I'm a believer!

The sponsored story, THE NBL'S SLAM DUNK ON FUTURE STARS by Paige Cardona, is very well presented. Full of hype but all based on factual and measurable criteria.

Sure, there may have been negatives but the thread title clearly states that it's a sponsored article, so what does one expect.

It's good to read a clearly-biased story, that doesn't exaggerate to make it's point. Doesn't need to. Sorta shows that if your product is good enough, it doesn't need a set of 6 steak knives.

Good to see NBL going to efforts to market themselves

Any organisation worth there salt would be highlighting the development made within the last couple of years. Hats off to the NBL and all involved.
It still does worry me though on what financial grounds the future holds for some clubs!

Everything the NBL does is one big sponsored story for LKs ego.

Factual?

"The NBL is now a thriving powerhouse".

Except for the fact that it is in no way sustainable.

The Next Stars program has changed to fit whatever LK can do to make it appear to be successful when all it was ever going to be was a niche program mostly for guys who werent able to play college ball. Dress it up all you like, its going nowhere.

But sure, clicks.

This article is so thirsty cred for LK.

Who cares whether people in the US or anywhere else in the world give the NBL "legitimacy"? It only needs to be the best Australian basketball league, and focusing on marketing the league INSIDE Australia is the only way to build in sustainability. There are no more LaMelo Balls coming.

More buzz over substance.

An actual factual article would show us how NBL teams are turning this buzz into long term planning. This is more smoke and mirrors.

I knew it would be just a matter of time before Cram saw that fluff piece and gave it a reality check

"It only needs to be the best Australian basketball league, and focusing on marketing the league INSIDE Australia is the only way to build in sustainability."

I don't agree. Most of the money is outside Australia, and most of the money that's in Australia isn't going to be spent on basketball, so the best route to sustainability is to tap into the world market if they can find ways to do that.

Sorta shows that if your product is good enough, it doesn't need a set of 6 steak knives.

I would have liked the article to recognise the guys who were Next Stars before Next Stars was a thing, and the clubs that made it happen.

"I don't agree. Most of the money is outside Australia, and most of the money that's in Australia isn't going to be spent on basketball, so the best route to sustainability is to tap into the world market if they can find ways to do that."

I don't see foreign money ever being a sustainable path for funding for the NBL. They're never going to get more buzz than they have right now with Melo. Ever. And they're still not making money.

You may not see it, but that doesn't mean you're correct. Time will tell on this one, but there is certainly far greater potential for revenue internationally for basketball than there is in Australia at this point.

If an Australian league cannot win its own people, there's no reason to suggest it will win those from other countries. Again, there is no new Melo coming. This is peak buzz. Thats the reason LK is pushing this now, as he knows this is it. He needs some suckers. I'm sure he'll find them

Exactly it. It's fine to dream big, but who exactly is the market?

Understanding your target market is key to reaching them. The NBL doesn't have appear to have anything aside from create lots.of buzz and wait for the $$$ to flow in.

What is gonna make a foreigner watch the NBL over the multitude of other options on a regular basis?

Is the goal to get foreigners to watch the NBL?

Why would North Americans watch NBL? If they looked at our NBL top 10 they would burst out in laughter.

Why would Chinese watch NBL? They have the CBA, if they had a Chinese team in the NBL maybe.

The goal is to get people/orgs investing in the NBL.

It's all well and good pointing to large OS populations but why would they choose consistent viewership of the NBL over the NBA, college, tbt or big three? Or even g league? Or European leagues?

Paul, sure get organisations to pay $ for the NBL but if you think foreign companies will you need some vision for consistency in foreign eyeballs. Where is that?

There has already been a significant increase in investment in the NBL over LK's time, both in terms of sponsorship and ownership, so it's not a hypothetical.

The trick is now turning that into a sustainably profitable operation across all clubs. That's tough to do, but eyeballs for sponsors is important and spreading your wings internationally is one way to achieve that.

An easy case in point is the majority of $$ bet on NBL come from international shores. Spread the broadcast wide enough and you can potentially multiply the audience even with small numbers in each market.

Yeah. Let's tie our game to betting numbers. Great.

All investment thus far has bought the sizzle and nobody has eaten any steak yet.

"It's all well and good pointing to large OS populations but why would they choose consistent viewership of the NBL over the NBA, college, tbt or big three? Or even g league? Or European leagues?"

This is true, and its never going to be a premium product. But then its not a premium product here either.
There are plenty of channels needing filler, and that's what the NBL would be.

It only needs to be a Premium product if you think it needs to sustain the current levels of spending. I don't.

Market the league to Australians for Australians and spend within this parameters

Paul. There's so many unsupported assumptions in your post.

That overseas betting behaviour leads to viewership. That there's sufficient investors that are willing to sponsor the NBL for the sake of tiny portions of a lot of markets (with the viewership of those markets being the previous unsupported assumption). That any current trend continues once Ball and Hampton leave and are unable to be replaced like for like (or even remotely close).

No, the reason they're pushing this "success" line so hard with this sponsored article now is they know this is peak. This is it. And it still isn't enough.

Does that mean they won't find a wealthy idiot or two to invest? Not at all. But they will be throwing away their money on buzz.

Isn't most of this increased investment coming from ex-NBA players who just want a toy to play with in retirement? All that's really changed is that those guys are retiring with 50 million in the bank these days instead of 5, and there's a greater awareness of international basketball.

If that's your business model, fine, but it's hardly worth writing home about. (Or in this case, to fox sports in the hope they put your name up in lights on their website.)

I'm with Paul

"Paul. There's so many unsupported assumptions in your post."

There were no assumptions in my post, sorry mate.


"All investment thus far has bought the sizzle and nobody has eaten any steak yet."

League and club revenue has increased significantly since Kestelman took over. Yes, the challenge remains to outstrip costs, but increased investment means there is a better chance to do that than under the previous ownership when few clubs had the means to grow their product.

At the end of this experiment all they're going to end up having done is losing a lot of money rather than a little.

And yes, you did make assumptions, that overseas betting can be used as a measure for potential overseas viewership. That's a big assumption and it's faulty

Anonymous
Last week

"Yes Terrance Ferguson and Joey were pioneers."

No they weren't.

Anonymous
Last week

Chill out Mt Gambier dude. Yes they were.


Doug Overton?

"And yes, you did make assumptions, that overseas betting can be used as a measure for potential overseas viewership. That's a big assumption and it's faulty."

Incorrect, sorry mate. There was no assumption there, and no direct link with viewership. It was simply an example where there is more interest in the NBL internationally than at home, due to the sheer volume of basketball fans.

"It was simply an example where there is more interest in the NBL internationally than at home, due to the sheer volume of basketball fans."

The same way that people who are football (soccer) fans all over the world are tripping over themselves to watch NPL2 games? There's lots of betting on them too, that doesnt mean anyone actually cares about the league. Its something to bet on.

It only takes a tiny fraction of a percentage of basketball people around the world watching to be more than watch in Australia, and by quite a margin.

No doubt.

But why would they? There's no reason to when there is already NBA, college, G-League, TBT, Big Three, Euro League, European national leagues, plus whatever the viewers local team is plus other sports they may view.

You can talk about the potential market being massive and spend millions trying to capture a tiny amount of it, or you can focus on making this an Australian/Kiwi league for Australians and NZers and doing what you can to engage the fans who have the one thing that all of those other people outside of Oceania dont have - an actual reason to prefer the NBL over all of those superior options.

Turning the NBL into a combination of the G-Leauge and TBT is not a long term answer.

LK did some serious life resuscitation into the NBL. League has the most legitimacy and marketed reach it has ever had and Cram be like "nah I liked the days where there was no money and the league direction was to all clubs bar Perth folding"

Yes, because there's only ever 2 possible ways to do things.

" At the end of this experiment all they're going to end up having done is losing a lot of money rather than a little."

“ Yes, because there's only ever 2 possible ways to do things.”

Mic drop.

erm, how does one contradict the other?

I believe the model currently being used by the NBL ownership will lead to failure. I also beleive the previous system didn't work. Might there be a third (or, hey, even more?) option?

"No doubt. But why would they?"

Have you investigated current international viewing numbers?

"Have you investigated current international viewing numbers?"

You mean the limited sample that tuned it for a few minutes to watch LaMelo Ball, who is gone now and won't be easily replaced. Yeah, sure they've been good. Now tell me how that translates into future viewing figures