New app has been flawless for me and is perfectly priced. League's efforts on Twitter and Instagram have been excellent IMO. Commentators have been solid (have missed CJ, so I'm ignoring that) and enthusiastic. Most teams have been really active on social media and using decent graphics. The promo stuff put out by the league is very good. TV deal is with a provider who actually seems to want to be involved, unlike previously. Billboard ads appearing around the country.

Only things that are subpar IMO are the stats and the site, and a lot of that is due to the stupid structure they used. I imagine they were led astray by their provider and I doubt they can justify rebuilding so soon.

Oh, and they've formalised the addition of Brisbane.

New font bro

i believe in this kestleman bloke. its a marathon not a sprint but things are undeniably on the right track. nobody has impressed me more in the nbl front office for 20 years than this bloke.

Yeah I happen to think things are going heaps better. Haven't had many issues at all with any of the NBL stuff, besides CJ haha and the missing out on tonights 1str qtr... I've been patient for 20 years, a other 6months wont hurt. No need to focus not eh negatives too hard, thats been the downfall with ball fans for years!

*old man screams at cloud* the season is already 1.2 weeks old! Why isn't everything perfect!

We have people that care running the league. We have live TV, internet, and app games. Every game. Things are great now. They will get better.

Relax.

I think the problem is that many people expected Miracles from LK's involvement, and perhaps to some extent he assumed he would just do a much better job,
but the reality is there are no magic fixes.

LK injected what was it $5M of his "own" money and that bought him control and gave the NBL some stability. But he's not the Messiah.

The NBL live app is typical. Everyone poured shit on the old NBL TV. so in his fervour to "re-brand and reinvigorate" that has been axed, and only half replaced.
Simple fact is that the old NBL TV was superior simply because it actually existed. Now we're stuck watching it on phones with a 7 inch screen restriction.
People talk about "quality," what a joke, obviously it takes a fraction of the data to stream a 7 inch video.

And why the rush to make people pay (even to watch ads) when they haven't even got the bugs worked out?

Everybody sat back waiting for the wonderful FTA deal LK was going to deliver, and of course what we have is a joke.
By his own admission, LK is a control freak, and I think there was a bit of arrogance in play, believing that just because he was at the table he could get a better result than Marvin. Simply fact is there is no money in NBL for FTA, doesn't matter who's sitting in the chair.

The Foxtel commitment, of every game live, IS a good one, but that's pay tv. Fantastic for somebody who already subscribes, useless if you don't want Foxtel.
(I already pay for season tickets, not forking out even more again to Fox JUST to watch the away games.)

As for the website, well yeah there's "re-branding" and then there's "wasting everyone's time."

But hey, the NBL logo is different, that's gotta count for something.

Did people expect free to air TV to pick up the NBL and play every game? I'm sorry, but that's not realistic.

Again. We get. Every. Single. Game. Live.

Be it app, or foxtel.

You think Channel 10 was interested in providing that same deal? 9? 7? ABC? SBS?

Is it perfect? No. Is it the best we could hope for right now? Actually, yes.

Just to re-emphasise, my point is that there are no magic fixes.
If the NBL was uber-profitable and able to introduce all these wonderful things, they would have done so long ago.

Even with LK, last thing we want is him splurging his $5M in the first year. Hopefully his investment can give the NBL stability for several years.

If you want to complain about the TV deal despite it being far better than could realistically be hoped for, go elsewhere.

@Isaac:

New app has been flawless for me and is perfectly priced.

League's efforts on Twitter and Instagram have been excellent IMO.

TV deal is with a provider who actually seems to want to be involved, unlike previously.

No need to focus not eh negatives too hard, thats been the downfall with ball fans for years!

Things are better than they have been for years and years, its going to continue to evolve because the people in power now, want it too. Enjoy every single game on tv or livestream. Not much else you could ask for not even 2 rounds in! Koberulz and a few others maybe volunteer your time if you have to much of it too find every little hole in near perfect turnaround! I was annoyed the footy was on etc but its all new, even for the league, so you laugh it off and sure enough it ends dup being fine... teething people.

Seems to be a lot of people drinking out of a half empty glass here.
Rome wasn't built in a day.

For us Aussies living abroad its absolute crap.

I payed my 60 Dollars which is lil less than 30 Pounds so I don't care about the price.

Te constant buffering and Drop outs are really starting to get to me.

Keep hating mate. You should put your energy into something like the A League where they love a good sook.

Beggars can't be choosers - be thankful for what you have.

I don't think it's hating to point out things that are flawed.
Things aren't perfect yet. There's no need to pretend they are.
There's also no need to throw up our arms and give up.
It's very early days in the LK reign. The direction and the intent seem positive to me. As long as it keeps trending in that direction then I'll be pretty happy.
If they stopped right now, and what we have today remained the status quo for the rest of the season, then yes that would certainly be worth feeling disappointed about.

What Luuuc said. Sums it up.

The biggest issues for me:
The huge website rebuild that made the website worse.
Refusing to use any highlights anywhere anyone might see them.
Zero games with a properly functioning scoreboard.


And also hugely annoying, but probably more for me than for most, is the incorrect name pronunciations.

If they stopped right now, and what we have today remained the status quo for the rest of the season, then I would be bloody appreciative. It's an outstanding improvement on what we've been dished up over the past few years. People need to stop whinging about perceived flaws that aren't of any concern. Our league was on life support six months ago, yet now that it's received some much wanted love from Larry K, it's time to play the same record again. Boo-hoo.

It's not the NBA, it's not the AFL, it's not even at the level of the A-League and in all probability it never will be. As a result, thinking our game will be presented in remotely the same manner in the current time frame is unrealistic. The corporate support just isn't there to vindicate further investment of that magnitude.

Enjoy the league for what it is and the shot in the arm it's been given.

The name stuff doesn't bother me.
In most cases it is commentators who are doing a pretty good job of calling games, but these players are new to them. So I think that will naturally sort itself out over time.
Andrew Gaze spent his life in this league and was still hopeless in that department. That bothered me.

The website, I agree with you on. I'm not a fan. I don't find its layout intuitive to use, and for such an elaborate design there's not much in the way of content. It's not a big deal to me since I only really use it for the game score ribbon at the top anyway.

Highlights are something I hope they will improve on. Now that every game is covered in HD, there is no excuse for not being able to get good highlights packages out. They're already doing well with tweeting individual highlight plays in a timely manner. Compilations should be the next step. And yes they should be free to view on the app. Again, the app has only just happened, so hopefully that tweak is coming.

I don't quite understand why there's such an issue with getting the scores & clock on the broadcast. I really thought that would be Sports Broadcasting 101 and therefore a given for Foxtel.

It's not just about getting highlights out in terms of social media and things...none of the commercials contain highlights. The opening for TV doesn't contain highlights. The pre-game segment doesn't contain highlights. The halftime segment doesn't contain highlights from any games other than the one being broadcast at the time.

And as far as names...is it that hard? The NBL put 'Introducing...' videos for each team on the app at the start of the year, featuring each player saying their own name. All any of the commentators have to do is watch the two videos for the teams in the game they're about to call, and take note of any odd pronunciations. Matt Russell was getting Te Rangi right two nights ago, indicating he'd done his research, which was fantastic and I made note of it at the time. But tonight, Voss mispronounced both Djeric and Markovic repeatedly. Rucker got off to a horrible start for Adelaide-Perth, mangling Jervis, Jawai, Prather and Kenyon, but he got them all right in the second half so he'd obviously done some research during the break.

But that should be mandatory pre-game stuff. Not halftime, not never.

It was particularly odd to hear Tommy Greer botching Majok, Goulding and Hadziomerovic. Especially Goulding.

While we're on the subject: turns out everyone's been pronouncing 'Tragardh' wrong for years.

Thus far the changes have been cosmetic - a coat of paint on a daveron park house.

We have more partners than ever, but they have no obvious role with the league.

We have all games live on several platforms, but we have no tangible upgrade to the production.

We have quality Nbl commercials which I am yet to see on tv. The commercial, btw, is better than the coverage intro with the ball handling tricks.

We have a wealth of highlights from this, last, and prior seasons and blitzes yet none of it is used.

The Nbl has done well to drum up interest, but they are resting on their laurels with the actual product - which is the tv coverage.

In a conversation with Jeremy loeliger, he said to me we will see incremental improvements to production in each round. I see only one change - locker room insight. That is it. And to be honest, it is not that big a deal.

The action on court is as good as ever. The social media work is borderline obsessive on Twitter, but the tv production is stagnant. The web site has actually fallen off, and the new Nbl is looking much like the old one.

The tv product IS the product

http://www.aussiehoopla.com/nbls-tv-product-new-new-nbl/

And I just remembered another thing: all the league's marketing is promoting the #Hardball hashtag. The TV graphics occasionally plug Twitter, but with the #NBL16 hashtag.

Rucker, a basketball guy, was mispronouncing names? Gaze has done it for years. Put that on them.

App/streaming provider and TV provider have changed, so I forgive teething issues there. The website less so - not like Fox Sporting Pulse haven't worked with the NBL before.

It's not like Fox Sports haven't worked with the NBL before, either. And the NBL isn't that different to the other sports they have on anyway.

Simple fact is people hear of a change and then expect everything perfect on day 1. Fair bet you and your workplace is not perfect, how long you been working there ??

Fox deal is great and was always the only option, you need to earn free to air.

Biggest concern is clubs sitting back relying on LK instead of cashing in and being productive themselves about building their brand and game experience and engagement. Adelaide and Townsville right now in trouble here for mine. These 2 going backwards or at the least staying the same.

Business wise if out of a 100 people 80 will and 20 won't then do it. Nothing will please all 100 but if it's better for most and for the long term then it's better !!

They are moving in the right direction. That's the big difference. They are on Fox who cover all major sports....Big plus!!! NBL is mentioned in the Fox news all day.
The music background is driving me crackers.
Stick with the old stuff...and play it loud. I want to walk into a stadium and get the goosebumps from the better days. That's something cheap, it won't break the budget.

Forget the old days. The game day experience needs to evolve and appeal to a new market and a younger market.

Our games (Adelaide) has to many people in the higher age bracket and for growth needs to appeal to a younger market. And clubs needs to be a part of that

Jeremy Loeliger on ABC Grandstand spruiking the new NBL:
http://t.co/qT0gHJWQyf

Kind of unfortunate to use that Crocs home game for the first bit of footage

(NBL segment starts at about the 6:20 mark btw)

Not a single dunk in the highlights, yet there have been dozens in the season. The highlight package basically reasserts some of the misconceptions the average person has about the league.

As for the interview, he says the same as usual without going into any real depth. I am looking forward to seeing some changes that aren't surface deep.

As I have said, the coverage is in need of an update. It is LITERALLY the same coverage as on channel ten but on HD.

It's actually not. Ten had a shot clock for the last ten seconds.

Still haven't had a proper clock in any game yet this season. It's beyond a joke.

Tommy Greer mispronouncing "Majok" and "Hadziomerovic" is disappointing. Him mispronouncing "Goulding" is just bizarre.

Actually koberulz the only thing I'm finding is beyond a joke is yiu and other constantly shooting things down for trivial reasons. No shot clock? Big deal! I've now watched more games live in 2 rounds than I did the entire previous season (on the app, using fix app on a smart tv Foxtel and also channel 9) The clock hasn't overly affected my viewing experience once but ice really enjoyed being able to see the games. I've also been able to work out where the games were played, this despite the NBL logo being on the teams court and not the relevant home teams logo!! Commentating, I've quite enjoyed the enthusiasm the new guys have brought to the calls, yeah they aren't in depth basketball gurus but their excitement at the athletic plays they are seeing is obvious and quite infectios to the viewer. The uniforms have had a couple of colour clashes that have t been perfect - again so what, we survived and moved on, overall the uniforms looks miles better than previous season and I'm sure clash strips will be improved as season progresses

There's a lot of good going on so far, is everything perfect, hell no but it's heading in the right direction. We now need for the public to get behind the NBL and support it both at games and on tv. Having arm chair experts on Bball websites like Hoops (who are supposedly basketball tragics and die hard fans) taking pot shots at every turn does more damage to the viability of our leage than a missing shot clock on a game coverage will ever do!

During last night's game from Perth, when displaying the upcoming games for each team, the home and away games were the wrong way around.

Shots of cheerleaders are increasing dramatically, too.

Anyone remember the first year of the One HD deal? Video packages, a weekly wrap up show, courtside reporters...

Yeah but all those things were done poorly on ONE!

One promising sign was the highlight clip of Khazzouh's previous game at a time out, that's exactly the sort of thing that needs to be shown in the pre-game and throughout the broadcast, whether it be individual player focus, highlights from previous games, best plays from around the league etc.

Actually just read this thread - hilarious! Nothing's perfect, but the base that's being built is outstanding. The TV product as it is isn't what the league needs, but the deal was only signed, what, 5 weeks ago? As Isaac said the broadcaster obviously cares, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

What gives the impression the broadcaster cares? Why does the newness of the TV deal affect the complete lack of highlights anywhere?

Plenty of highlights on their news bulletins, which there hasn't been for eons, and there weren't on Ten, and the promotion of upcoming games in the broadcasts is clearly a focus. The commentators even seem to watch the other games and take an interest in the league. It's such a refreshing change from Ten where every game was like an isolated event, and previous games had slipped into an abyss.

Much better start to the broadcast tonight.

Plenty of highlights on their news bulletins, which there hasn't been for eons, and there weren't on Ten, and the promotion of upcoming games in the broadcasts is clearly a focus.

One/Ten had absolutely zero [shots of cheerleaders]

No, not just to me. Objectively, factually. They are completely and utterly 100% irrelevant.

That's just sad.

Nah if you use females you can pay them 18% less than if you use men ;)

I don't have Foxtel, so can't comment on that.
It did seem very late to be announced so maybe they are still catching up. It would seem they are the premier broadcast partner so yes I thin for your money you can demand a decent product, but maybe wait a while before passing judgement.

As of some of the other stuff, I'm not sure what people are expecting LK and the NBL to do?
Apparently the Adelaide venue is a shit-hole filled with old people? Not sure WHAT Larry is supposed to do about that? Did you expect him to spend the $5M on a new venue for your team?

The Wildcats had some kind of promotion on with Adventure World. It appeared to be either free or discounted Cats tickets with an Adventure World ticket. Presumably this is targeted towards the younger crowd. I don't know what Adelaide does but surely getting young people to the games is their issue not the leagues?

I Noticed improvements in the production today. They are starting to put in more highlights from previous games into breaks, and had nice clip peddled members up close filing into the stadium at the start of cairns game. There have been small, incremental improvement to coverage. Good signs in tthe past two days

As for cheerleaders, I love to look at them but I find it tacky and cliche. Do other Australian sports have cheerleaders? I can't say I have seen it. I am not against it but it is hardly something that weighs on the quality.of the product. Better looking girls in the crowd met of the time. A few spray tan tragedies were on screen today at the Sydney game.

Nah if you use females you can pay them 18% less than if you use men

Just tried to find the Andrej Lemanis anouncement on the NBL website, and it's not on the front page.

Stats are a week out of date, too.

The worst thing is when you dont have the window on full screen, everything shrinks / goes wierd.

I wanted to double-check the circumstances of the game-winner for Townsville against Sydney.

So I went to the NBL app, and looked for highlights, but there's only one page of videos available for display, so it's impossible to get highlights for that game.

I tried the NBL's YouTube channel, but the only thing they've uploaded this year is the TV commercial.

So I figured I'd have to make do without video, and check the match report. But you can no longer just look at match reports, you have to dig through every news article.

And the Kings-Crocs match report doesn't exist.

There's a videos section on the website, though, which contains...nothing of interest. And the photos section hasn't been updated since the season launch.

Absolutely unacceptable.

This ^

#hardball
#turdpolish

But its all good, the Ops Manager has tweeted how proud he is of himself for the website relaunch...