Excellent Article thanks for posting.

You are right Anonymous. The league I think sometimes lacks that drive needed to get to that professional level.

Im sure Kim Welch armed with some new and useful marketing resources will really start pitching the Hawks to a wider audience. I wouldnt be surprised if that audience tends to be more family orientated, as that is exactly the Market the Wildcats have wanted. They arnt as concerned with the members of the public who are true BBall devotees but more with the families and kids.

Sorry, this post is irrelevant to the thread but it made me wonder, does anyone know where Simon Devlin has been over the past few weeks? I haven't noticed him at any home games so far!

Good to see people who have seen the inner workings of Perth's system finding front office work elsewhere in the NBL, it can only be good for the league.

Now can Perth send someone else from their front office to Townsville to become their GM and clean up the smelly mess up there?

Surely all the GMs would already be in constant contact or regularly meet about issues.

Marvin has been very involved at the NBL org level and in fact has stepped down recently.

What I find interesting about the article is the suggestion that the Community Model is 'survival mode'.

Wollongong was a Community Model and played playoffs.

Is it possible for a Community Model team to be 'professional and succeed?

Anyone have any insight into the workings of a Community Model?

According to Marvin's interview on the Downtown podcast, the various club front offices are in constant contact, sharing ideas.

Why did Nick step down? His term of employment there came to a close.. they have so many years of appointment and then have to seek the job again. Perhaps he decided it was time for someone else to step up.

What I find interesting about Nick is that he is from a Management ground, not a Basketball background and he really knew nothing about the game when he became the GM at the Wildcats.

How often have we seen people grumble at sporting clubs around World/Aus about such people being shot into clubs and be complained about because they dont know much about the game or rules. Personally I think its much better idea not to have them involved because just because they played basketball dosnt mean they know anything about running a basketball club.

"At Challenge most games were sellouts remember."
Not when Bendat and Marvin came in, they weren't.

"NBL has always done well in Perth."
The NBL did well in Perth from 87-97ish, and has done well in Perth for the past five or six years. That's about it.

"Bendat, Perth Arena and the Wildcat supporter base make Nick Marvin and co. look good."
Right, it's not Bendat and Marvin that have done the work to build that supporter base, the supporter base has worked to build Bendat and Marvin. That makes complete sense.

Wildcats' down years were from 98 to 2005, with the in-season resurgence in 99/00, resulting in an underdog type championship being the silver lining in what was a pretty lean era for the club.

The Cats were very close to folding at various times during that period. Crowd's were around 3000 ish at Challenge Stadium. Marvin and Bendat came on board and the club's re-birth eventuated.

So yes, give credit to Marvin, and give credit to Vlahov as well for keeping the club afloat. Cats were huge in the 90's, like every other club was too.

21 people on the staff at the cats FFS why so many. They are profitable and could be more profitable if they cut a few....
Game night producer. Is that seriously a full time job?
Graphic designer and SENIOR graphic designer. Seriously?
Merchandise manager? Video producer?
Events and game night manager, don't they have a game night producer?
More staff than players and support staff. oh wait they have 6 staff for the team.

"Game night producer. Is that seriously a full time job?"
Do you have any reason to believe they treat it as one?

Cats were only kept alive for many years by people digging deep into their own pockets, that's definitely one definition of close to folding.

Not over exaggerating at all. There was also that time when Vlahov as then owner gave the players an ultimatum - take a 30% pay cut or be released. Several players left, while some stayed. Alan Black was let go. This was 2004 after they made the GF.

The next year they went 15-18, probably averaged 3,000 a game and were ignored in the media.

Had they not made those tough unpopular decisions, they would have shut their doors for sure, until Bendat came on board. Vlahov did a great job keeping the club going which was all he wanted to do.

If they are paying the girl who does the voice over @ breaks in play.....I will pay for her not to speak.

Could be worth a few K a game....it's like nails on a blackboard.

"Game night producer. Is that seriously a full time job?"
Do you have any reason to believe they treat it as one?"
Check out the wildcats website like I did.

"If they didn't have those staff, they wouldn't produce the quality off court stuff which helps keep the members and fans interested, so no they wouldn't be more profitable."
That's a stupid statement to make.
By assumption then everyone else in the NBL is wasting their time then.

If you want to run a professional operation and fill the gaps, you need staff. You could do something simpler cheaper, but if they can afford it, go for it. No point sitting on their hands while the crowds are there. They're working to maintain it.

"Game night producer. Is that seriously a full time job?"
Do you have any reason to believe they treat it as one?"
Check out the wildcats website like I did.