Seemed odd to me that a team with no fans was putting one of the league's most expensive rosters on the floor this season. I thought maybe they still had good corporate income streams, but no, I guess they were just being totally irresponsible.

The irresponsibility would be coming from the 36ers owner...

WNBL side Adelaide Lightning's future is in doubt if they can't find an investor to fill a $500,000-a-season hole.

It would be nice if the Adelaide Crows bought them out, Maybe Phillips would sign and play again.

Crowds could be better for sure - how do we get more game day ? I like double headers and go often, always found the Lightning people excellent and the games are good. Often not much media coverage yet so many play. If they could only get crowds up - I'm quite happy to pay a relevant entrance fee.

36ers coach who is he highest paid

Boti seems to think it's a good thing, because Basketball Adelaide are so incompetent.

It does seem like gross mismanagement if they're spending all this money across the board, yet running the women's team on a shoe string and still giving up on that.

Important to have an Adelaide team in the comp, agree that fans need to turn up. Are attendance averages across the WNBL readily available?

Isn't the 36ers and lighting owned by the same person or entity therefore making the owner of the 36ers responsible for the situation.

I thought he was the White Knight, now the WK seeks another WK

Lightning for the MAC money but didn't see anything for it. Interesting.

If the Advertiser is on the money, they flew over to tell the players before a game. how about wait until after the game? I hope they get their backing. This sends a horrible message to girls playing the game :(

Adelaide GM said on radio this [Monday] morning the team was told after the game, though direct quotes from the coach in the 'tiser article suggest otherwise.

GM also made the [valid] point that much, if not most, of the half mill quoted is for costs such as travel, not [just] player salaries.

Agree with the 'quality of basketball' statement [often better than what we get from the men's game] but promotion is a major issue [and don't start banging on about social media]. Can anyone tell me [without looking it up] when the next Lightning game is?

I'd suggest that active, on-going, positive promotion [which I acknowledge is far easier said than done] would be a big step in the right direction, though it's obviously not the complete answer and wouldn't address the immediate short-term issue/s.

As for the double headers - I too like them, and thought they might be a 'winner', but that hour to 45 minute gap between the games is a killer. Had a double header with the Lightning game after the 36ERS game vs Sydney the other week, with 6,000+ in the house and by tip off for the women's game the crowd was down to the 250-300 stalwarts.

And the situation isn't heaps better when the women's game is first because of that big time gap between the two games. There's not a lot can be done about that unless the 'owners' were to bring in outside off-court entertainment [such as musicians] to fill the gap, and promote the crap out of that.

That approach might actually provide a genuine 'entertainment' experience; unlike the 'urgers' and noise makers that clutter the men's game

Can anyone tell me [without looking it up] when the next Lightning game is?

"As much as we have a very successful Adelaide 36ers program with corporate support, sponsors and membership, that club still runs at a loss as well so it's only through the generosity of the owner that we’re able to put this club (Lightning) on the floor," Kavenagh said.

We've spoken about this time and time again with NBL teams, but the same can be said with the WNBL. Essentially you know you need $X M/yr to run that team, you do a business plan and work out all the costs, and then work out where the revenue is coming from, attract crowds, attract sponsors etc.

This day and age social media is the key to anything, yet as Isaac notes, there is nothing on Twitter to excite the fans before the game. Most young kids do Snapchat or Instagram. There's a little bit on "the gram" but a team generates excitement through social media, doing those little PR spots on the news, the PR spots on "South Aussie with Cosi" etc.

250 to a game is woeful. At that level the caterers wouldn't open...
A $500,000/season gap is $35,714 per home game. At an average of $20/ticket, that's say 1,790 people. In essence the breakeven for the team is about 2,000 people to a home game.

Winning games brings crowds, but in a business, it is often prudent to survey customers who don't buy your product and the reasons why they don't.

It would be sad to see the Lightning fold or relocate (maybe to Tassie)

A sensible starting point for next season might be to live more within their means rather than signing 2 of the most expensive players in the league.

I wonder what it would take for the Lightning and to a greater extent the WNBL, to be a sustainable league with the demand for a revolving door of White Knights?

At the end of the day, 300 people per game won't cut it. I'd imagine it would need closer to 2k plus good sponsor relationships in addition to probably co-ownership between NBL clubs, business people and the local association.

Yeah this is the 4th season in a row that the Lynx have put a very competitive and very entertaining team on the court, and yet the crowds are still poor. (Not quite Adelaide-level bad but still nowhere remotely near where they need to be)
In a city that clearly likes its basketball it is disappointing. And yet the Wildcats seem to do very little about it lately despite having 14k+ basketball fans in their building.
After Dec. 14th the next Cats home game is Jan 11th due to the arena being used for the tennis. There are 3 Lynx home games in that period that they should be promoting as a way for Cats fans to see some live basketball. Especially considering the Lynx are currently on top of the ladder.

WNBL teams really need to be striving for at least 1000 paying customers each home game IMO. Townsville have been doing it for years, and more recently, Melbourne have been smashing it, so it is achievable.

In Perth, people who go for the basketball, end up in a disco instead. Who knows how many people that's turned off from attending.

So let me see if I understand this, from a business perspective. You invest in a product for a reported $500 thousand per year. You then proceed to not market/promote/advertise or celebrate the history of the product and in fact give it away for free! Then wonder why you are not making any revenue from said product, sounds like good business sense to me

In Perth, people who go for the basketball, end up in a disco instead. Who knows how many people that's turned off from attending.

It was 3 or 4 months ago and I was watching premier league on TV and it was said that St Clair was keen to get the Lightning .
Titanium Stadium and Lightning owners were the same , so they will have to move , now that owners don't want Lightning anymore .

It was years ago and I was keen on Borrego , a very popular South Australian .
Anyways everyone is trying to help Lightning go on , other than putting money in.