revamped the stale game night production and put a team that will earn their paychecks on the floor first.

I know I'm overly optimistic but I'm expecting big crowds for every game. We have New Zealand welcoming their back to back to back champions so that has got to be plentiful,

We have a reptile rumble so regardless of any issues the game should sell just on the rivalry and hopefully those that attend like what they see.

Kings vs. Tigers should get people to the game.

I'd be disappointed if we don't have 12000 to Perth Arena this Friday as 36ers drew quite well here last year and I can't see why we wouldn't get that again and it is a massive game for Trevor Gleeson as he would want our support from game 1 and hopefully he gets it.

I might be overly optimistic this round but their isn't any dull matchups that should play to 2500 or less.

Enjoy everyone

Andrew Bogut promotes the NBL more effectively than the NBL and the andthefoul.net guy is head and shoulders above the NBL and i'm guessing he has little to no money behind him.

I don't think anyone is disputing the league can do more to promote itself. I just don't think the target audience should be the people that don't follow the league enough to not even know that it exists. 80/20 rule.

The Situation, maybe they wouldnt be the NBLs first priority, but the target audience is essentially anyone that could be persuaded to watch the games.

Old timers that have been following the league since its inception probably weren't the target audience of the Allstar game in Adelaide, for instance, with someone like Reece Mastin performing per-game. The players I coach in Adelaide from last season couldn't name a few current (or even recent!) 36ers, so are they and their families by extension on the verge of being excluded from the NBLs target audience? I hope not.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the quality of the NBL and therefore the product itself. Putting bums in seats at games or telecasts allows the product to make the sales pitch.

5ish years ago, I was not certain of the NBLs existence, nor all that interested in finding out. Thanks to the FTA broadcasting deal gradually reeling me back in, I now avidly follow the NBL after years of allocating the same time and resources to following the NBA. I would never make the switch back thanks to the high quality product the NBL provides.

You just summed up my point - they wouldn't be the NBL's first priority, and nor should they be.

The way I see it, they have a limited marketing budget and resources. They can either keep the regulars happy and look to entice people back, as they did with you, or they can aim at the people who have no idea the league exists, which would take a hell of a lot more time, effort and money, and would probably alienate some of the customers that are already paying dollars to watch the game.

That isn't to say anyone should be excluded but going back to the original comment that I responded to, the people that say "my friend doesn't know the NBL exists, that isn't good enough" means that that friend already isn't interested in the league so the focus should be on pleasing the people that are interested.

"The way" the Situation is thinking is focus the majority of your marketing on people you are likely to win over. Makes sense.

I've mentioned this before on this site but at Perth Wildcats games you have your typical male demographic, you have retirees that have supported for years, you have plenty of young families and you even have young ladies that bring their girlfriends along to watch!

By mentioning this I'm simply saying that there should be no demographic that NBL shouldn't be targeting but if Situation is saying that he doesn't want resources spent on trying to get those that are ignorant about the sport for the sake of being ignorant then I kinda agree with him. There IS money to be spent on advertising and hopefully with each club talking to each other about how successful clubs do things that everyone can advertise more efficiently and we can get huge crowds each round

"you obviously don't realise that successful leagues like the AFL, NBA or English Premier for example don't think the way you do, which is why they are at the top."

You're talking leagues with billion dollar revenues, well advanced beyond the NBL, and not the piddly ten or so million the NBL deals with. What do you reckon they did first to grow? Got the product right and sold it effectively to their already loyal customers, or tried to entice people who had no interest in it in the first place?

As you already know everything about the business world, I guess you've already seen the numerous articles about the law of the "vital few."

Exactly, paul.

I don't necessarily agree with the concept of 'looking after the real fans' and not being concerned with the rest of the sport loving public.

IMO the broader the NBL is promoted the wider the net and the more fish we can catch.

Any promotion will always keep the avid fan happy because that fan is already into the NBL and will no doubt be all over the news, the highlights, the schedule and everything else related to the NBL.

But, promoting only to those already converted does little to expand the league I would have thought...

I am not religeous, but a guy from Nazareth a few thousand years ago didn't worry about those who knew nothing about him or his followers and ended up with quite a crowd (be it at his alleged crucifiction, bit of bad luck there).

My point being perhaps that it isn't only money that is needed here it is maybe some more faith in the product and a little inspiration!