I think it needs to be somewhere without a current team in a national sporting league so they can be the main focus of the sports pages and grab the corporate sponsorship.

Darwin perhaps?

Second New Zealand team makes sense now more than ever.
With the Breakers seeming to become less of the NZ focused team they had been a new team focusing on "grass roots" of a certain area, like SEM are trying to do, would be a great start.
Not sure exact location based on population or stadium sizes but the NZNBL looks like it has a few decently followed teams around the place that could maybe be leveraged from?

Canberra seems like obvious choice but I think may end up with the same type of interest as a Gold Coast team.

Indonesia is one of the hosts for the next WC.
That should really re-ignite basketball interest in that country, and if the Jakarta venue is renovated to WC standards, it would make a good NBL venue.

Indonesia has a humongous population, and they are very patriotic, so there should be enough support there for a team. Plus that population should produce a few decent prospects.
Whilst their local stars are paid peanuts, so an NBL franchise could thrive there.

The league could start by paying for teams to take on a couple of Indonesian players in development spots for a season or 2, to give the basis of a development squad for the new team.

Have you been to Darwin? Its not big enough!

Not ready for NBL and won't be for a longtime most people have no interest in basketball let alone sport at all.

Better to Focus on Geelong/NZ or another WA team perhaps

Indonesia has a humongous population, and they are very patriotic, so there should be enough support there for a team. Plus that population should produce a few decent prospects.

Long, Long term, Darwin (or the Alice) holds promise.
(With enough government money)

Yes, it is mostly a footy state, but outdoor BBL courts are relatively cheap to build and maintain.

The big advantage that the NBL would have, is that the AFL simply cannot expand there. They play ONE game a year in the NT, at night, and they hate it. The climate simply cannot sustain an AFL team, because travelling there is such a huge disadvantage.

But obviously a decent NBL and training venue would be no problem for the local or visiting teams.

"Would the Indonesian national team win a game in the NBL?"

There's a HUGE opportunity there, that is ripe for the picking.

Indonesia, as a co-host, will automatically qualify for the WC, but only if they can get their team up to something approaching international standard. The NBL could partner with them to make that happen.

Even so, not it wouldn't. But give them 3 imports and they might. :-)

The Slingers failed (in the NBL) because they had only 1 or 2 token locals, and couldn't generate enough support. The size of the Indonesian population makes it a more realistic proposition.

Of course, as in anywhere, you still need the MONEY to run an NBL franchise. But there plenty of Indonesia Billionaires (trillionaires if you count it in rupiah)

Darwin doesn't have the money or people to support it!
Its a boom and bust town that has none of the ingredients to support a team.

Indo are interesting but they don't produce players at the level to play in the NBL other than token end of the bench guys which half smart people see straight thru.

The NBL is a good standard to getting players from Indo at the level in the next 10/15 years would be a huge challenge.

If the y would support a team of Aussies/White people then its half a chance to work commercially however eyes don't equal cash as most people in Indo live in poverty.

I wonder how much overlap there is between the "you can't even name a competitive team of leftover NBL players" and "players x,y,z deserve to be in the NBL more than players a,b,c" types.

The Capitols seem to do ok in the WNBL??

Surely Canberra could sustain a men's team, with the right government backing?

They already have the Raiders, so maybe those fans would like a "summer" sport to follow?

I honestly don't know about the 2nd NZ team. I think its a great idea, but people have said that even the Breakers at their peak didn't draw huge crowds.

Problem with GC n Canberra is most people living there arent from there apparently.
Newcastle/Central coast maybe.
I think LK and BA need to discourage guys going to USA colleges and have a team of AIS guys that could hopefully get federal funding to stay afloat. Give the guys a free degree somewhere n team could be shared between a few locations.

The Capitols seem to do ok in the WNBL??

Interestingly the A-League have recently added a team from that area - West Melbourne/Geelong.

For potential 2nd NZ team, a merged regions (Canterbury-Southland-Wellington) could be big enough to house a team. Basketball market development is growing bigger each year in those areas.

Canberra won't happen. If you've lived there you'll understand.

"GC is a proven failure. Canberra with all the sponsorship money in town proved it was unsustainable"

ROFL

If anywhere is a "proven failure" its Tasmania.

In fact you could also argue that Brisbane and Sydney are "proven failures"

End of the day, you can have an NBL team in MukinBudin if you have the money and a venue.

"Will people get over Canberra. Theycan't even sustain a SEABL team."

Which in your mind proves what exactly?
That nobody was prepared to pay for a pointless tea in a (now defunct) 4th rate bush-league that nobody cares about.
And how does that translate to a National League.

The biggest challenge in the ACT is that the local ACT government is run by the flower-pot party, and believes organised sport is a fascist conspiracy to enslave women. And that most of the adults work for the government and spend all their spare time working on their 2nd or 3rd PhD in navel-fluff.
But surely there are some normal people there?

NBL teams depend on Largess, (which can be government sourced) and on the desire for prestige. Collectively no government(s) have more money than Canberra, and as a National Capital that the whole country laughs at, there must be some desire for prestige.
Also, if LK is intent on Getting Sheik Durka-Durka to invest in an NBL franchise, what could be more prestigious than the Nation's capitol?

There is rumor that Wellington is pursuing to play in ASEAN basketball league. Not sure how it can work out, perhaps something like what the South Huskies did in the NZNBL to subsidy the traveling cost. But the standard in ANBL is much better for the team to play in. NZ needs another full fledged professional team in the near future.

"SEABL is a 4th rate competition?"
WAS, and yeah I know, I was being generous.

"Canberra Gunners who were 0-24"
I hear the Brownies' Tambourine Festival didn't draw much of a paying crowd either. Is there a point at all to your ramblings?

"Can you please explain where all this largess comes from across all teams?"
You're joking right?
There are TWO teams in the NBL (probably in the entire history of the NBL) that pay their own way. Cairns, who basically suck and still get NBL handouts, and the Wildcats who fill a 13k stadium every game in addition to lucrative sponsorship.

Every other team relies on an owner with deep pockets.

LK's proposal to put a team in Tassie, requires the Tassie Govt to give him a bunch of free land, and subsidise the team $1.5M a year.
The only other "expansion" team is SEM, which is indeed funded by a Rich Billionaire.

If Wellington (NZ's Capitol) can come up with a decent venue, and money from either the government or a Kiwi Billionaire, they can have a team. Same applies to any location.

I have no idea if they would come to the party, but if you're going to the government begging, then Canberra would be a good place to start.

If LK has another Billionaire mate, who, like SEM, is prepared to invest, then the National Capitol is a better target than most.

Wellington is pursuing ASEAN, in part because the NBL has rebuffed them too many times to count. Also weary of how much revenue they can make with a craptastic 4,500 seat arena.

Considering the popularity growth with basketball at the moment, why don't we see more interest in new teams ??
I look on with envy, as the A-League announces prospective new licences, and bids fall over themselves, presenting new stadiums, clubs etc.

Most recently they had bids from South Melb, SE Melb, West Melbourne, and a couple in NSW, and QLD I think, for only two licenses. The bids presented looked amazing.

Is it history scaring people off doing the same for NBL ? Even with LK doing a great job ?

Nostraballmus thanks you John for your poignant and thought provoking questions. Go You.

Your football reference is telling. Nostraballmus sees that bball in Oz right now can and should learn a lot from our round ball cosuin's successes and failures over the past 20 years, both in the national team and national league arena. l

Nostraballmus believes that establishing NBL basketball arms of A-league clubs in centres such as Newcastle and Western Sydney and Melbourne could be explored as aviable way of expansion whilst sharing risk and offering, if not year-round, a broadening of the audience on offer to potential sponsorship dollars.

Nostraballmus is an old man with a long memory and notes that the Socceroos in the early 2000's grappled with generations of not quite getting there and only when they asked the hard question 'do we have the right cattle?' and appointed a proven deliverer to work with their golden generation was their own holy grail achieved.

So how much money is the A League losing per season?

I like, very much, the idea of a couple of teams in markets that are big enough and that can afford it. Therefore Sydney (proper, as opposed to Illawarra or even Newcastle or Canberra) makes sense to me.

However, I wonder why Perth, say Fremantle, isn't discussed. Here's why I like that Idea.

Recently, there has been talk of AFL getting inolved with the NBL. There is already a WA SBL team there, the Dockers, would you believe (part of the AFL club?)? Here's a great chance to try it. Free-o already have a football following who may take up NBL in the summer.Out of both the AFL's and NBL's heartlands, the experiment can be viewed from afar, so to speak, minimising risk if not successful (rather than trying it in Melb, the heartland of both codes).

Perth are so strong, with 12,000+ at home games, stable as, a great record and obviously a very well run club all round. For another club to compete with that they would have to be as "good", all round, or no-one would take notice of the "new" team. The Dockers would already have the infrastructure and management team who could run or direct that side of things.

Free-o is less than an hour from Perth but many would-be NBL fans may not bother (some people!?) or maybe can't make the early game times (due to TV schedules for the eastern markets).

The Wildcats have done, and are doing a fabulous job in the west. I reckon they deserve and would welcome a local rival.

The obvious question is, is Perth a big enough market for 2 teams? My only answer to that is that they support 2 AFL teams. Reckon that that would be a tougher gig.

For similar reasons, I favour a Wellington entry ('cept they don't have an AFL team, yet).

Perthworld, what do you think? Could you stand another club?

It wouldn't work. Dockers fans follow the Wildcats if they are into NBL.

"Recently, there has been talk of AFL getting inolved with the NBL. There is already a WA SBL team there, the Dockers, would you believe (part of the AFL club?)? "

Umm, there is no WA SBL team known as Fremantle Dockers. Not sure where you got that from Robt?!

"There is already a WA SBL team there, the Dockers, would you believe "

I'll admit to not following the SBL very closely, but that's news to me??

Is that a new team entering??

The thing to remember with the Dockers, is that its all based on BS.

"Oh, Freo's so special, Freo has its own identity & culture, Freo has such a proud tradition in Football" and its all a load of wank.

If Freo restricted their membership, to people with an actual connection to Fremantle (past or present) They'd have (pro rata) about 2,000 members.

Simple fact is that there is a HUGE amount of money for AFL in Perth, and a lot of local talent. They could have called the new team Innaloo or Cockburn, and it still would have worked Financially.

For a 2nd NBL team, you'd have to go much wider, and aim say for a "South of the River" team. (Yes, that's a thing, Perth is basically divided North & South)
Therefore pushing the idea that the Wildcats are the NOR team.
It would still be a tough sell, because the Wildcats' support is ubiquitous.

We have a much smaller population than Melbourne, yet have bigger membership than MU. That's not intended as a boast, just an indication of the market penetration the Cats have.

Also, unlike Melbourne, and Even Sydney, we've only ever had one NBL team. So there's none of the "My team were the Magic, I hate the Tigers/MU" type thing.

If you had the money, and could put the effort into Community development, it could be made to work, but would take a LONG time.

On the idea of a Dockers AFL - NBL tie up, yes it gives you access to money, expertise, and existing membership, but I don't know if that would be enough.

"Plenty big enough for Canberra at this stage."

They couldn't even run a SEABL side let alone an NBL side. Utter bollocks.

No more than 10 teams in the NBL, not enough supporters or talent

Yeah he foresees another vic club minimum and potentially another Perth one.

I don't agree with a league style attempt at 3 Victorian and nsw clubs, certainly don’t view WA having two clubs despite wildcats success

I'd like to see Wellington for that NZ rivalry. Can’t see Canberra managing to sustain a team.

Bring back the West Sydney Razorbacks

Wellington is viable, they dominate the NZ league and have the money. The north island can sustain 2 teams, include the hutt and porirua and you've got a 400,000 base. Given the growth of basketball I don't see why Christchurch couldn't give it a shot, there's a brilliant stadium there, and give Invercargill and Dunedin a game or two a year as well (or stay at home and for Saturday games promote to the south with putting on some buses and discounted accommodation). Then you could use the NZ league like the old days of domestic rugby and super rugby. Southland Otago Nelson and Christchurch attached to the South Island team, Wellington Manawatu Taranaki Hawkes Bay to the Wellington team, Hamilton (if they ever get another team) and everything Auckland and north to the breakers. Something similar in football would be brilliant as well.

I think people are asking the wrong question:

If you're asking what new locations can organically and sustainably support an NBL franchise, then the answer is probably "nowhere."

If you were to ask what locations COULD support a franchise with the right funding, then there are too many possibilities.

The real Q&A lies somewhere in between the two.

LK apparently wants 12 teams. Not a bad number for a sustainable league.
So I think the question is twofold:
Where does the NBL WANT the 3 extra teams to be, and
Where will the necessary money emerge?

It's nice that he is pushing so hard for a Tassie team. I have always thought they should have had an AFL team, but the AFL are jerks. So its nice of LK to give them their own State Team.
So lets assume that's a goer, and that leaves us with two more teams to place.

I like the idea of a 2nd NZ team, but i just don't see it happening. Certainly not as a priority for one of the two remaining slots. I see NZ focus as being on expanding and solidifying the NZBL, whilst keeping the Breakers as THE NZ team.

I think that a 2nd Sydney team is a foregone conclusion, at some point. But they will need some government cash to upgrade or a replace a decent home base & training venue.

Anon 765029, you wrote:

"West Sydney. What a joke.
You know the history don't you? Bankstown Bruins, West Sydney Westars, Razorbacks."
You could add Nunnawading, Coburg, Geelong, Tassie (Devils), Canberra, Forestville, Gold Coast, Townsville, Newcastle.... that will do, to your list and finish off with nearly the whole of the NBL.

Firstly, do you really want history deciding your future?

Secondly, your final question .. "Seriously what had changed?"

For the league.
*A tremendous Lazarus-style comeback from near annihilation.
*A fabulous WC campaign for the Boomers.
*Fabulous prospects for the Tokyo games.
*LK
*A great couple of years of NBL comp, starting with last year's 4 x OT game between predicted 1st and last place holders all the way through to last night's 2 upsets.
*Tassie expansion plans.
*Tassie's staging of the Blitz.
*Vastly increased numbers in attendances, domestic and international viewers.
*Expansion happening now, and with lots of up-front support (LK, again).
*Commercially, Sydney, numerically the biggest market, desperately needs a second team (3rd, if you include Illawarra).

For Sydney.
*Bogut (playing)
*Bogut (ownership)
*Qudos (filling up with up to 17,000+)
*Hawks generating immense publicity
*Hawks v Kings already becoming a featured rivalry (Lamelo)
*Slightly improved attendances for the Hawks (Lamelo)

I tend to agree with the wait and consolidate what we will have once Tasmania enters the NBL, with 10 teams it is a viable league and the NBL1 is there to judge who may be the next suitor, but for now, I would consolidate with 10 teams and not get too carried away...

"Worked so well b4 didn't it"

So, to follow your logic...
There should be no Tasmanian team;
SEM Phoenix should not exist;
Brisbane Bullets should have been brought back;
Neither should the Sydney Kings;
Hawks and Taipans should be gone since they would have failed without league support;
And to be fair, there should be no team in Melbourne since the Tigers failed and had to be bailed out and rebranded.
Furthermore, the Wildcats would not exist today without the support of a Dr Jack and the government, concepts you apparently reject.
So that leaves Adelaide and the Breakers. Have fun with that.

"Western Sydney don't have a stadium though. Basketball stadiums in Sydney are third rate. NSW government give to much money to rugby league stadiums to see them empty except for one origin game and The GF. "

They need a decent home-base. Somewhere to a professional standard, to train and host the odd pre-season game.

I don't know Sydney well enough to comment with any authority, but I do find it funny, because Olympic Park is actually part of Paramatta, and some Kings fans regard that as already being in "West Sydney." LOL

A West Sydney team would have to play its games at the State Sports Centre and Qudos, just like the Kings. I would imagine that train and motorway access would be as good as anywhere??

And to be fair, there should be no team in Melbourne since the Tigers failed and had to be bailed out and rebranded.