Better uniforms & merchandise.
Shots from behind halfway are worth 5 points.

actually marketing it might help.....

having a TV partner that gives 2 shits might help too...

Jump balls for48 minutes.

I don't mind the idea of an Asian champions league type thing. Winning teams across the major Asian leagues play off for some Asian/pacific title or something. I think NBL should simply follow some things Soccer did in this country. As much as I hate saying it but Gaze might be correct, have a year off and completely restructure the league. Need a team in every major capital city at least. So much work to be done.

Have other teams on FTA apart from Sydney every second week to generate some interest in other teams-- I know, That's where the population is, but give other teams a go and they can show their skills and increase ratings & support as Port Power have done in that other game with a ball

Maybe new ownership for the league which apparently is on the horizon. Goodbye Nick.
Lets hope the current rumour is true.

Just watched a quick Dean Parker interview in regards to the NBL Situation:

http://extra.foxsportspulse.com/video/Sport_Basketball/R5a3V4czq_CX2pduoUhFbJPxTW_3tLJw/Adelaides+General+Manager+has+no+doubts+about+NBL/

3 second defensive ruling to open up the key and speed up the game and more specky dunks and blocks !!!

Comments about marketing and the league itself, whilst highly relevant, aren't really what I'm asking. I'm talking about the basic product, specifically to make it appealing to somebody who doesn't follow a team.

I like the idea of the defensive 3-second rule rule, freeing up the paint etc. Does it work in the NBA?

I also agree on jump balls. The possession arrow is boring and pointless IMHO.

I also wonder if they could shorten the shot-clock and alter defensive rules to make the transition faster? Perhaps eliminate the full-court press?

I also agree on the uniforms. Given they are all printed with modern techniques, why do they have to be so "monochrome"? And smaller sponsors logos, nobody o/s is going to care about HIF...

Hold the press- Dazz and I agree on soemthing so must be a great idea !!! 3 second defensive is a must !!!!

Hate the arrow with a passion.

A web site that looks like it was created this side of the year 2000 would be a good start!

Both the NBL and BA sites are utter shite!

- Replace the basketball with a snarling wolverine. I'd watch that.

- Each team should pick a theme for the season and play every game dressed to that theme. Still have uniforms but one team has to wear monkey suits, one team has to dress as Star Wars characters, etc. I'd watch that.

- Have bright lights on the rims that flash whenever a basket is scored. Worked in the Big Bash. And loudly play a short sample of Oh Yeah by Yello whenever a basket is scored. I'd watch that.

- Have three teams playing in the one game. I'd watch that.

- Shot clock lottery. Some times a team is given 30 seconds to shoot, other times they're given 3 seconds to shoot. I'd watch that.

Hahahahaha

Hold the press- Dazz and I agree on soemthing so must be a great idea !!! 3 second defensive is a must !!!!

What makes the NBL more marketable should not have anything to do with the actual rules of the game. The rules are there. You can't possibly like every rule, but that's not the problem of the NBL from a marketing point of view.

That's something you need to speak to FIBA about.

For the NBL to be more marketable, I guess they could start by taking themselves more seriously? Its too much of a cheesy "entertainment" package that is neither entertainment, nor is it sport.

While the entertainment is subjective, its probably considered to be quite poor in quality amongst older fans. When was the last time you were truly amazed by the entertainment? I can't say that I have, and I support the biggest and most successful club in the league.

Scale back the music, tell the announcers to shut up, find a balance to keep people entertained, while making the actual game the main event.

Lower ticket and membership prices and advertise this, particularly in markets that are struggling. Avoid giving away hundreds of free tickets that annoy loyal members, and replace this with cheaper tickets. 'Create Fan Appreciation nights' like in the NBA. Engage with the community. The NBL will be a much improved product then, and will come across more marketable.

And maybe the NBL could do with putting out a few more positive press releases, or good news, or any news that puts the league in a positive light, even if its a puff piece. It can't hurt.

What makes the NBL more marketable should not have anything to do with the actual rules of the game. The rules are there. You can't possibly like every rule, but that's not the problem of the NBL from a marketing point of view.

That's something you need to speak to FIBA about.

For the NBL to be more marketable, I guess they could start by taking themselves more seriously? Its too much of a cheesy "entertainment" package that is neither entertainment, nor is it sport.

While the entertainment is subjective, its probably considered to be quite poor in quality amongst older fans. When was the last time you were truly amazed by the entertainment? I can't say that I have, and I support the biggest and most successful club in the league.

Scale back the music, tell the announcers to shut up, find a balance to keep people entertained, while making the actual game the main event.

Lower ticket and membership prices and advertise this, particularly in markets that are struggling. Avoid giving away hundreds of free tickets that annoy loyal members, and replace this with cheaper tickets. 'Create Fan Appreciation nights' like in the NBA. Engage with the community. The NBL will be a much improved product then, and will come across more marketable.

And maybe the NBL could do with putting out a few more positive press releases, or good news, or any news that puts the league in a positive light, even if its a puff piece. It can't hurt.

As I said, the thread is NOT about how the NBL could be run better, it about how (if at all) they could make the underlying product more attractive, particularly to international audiences. There are obviously potential improvements regarding presentation, but the other component is necessarily the game itself.

And who gives a flying rats about FIBA? Not the NBA or Euroleague. FIBA rules are just a hodpodge of NBA & NCAA, usually implemented 1 to 2 decades late. The NCAA bought in the possession arrow to assist shorter teams in college basketball. It was never intended for professional leagues, and the two biggest leagues in the world don't use it.

Perhaps Dazz you should have called the topic of this thread how to make 'basketball' more marketable. Not the NBL. In my many years of attending NBL games, the number one complaint I hear is about the presentation. Not about the rules.

I don't like all the rules FIBA come up with, and I think basketball has probably too many rules. It's a very hard game to referee compared to other sports. But that's an issue with the game - not the league itself. And apart from the NBA, all basketball leagues around the world that follow FIBA have the same issues.

Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing..............oh and marketing!

There is nothing significant we can realistically do (outside of novelty things that risk devaluing the game) to attract markets abroad with an Australian-only product. Overseas audiences will watch their league and then the NBA. Some might watch the NBL if there was a player they knew here, but Europeans get more money in Europe and the Chinese get more money in the CBA.

We would either need to play games against Asian teams to attract an Asian audience, or make the NBL (or a Blitz league subset of it) into something interesting enough that it was seen as an experiment.

A superleague would bring Asian interest. NZ, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne competing against two Chinese teams, a Filipino team and maybe another from Malaysia or Singapore has to be worth 2-3 months of the Australian basketball schedule.

On the novelty thing, I'd love to see some sort of Blitz with bizarro tweaks. First to 100 wins, four points for a dunk, adjusted defensive rules, etc.

What D16 said, plus production quality. The quality of the on-court product is probably not that important to TV success, as long as you have enough highlights and emotional hooks to promote it effectively.

TV is rife with shows that rate really well because they're hyped to the gills by the broadcasters concerned and they have high production quality. They're watched by many people who would never watch the same stuff if it was happening in front of them without the glamour and glitter that hype and production add. Pick any of the celebrity based game shows that use moderately well known (at best) people as their 'celebrities'.

What seems to work is a sustained promotional campaign (marketing) to raise awareness and interest among potential audiences, plus investment in production quality - good direction and editing, sound tracks, scripts, sets/settings etc. Usually, that's enough to guarantee a successful show, ratings wise.

AFL works largely the same way. Continuous promotion on TV and other mainstream media, creating awareness of both the subject matter and the 'celebrities' (coaches, commentators and top players). High production values for the broadcast games. Job done. Look at The Footy Show.

Bear in mind it took nearly 15 years for AFL to really take off and start generating the huge rewards it now gets through TV rights. That really started in the middle 1990s. They had to weather the rocky road to establish Sydney team (by xfer of South Melbourne to Sydney in 1982), failure of the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy before mergin gthem into Brisbane Lions, persuasion of WA and SA to enter the AFL.

The AFL had consistent vision and strong, independent leadership during the formative years before the middle 1990s. They didn;t change the product on teh field that much. They focused on building a truly national presence that was long term viable. In particular, they had a strong, CEO-Chair relationship that stuck to a clear expansion strategy even in the face of strong opposition from the clubs themselves. e.g., Sydney's and Brisbane's financial support and concessions in drafts etc. to build viable teams in those locations, the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger.

So changing the on-court product will at best have marginal impact on its success as a TV product. The real gains have to be made off court, to make broadcasters and media want to invest in the NBL product.

Great post PeterJohn.

The simplest way to raise the profile of basketball in Australia is to host an NBA team for a couple of preseason games, eg Sydney vs Lakers. Take a page out of soccer's book - the EPL teams playing Australian teams are instant sell outs.

Of course I have no idea how practical that is, but with more Aussies playing NBA maybe they could influence their teams to go to oz. Utah vs Melbourne?

I agree, great post.

great post.

The thing with marketing is to create a sense of urgency. The AFL do it perfectly with the AFL constantly in the sports news in both the off and on season, the AFL logo being used by sponsors, and players constantly in the media. (and some former players in the courts....)

Get rid of the NBL and make SEABLE the main game with conferences say four so you have ground root identification with clubs and then have something like March madness about to begin where the best 2 from each conference play a do or die over tournament overtwo weeks to determine the Australian champion

TV is nearly dead as is paytv it is all about pull technologies, using internet that is the future

Also keep out private ownership of clubs or use the
South Sydney nrl model with the memebers having a right of veto

They could start by actually working WITH the media. Some teams are really good with working with their local and national media, like Cairns, Perth (to a degree) and Melbourne. But it always seems like the league is fighting to keep the media away. You have to jump through hoops (no pun) and that's even after you already have a relationship with them. This year has been the obsolete worst!

I would love to see the NBL embrace all forms of media Nat, because so many of the people who follow them, and the next generation coming through have such diverse ways of getting info.

Encourage people to talk and promote NBL in any way possible. Sometimes there will be negatives that come out of it, but you always have to have some element of risk to achieve gains.

To be honest, I'm not really sure I follow PJ's post...
It's all very well to say that Ten and the NBL should better market what we've got, but not only is that not what this thread is about, it's also somewhat redundant and/or tautological.

Naturally, if a local network pays for prime-time programming (eg AFL, BBL, etc) they need to advertise it heavily to get the best return. Unfortunately I think that NBL is seen as "filler" programming at best. My question was how can the same "filler" be sold elsewhere, particularly how can we make "Australian Basketball" something that people in China want to watch?

The problem is twofold and compounded. Basketball (viewing) is a minority (3rd or 4th tier) sport in Australia, AND the Australian population is far too small. Hoping for decent money out of an Australian TV deal is a bust.

PeterJohn was mostly talking about production quality, something the NBL has rarely seen. I thought you hit the nail squarely on the head PJ.

PeterJohn's post. - " I hate it !
because it's better than mine." Ernest Hemingway..

Dazz, PJ is talking about selling the story of each NBL season. This is the work of the league, each club and its broadcast partner.

Dazz - I realise I was a bit off topic. paul is right - I think the most obvious problem with marketing the NBL product tv is the quality of coverage, not the game itself. Think of how few camera angles you get, lack of timely replays, lack of insightful analysis (with some exceptions, notable because they are few and far between), poor direction (watching a replay of a foul while someone is scoring in real-time). These significantly devalue the game as a tv offering for anyone but diehard fans.

In saying all this, I think the game's design itself has its problems (to which some of my more eccentric posts in other threads testify). But those are more debatable and don't affect its value as a tv product anything like production quality and good marketing (D16's point).

Indeed, we do also need to improve the presentation, in cooperation with the broadcast partner. Whilst my question essentially goes a few steps further, you're right that there's actually no point toying with the product without fixing the presentation.

To Anon above,

The MLS did have a bit of a NBL feel to it about 12 years ago, but heading into its 20th year it is unrecognisable.

The A-League learned a lot form the MLS, but had (in scale adjusted terms) advantages in the TV domain, but disadvantages in terms of the things that hurt fledgling national competitions in Aus - population, stadium costs, overheads and expansion options.

I am not sure the NBL can learn much from th MLS as the NBL's weaknesses correspond with the MLS' strengths - putting aside the mind boggling difference in scale and scope between the two sports.

NBL needs to deal with overheads. Revenues simply will not be forthcoming.

PS: forgot to mention, MLS franchise aspirants are curing up to get a license also. The list of clubs with $500m + franchise cheques written and eady to post the the MLS is staggering.

Interestingly I had the opportunity to sit next to a parent at a BigV game on the weekend, who was there with a few primary school age kids watching a game they didn't know that much about. (I am refering to the Big V and who was playing etc...)

So, why did they come?

Well, the kid wanted his mates there with him to watch a basketball game because it was his birthday, they had a blast, it was a big game and plenty of people for a Big V game attended. They all sat together and were really close to the action.

But, what was not lost on me was the fact that all the kids play local domestic ball, they love the game and sat there enjoying some birthday food, at half time went off and shot some hoops, then sat and watched the remainder of the game with a great atmosphere and smiles on their faces.

Yes, marketing and leadership are crucial, but for me it all starts with grass roots!

i know it has been said but please someone make the NBL introduce 'Defensive 3 Seconds'.....it is the reason that the NBA has so many in game dunks and alley's……this single rule would change the excitement of the game straight away….