I hear ya, the media coverage is generally dismal with anything to do with the NBL. However you couldn't possibly expect much coverage with the pre-season tournament. Its not really at the top of the sports agenda right now. Apart from a few articles in the West and a few random mentions on Perth fm radio, I didn't expect any mention of it and that's exactly what we got! As for the NBL itself, their Facebook updates were pretty good I thought, and that's how I followed it.

Wait till the season proper starts, then you can complain about the lack of national mainstream news because it will largely go unnoticed then too.

Yep NO coverage in mainstream media of the Crocs winning the Blitz.

the NBL would actually have staff to be able to do such things as market the sport

It did make the Courier Mail here in Brisbane.

Truth is the NBL isn't so popular that it can knock off bigger stories. Here are the most read stories on the Townsville Bulletin after a weekend in which the Townsville Crocs won the pre-season event. Note that 4/8 stories are NRL related.

Petrol rip-offs are about to end
Cowboys fans boycott finals
Hooters grinds to a halt
Cowboys welcomed at airport by loyal fan base
Law nails dodgy dealer
No surprises, the winner is Sydney
Refs rob Cowboys for third straight year
Pizza at five paces

There is a story on the site about the Crocs, but if not as many people read it, why would the paper push it harder?

A big thing changed in the NBL off/pre-season this year and it had nothing to do with the two 'big' winter football codes getting in the way with hair brained gimmicks.

The FFA Cup launched and is halfway through its inaugural season. In addition to Fox Sports' live match broadcast coverage (1 game a round and all games live from the quarter finals onwards) their online and Fox News coverage has been great. Add to this that the dramatic knockout structure, live draws and 'david v goliath' games across the entire country and you have a very serious and compelling sports broadcast and news product. As an indication and without any advertising, the game last night generated ratings of 55,000 on Fox.

So, Fox/SBS A-League aside, Fox Asian Champions League aside and ABC Women's league aside (not to mention all the national teams) - open age, professional, club football has a fourth domestic broadcast product to market and, unlike the rest, it runs in the so called 'off season'.

The non-fox coverage of the FFA Cup in the press/online has been sensational also in both Fairfax and News Limited, while there remains significant room for improvement on FTA reporting on the tournament. The drama of the draw, the reemergence of grand old clubs from football's past (very few actually dies, but went into the State leagues) and the ability to explore that history while also covering the emerging 'young guns' has been tremendous for football and it is made for local reportage also. Importantly, all this was achieved without the need to go to any of the traditional, big A-League venues on the east coast that are tied up with AFL or NRL and cause football huge capacity constraints.

It is a serious competition in the 'off season' that is not just promoter friendy, EPL club tours or a confected domestic pre-season tournaments. It compliments the All Stars Game (thanks for that idea) but it is much better at generating ongoing media coverage across the off season than the All Stars and the Champions League are given the small number of teams involved (1 rep and 3 club respectively).

Interesting to note also that significant sponsorship dollars (Thank you Sony) are now going into the National Premier Leagues. The national SECOND their men's competition is the next big media product in the football cue. Keep an eye out for it.

If the job for the NBL owners selling a pre-season tournament to the media wasn't hard enough - the arrival of the FFA Cup just made it much, much harder.

Basketball Australia needs more domestic club basketball products that are serious competitions. It cant just rely on the NBL to do al the heavy lifting. It needs to start looking at state/sub-naional and regional leagues in a different way.

DEVELOPMENT of the controversial Hooters Restaurant in Townsville has stalled again after 12 months of continuous delays.

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/development-of-the-controversial-hooters-restaurant-in-townsville-has-stalled-again-after-12-months-of-continuous-delays/story-fnjfzs4b-1227066060230

Nnnnooooooo!