robt
Years ago

What if NBL & State Leagues Swapped Seasons?

World wide, b/ball is a winter sport.

We changed to be in calender sync with the NH (northern hemisphere) hence we play in our summer, at the same time as the north (Europe, USA).
There was also the arguement that by playing in summer, we avoided competition for fans with all of our football codes. Sure we still had cricket and tennis to compete with but they were more tournament style comps rather than season-long events.

All, excellent reasoning, for then (Late 80's/early 90's?)! What about now?

If our NBL and various state leagues swapped seasons,
(for the players & teams)
1. NBL players would be able to pursue off-season contracts in NH (northern .
2. More and (hopefully) even better imports in their off-seasons would be available for NBL.
3. More multi-season contracts for imports (they play 1st season here, the team wants them back, the import thinks of alternatives at that time of year, elsewhere in the world, not hard for them to choose Aust to return to.
4. Negative impact on pre-season schedules with NBA teams. 'Course, could become our end-of-season team trip and double as opportunity for checking out recruits/Aussies in college etc for following seasons.
5. I can't think of any changes for our home leagues, domestically.
6. Boomers would be free of NBL responsibilities. Could maybe play internationals without disruption.
7. May impact on AFL's future involvement in NBL (been very quite, on that one, lately!)
8. The focus on Oz basketball would increase world wide. NBL could well be the best league in the world at that time of year.

(for everyone else)
a. Aussie fans could have a feast of it all year long.
b. Basketball is scheduled throughout the week now. The football codes are still usually weekends so head-to-head comp for fans not so critical now.

Worth discussing?

Topic #44892 | Report this topic

koberulz
Years ago

1. NBL players already get off-season contracts.
2 & 3. Would they? There's still going to be overlap between seasons.
6. Have you looked at the FIBA calendar? No matter when the season is, there will be qualifiers in the way.
8. And people from other countries will continue to not care for that three months. You know the NBA runs October-June, right? There's no gaping window where nothing is happening.

a. Already true
b. People complain about mid-week games enough as it is, and you want to essentially abandon all weekend games? Look at the complaints about the TV deal. Now imagine you're on at the same time as the AFL and see what sort of deal you get (hint: it will be one that does not involve TV airing anything).

Two years ago, the Wildcats won game one of their semi final series and the leading story on the sports news that night was Fremantle's head coach signing an extension. Even the NBL grand final, featuring the Wildcats, has been buried under "AFL players vacation photos" in Perth sports news. And that's in probably the best market in the entire country for NBL, given the relative lack of AFL/NRL teams and high interest in NBL. Imagine what coverage you'd get in Melbourne or Sydney.

This is just as stupid an idea as the last 15 times it's come up.

Reply #735737 | Report this post

Barry Ballbag
Years ago

So there!!

Reply #735743 | Report this post

Mock
Years ago

Wouldn't you need to hold back to back seasons the first time they swapped?

Reply #735771 | Report this post

robt
Years ago

Just thinking aloud, people.
And honestly, I agree about the media.
I also prefer, by far, going to games in the summer.

Reply #735778 | Report this post

Anonymous
Years ago

I think there would be an advantage if we played opposite to the G-League and major European leagues. Guys could play NBL, and still pursue their dreams through the G-League. Similarly they could be able to play full seasons in Europe and the NBL, etc, etc.
Thing is, with the Summer Leagues and pre-seasons, I don' tknow that it leaves a big enough gap?
Then, would Euro teams let their stars like Motum risk injury playing in the off-season? I don't know what they currently do.
And even if they could, do we really want that? Every local coming home from Europe would push somebody else out of a job.

And lets face it, the biggest competitor for media and fan time is the AFL and NRL. I would say this is even more true than it was.

Moving state and lower leagues to summer would be good in that it would be easier for kids to play both basketball and footy, but the problem is that many venues are not suitable for summer use.

Reply #736322 | Report this post

Hoops

What if NBL & State Leagues Swapped Seasons?

Recent Posts