With two divisions Yes, otherwise No.

Good, good....

Wait, in the next FIVE seasons??

I think double is definitely impossible if they want sustainability. Also with 16 teams they would have a very watered down league talet wise or they would need to up te imports

The discussion here should be about why the new CEO is making these sort of statements and how judicious that is, rather than debating any merits.

Brand new in the chair, limited background in the game, and a league still teetering (which everyone knows).

Why put yourself in a position of being ridiculed in a years time if Townsville are still shaky or in four years if there does not look like being any new teams?

Melbourne, Sydney & NZ SHOULD be able to sustain 2 teams each. Throw in Brisbane & another team and you are almost there

A new CEO comes in and makes positive statements about expansion and starts to sound like someone who has a vision beyond that of the length of his contract, how refreshing good on him.

Of course we need to start looking at how this can be accommodated, but I agree with his projections, at least on the face of it.

Plenty to consider if it was to go to that many teams, but I for one like the thinking of expand, don't sit still and just accept mediocrity because we have had too much of that lately.

Why is he saying this stuff HO? Well, I am guessing it is because we can't sit still and we can't go backwards, so what choice has the NBL but to try to explore options for expansion.

Positive press folks, let's get used to it...

HO,out of interest do you know how many other professional sport clubs across the codes are teetering??

50/60 percent??

I don't know, is a watered down league that bad of thing?

I mean a watered down league means the stars will dominate, creating headlines right?

When you look at the NBA, you have top 30 players then the rest of the league. And those top30ish basically provides all the entertainment really. Who really shows up to watch the role players.

Skull,

The answer is linked to the strengths of the leagues, not just the clubs.

If Townsville falls in the NBL, no one has the resources to save it.

If West Sydney falls in the A-league, then at least for a time, the a-league can sustain it I would suspect.

I would reckon that there are plenty of clubs borderline in many codes, but outside of a second team in Brisbane for NRL, there is not much discussion about leagues expanding generally.

The A-league went on the expansion plan, and it hurt them badly.

And Bear, again, that is just one of your more naive posts. This is not in by any definition positive press, it is speculative press, at best.

I would suggest, given the relative weakness of the league, and the difficulty of its rebirth, and the need to redevelop the fan base, that you are much better talking up the initiatives that are going to put the league back on a firm footing and talking about rebuilding your fundamentals than putting yourself in a position where people are potentially calling you an idiot in 12 months time.

As a media messaging exercise, it achieves nothing.

for the NBL to be successful and new teams to flourish they need to attack and plan teams for regions the bigger comps (NRL,AFL) are avoiding. This is where you will find money, sponsorships and a fan base crying out for something to do on the weekend.

My expansion would be as follows...

1.Brisbane
2.NZ (This is more important than a 2nd Melb team with television rights able to show this live)
3.Melbourne (would not mind if this was a city based in VIC other than Melb)
4.Central Coast
5.Tasmania
6.Darwin
7.Rockhampton
8.Newcastle
9.Canberra
10.Ipswich/Toowoomba
11.Broome
12.Sydney

I only put Broome in there as a possibility. TBH i dont think half of these places will get teams, but i would love to see it expand into these areas.

Broome is my 11th new team i cant see the NBL having 19 teams for some time so its only a wild thought

Come on HO, naive, really... I have been called a lot worse I guess, but maybe hopeful would have been more accurate. Oh and I know you were referring to my post and not me, so let's not go down that road again...

I am hopeful though, not naive, about an NBL expansion and I will give you some insight as to why, because I like you:)

See, I reckon that the new CEO isn't a dummy and in history you can often recall people who were ridiculed for expressing their dreams or speaking their mind of things others just can't see.

I am of the opinion that our new boss is a little more of a risk taker than his predecessors, a dreamer if you will, a visionary, but he's not going to rush into things head on like the old bull in the china shop.

So, avoiding the mistakes of the past in this league and others before it, learning from those mistakes and still possessing the longer term strategic plan to expand is to me something positive, I like hearing positive news like this.

If we expand to only 2 or 3 teams more than now in that 5 year period, will you and others call him a failure or a success? He would have achieved more in that time than his predecessors, so I would say it should be seen as a success. Maybe you have a contrary view, so be it!

Think about this, Bendigo is in the heartland of the state (Vic) and already has a successful WNBL team and SEABL team, they are about to expand their already impressive 7 court stadium into two more and maybe a show court if my mail is correct.

They will have poker machines, a huge stadium with rooms and venues for hire and could be a second or third Victorian team in that 5 year period...

Just one example of something others may not even consider that may happen and with it a surge in the sport's popularity, exposure and revenue.

I won't even speculate on what could occur in Melbourne with the Hisense Arena becoming available or the State Basketball Centre in Knox being underused, etc... etc... And this is just in our state down here in Mexico!

Think outside the square my friend, it won't hurt one bit, I promise...

I agree 12 teams, Brisbane, 2nd NZ and 2nd Sydney and melbs.
I would like to see 2 conferences.
North and south.

North: Brisbane, cairns, towns, Sydney, 2nd Sydney.
South: Perth, adelaide, NZ, 2nd nz, melbs, 2nd melbs.

Play conference teams 4 times, inter conference 2 times for a 32 game season!

Slightly more games means a couple more double header weekends but really is it that hard?

Finals could work:
1st in each conference straight to semi final
Quarters are 2nd and 3rd in each conference
Semis are opposite conference so 1st south would play 2nd or 3rd North.
Quarters and semi finals best of 3 games, GF best of 5.

I disagree with second Sydney team. Just wouldn't work we already know how bad Sydney is at supporting sports teams. They have done alright though with Kings but I think they are a one city team.

Bear. You've exhibited no thinking outside the square in your post and neither did the new CEO. You've done some blue sky gazing, but no outside the square thinking.... dreaming does not equal lateral thinking.

Bear. This is a league with 3 community based teams, which in any SWOT analysis would be seen as a significant weakness and threat. Only a few short months ago the league was on the brink of only seven teams. Plenty of people are suggesting that Townsville's community model is not as firm as the other two.

The problem is not whether the league can expand in the future, or where. The problem is the CEO doing such navel-gazing only a few weeks into the job, when his corporate, media and broadcast partners, never mind all the other possible partners, have limited confidence in the league's future. No one in the media or corporate world is sitting nodding their head saying those comments have any credibility at all.

If the league has ten teams in 4 years but has lost Townsville (or another) along the way then sorry, his statements look like serious under-delivery.

My point is there is no need, for any audience at all, to be putting these sort of things in the market place when the league is again trying to rebuild. By all means, he should talk about Brisbane, then talk about Brisbane, and then talk about Brisbane, but all the rest, he should probably just STFU because if he delivers Wellington or Newcastle but not Brisbane, then he has failed.

Don't disagree with most of that HO, but I still like the fact that he isn't just sitting back and waiting for time to pass, at least he is offering some insight into a possible future.

Yes, always we need to consider the i's need dotting and t's crossing, not denying that lots of work will need to be done and maybe there isn't much detail in the sky gazing, as you have put it, however the thought process seems to be one which is at least heading in a direction we would like it to...

If you build it, they will come mate!

My thoughts on the matter here - http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/10/23/a-16-team-nbl-slow-down-there-fraser/

Overambitious expansion talk is something we've all heard before, so Neill would be well advised to steer away from that.

Not sure it's smart without tiers that let a top tier focus on a TV deal and big crowds. Talent isn't quite there otherwise. If a SEABL-type league came under the NBL umbrella, that's a different story, but I'm not sure they're managing the current smaller league well enough yet.

And I don't know if conferences really work (to ease travel) in a country like Australia so heavily weighted to the East and even more so if you add a second NZ team.

2 tier could really work. Have an A grade league and a B grade league.

For any team to enter the A grade league they would first have to prove them selves in the B Grade level.

Say cap the B grade league at $700k and the top team at the end of the season that has the required crowd average and minimum of top half on the ladder can go up to A grade.

Eg. Say a gold coast team want to re-enter the league. They would first have to enter division two with a slightly smaller cap and once they have reached an minimum average of say 3500 crowd over the season they can then apply to join the main league.

This would get mean country teams that don't quite have the crowd or money could still be very competitive in the second tier. And it would help to assure new teams entering the league have the crowd levels to be sustainable at the top level.

Also any team in the A grade level that dips under the 3500 for more then 1 season in a row will lose the A grade license and be forced to join the B grade until the levels are returned etc.

This will make sure teams dont "Die" but rather be relegated to a slightly less money costing league.

also on starting the league there could be a 1 season super season with like 20 teams, as they are all unproven with the smaller salary cap.

After this one season teams that are over the 3500 cap can then apply for the A grade league and the remainder make up the B grade league.

Interesting Baller, in your scenario do B grade teams have only 1 import?

Whilst I don't like your idea much I will admit the idea that B grade teams need to be creative to get their numbers up intrigues me and it could work.

I'd hope that we can watch B grade on NBL.tv as well but it feels like their will be a tremendous talent raid every off-season and I'm not sure how much players will want to be loyal to a B grade team year after year if they want 'big time' notice

I don't think promotion and relegation would work very well without a lot of planning. Teams elevated prematurely would not be able to compete.

Probably best to have it more like NBL and SEABL, and then only very careful movement between the two (e.g., maybe Townsville goes down to SEABL-equivalent and someone else gets elevated).

If it came to conferences, why not involve NZ NBL? It's reasonably entertaining.

What if the SEABL and the NZNBL merged to create the Oceania Basketball Association and teams from smaller cities like Gold Coast, Newcastle can start here and get moved to NBL if they have a strong supporter base and they're winning games. And a team like Townsville could get put there for a year to regroup with a smaller cap and get put back in when they're ready.