TBH, this is probably not a bad idea. No professional sports in Darwin right now would mean that the NBL team would generate some good interest.

i feel like as a business Darwin would be more successful than Brisbane in the short term.

For anyone curious, Townsville's population is about 170k, while Darwin's is about 120k.

No venue. Convention centre wasn't made for a drop in court and would lack capacity. You have the CEO of basketball NT saying Darwin needs a 5,000 person venue and Darwin CEO thinking he is ready to go.

Bit rough saying no professional sport when Territory Thunder is quite successful as a sub-professional team. Success in hockey with Stingers and a number of Australia's star hockey players. Australian champions in tenpin, squash and pool.

The true reality check here is next weeks warm up NBL game is played in a stadium that struggles to fit 400 spectators in. Not to mention a PBA team also gets put in a 400 spectator stadium. It is disrespect to the three teams that are all traveling here.

I would be worried about the ability for Darwin to provide a packed stadium to support a full time NBL team of this is the projected attendance for this weeks games

They should merge with the Alice Springs team.

FM - Marrara indoor stadium seats up to 1500 pax last time I checked. No idea about Palmerston but I doubt it would be any smaller than than when they play at Starplex in Gawler or wherever they play in Mt Gambier for warm up games. I wouldn't say that is disrespectful to schedule the fixtures in either venue.

As for the Darwin Convention Centre, as some of you may recall the Perth Wildcats played a few seasons with some home games in Darwin. This was back when Vlahov was running the show. From memory he was in talks with the NT Government at the time to put a team in Darwin based out of the new Darwin Convention Centre. Of course the NT being what they are decided that Basketball was not what the convention centre was for so they refused to build retractable seating into the centre. They did make the offer that a potential NBL team could rent the space and bring in their own seating for each game.

Next thing you know the NT Govt are scratching their heads wondering why Singapore gets a team and the Wildcats have moved on from there regular Darwin trips. From memory the Wildcats games were regular sell outs at the 1500 seat stadium. Now is a 1500 seat stadium selling out every week enough to support a team? I doubt it but it would be a good start.

Darwin's population doubles in Southern Australia's winter with transitional workers and tourists so the 120K number is misleading. I'm guessing it would always be quite a bit higher than that.

I am all for putting a team here and a team in Tasmania as well... I think we have enough talent in Australia to support these teams players wise.

What is the difference in people living in Darwin to Cairns?

I would imagine you would pigeonhole them as being roughly the same with the same tropics type lifestyle and basketball in Cairns WORKS so good onya Big Joe.. I hope we see a team within 2 years playing out of NT

I think there should be a team here, but in reality. I would think a 5,000 seat venue would have to come first. In my opinion, the NBL should be looking to only consider new bids where there are 5,000 seat stadiums.

They should base the team in Darwin and play their home games in Wellington, NZ?

A joint Joe-Mills bid? ;)

good discussion i think the following teams in this order are all a chance to come back next season particularly with the great news that fox sports are covering all games in HD

darwin
brisbane
tassie
dragons
second perth team
wellington
west sydney
hunter valley region
newcastle
south west wa team
canberra

only problem would be either you make the season longer or squeeze more games in but i think doubleheaders every night would not be out of the question

Lol a south west WA team... There is not enough people in Margaret River, Busselton, Bunbury, Albany regions and a lot of fun things to do down there that it would be a total waste!

Norwood would be a better option... Do they get the type of hate that Port do from a footy perspective ?

Whilst I agree that it's all about the sponsors, you have to give sponsors a chance with a team in their vicinity ie CQUniversity sponsoring Cairns... Whilst Cairns is very much North Queensland it's acceptable to have that sponsorship but if it was on a Melboyrne United jersey then that would be ridiculous.

Mostly we see James Boags and Cascade as sponsors of all things Tasmanian so maybe they can be sponsored by others down there and would anyone be concerned if Darwin had 'you'll never never know if you never never go" type advertising on theur uniforms... I'm excited and I wonder what colours they'd use up there... Could we have another team called the Suns or would we get an original name

NT seems a popular conversation point. Now the CLB are talking about them. Lets see if it goes anywhere, though.

http://www.aussiehoopla.com/champions-league-basketball-bring-game-top-end/

lol capt obvious!!!

The only NBL you will see in Darwin this year and the crowd was about 900.
Both rosters nearly at 100% but could be considered as full strength as throughout the season you expect to have players miss games through injury.

Is this a lack of Darwin people wanting to see NBL, a lack of advertising in the correct domains or other factors? One that comes to mind is grand theft basketball which was reported last year in local papers. Outsiders from the close knit basketball community see the sport is not well managed and money leaking through the cracks everywhere. Not to mention the recent implications of travel fraud and the links that has to the basketball boards. Similar to the issues discussed on this forum in relation to the Sixers, all avenues of basketball in the capital suffer from poorly updated websites and social media.

Is basketball in Darwin over managed? 4 associations sharing the same playing base in a population between 120-150k. 1 thing for sure, there is enough business money in the town to support a local team. With the NBL running during the wet season, indoor air conditioned sport could hold a crowd.

Maybe the future with the NBL in Darwin is not through the local associations but keeping it strictly a business team. Market the team as a great night in the city when it's just too hot and too wet to be anywhere else.