The people in Melbourne have flown the coup! They're in QLD, NSW, Tas, anywhere. After a year of, "You can't go here" and, "You can't go there", now that they can, they have.

Agree that it's surprising. Damn sure I'd be at every game, every day. Granted, as an age-disadvantaged (old) fan, I just can't afford to go at reg prices, This I can.

I still believe that collectively, Victorians are flat out sports mad.

On top of that, there really has a been a lot of interest in this year's teams' lists and here's a chance to see them all under differing game sits. AND, $180 for the lot. You (I) would spend more than that on 2 reg season games.

A question. When and why were the tickets reduced from $17 to the $10 it now is?

Is the "why", low pre-sales or some other reason??? Was there warning that crowds could be down?

I'm surprised people think there would be big crowds to the NBL Cup. The crowds look pretty on par with what I was expecting.

To that extent, I don't believe for a moment any other city would get bigger crowds.

What are people expecting out of interest? I think ~2k would be reasonable without Vic clubs, 3-4k with Vic clubs. I like the $10 tickets, I like having NBL Cup on almost each day/evening.

I'm surprised people think there would be big crowds to the NBL Cup. The crowds look pretty on par with what I was expecting.

To that extent, I don't believe for a moment any other city would get bigger crowds.

What are people expecting out of interest? I think ~2k would be reasonable without Vic clubs, 3-4k with Vic clubs. I like the $10 tickets, I like having NBL Cup on almost each day/evening.

I just thought Phoenix would be getting more that 1080 odd at their games considering they are in the top 4.

United are on top and getting around 3800 to their games.

Is it 50% capacity at John Cain Arena? That would allow 5250 and be a sellout.

United averaged 8200 per game last season. Considering they are on top of the ladder, I would have thought they would easily be able to get 5250 per game

Just my opinion

I always thought the cup was a dumb idea. Of course people aren't going to come out for teams they don't support! I just hope it's not financially wrecking anyone.

Always gonna be tough to get crowds to interstate teams, and the 5pm starts dont help.

I think "normal" non-Cup Phoenix/United, particular United games, will get much higher crowds.

Perhaps NBL could have either 1) let Phoenix/Utd members in for free or 2) let them in at a stupidly cheap $5 a pop if they're looking for big crowds.

I suspect the crowd is made up of a mix of hardcore Phoenix/Utd fans and some interstarters who reside in Victoria, like myself, wanting to watch their team, and some who managed to hear about it and went screw it $10 is good.

Match that with 8 games - ie. i'm not going to all 8 36ers games, perhaps 2-3.
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I'm not sure it's as crowd driven as people expect. I would suggest much to do with Government, making sure they get a good number of games played incase "shit goes down" again, helping to satisfy sponsors, and greater TV coverage/air time.

How viable is it? Anyone's idea.

I do view it as a good thing so far - although I'm not sure this could be held outside of Melbourne in future as I genuinely don't think you have any other city with "interstate expats" like Melbourne does, except perhaps Sydney, and Sydney people don't rockup to sports events unless it's State of Origin. That's not a knock on Perth or Adelaide or even Brisbane either - i'm sure they'd rock up to their teams' games but the other games would be dead empty. Better-off going NHL style on a non-windy day playing games beachside!

I'll probably try and get to a Sixers game on one of the next couple of Saturdays to see Son of Wazza. No chance I'm going to a 5pm midweek game though

Being a Wildcat fan living in Vic, i'm very happy it has happened here, as for the crowds, their is a fair bit of nervousness with Covid and the threat of a snap lockdown, or any type of lock down. People here in Vic just won't plan for anything, i know myself i am waiting until the day before the game before i buy a ticket in case the government hits the panic button. Their is also a % who are scared of catching covid, even though there is not much around.

I went to the city yesterday before the, game and what is usually a bustling city is a ghost town, many businesses shut down, offices are still running on skeleton staff, which has limited how many people are in the city, which stops people from going after work as would be the norm. Maybe it wasn't the best place for it, however somehow the NBL got the Vic gov to stump up money for it.

Aside from the obvious being gun shy due to the lockdowns/covid I believe these games aren't included in memberships and a lot people turn up to games they've already paid for otherwise they threw their money anyway so the incentive to pay to attend extra games and all the associated costs like car packing, travel, dinner somewhere, drinks etc would likely be having an impact too.

These NBL Cup games are being bankrolled at least in part by the Vic Gov so I would suggest any sort of crowds are probably a bonus.

Most people are working from home in terms of professional services which most city workers are. That has been the case since last March well before any lockdown.

Absolutely covid impacts crowds etc but as I said, COVID aside I didn't expect crowds to be that high regardless. If you’re paying $x big number for membership for 14 games why would you pay $y additional to go to another 8 games? I wouldn’t expect someone wants to go to 22 games of basketball in a year. Add the timing, midweek games, 5pm etc and why would we expect typical United and Phoenix crowds? For other teams, why would we expect much in the way of crowds anyway? How many interstaters are there and how many will go to more than a few games at best to see their club?

The NBL won’t have put this together expecting typical Utd/Phoenix games or crowds exceeding 2kish for interstate games.

FWIW I love all the extra basketball to watch on tv and the ability to go to a few games for $10 of my team. I think that along with other factors I have mentioned is the point.

Actually pretty keen for SBC games - 20 minute drive down High Steet to go to the game? Yes please!

And how would you compare the crowds in relation to a global event such as the Australian Open??

For the posters here who live outside melbourne you have to understand that melbourne city is not yet rebooted in terms of the volume of people making their way into city for work and play.

Given the large Participation numbers in the state for basketball it's very hard to get to mid week games at JCA when you have school training, rep training and games.

It’s made even harder to get to JCA when the AO still has exclusive use to the Car Park adjacent to the facility. The closest you can park is a 15min walk from Richmond.

Melbourne City aleague also played in the precinct last night. The crowd there was also woeful

IMO the NBL is doing as expected.

Counting these as regular season games should mean they count as Melbourne and SEM home games and their members should get in for free which would allow 6-8k people in for United games (not sure of SEM crowds), even if only 1/3 of those stick around or come early for the other game you have a decent crowd.

Big error by the NBL in my opinion not making these regular season home games. Makes interstate fans feel the Vic teams are being favoured, makes Vic fans feel they are being charged twice to see their teams.

Melbourne City always have awful crowds. They've been known to give away family tickets with a big mac meal. Hard to use that as a guide.

You want to talk value for your membership, wildcats members have seen 2 games for their money, NZ none

I wouldn't have expected high crowds at the NBL cup.

With games every couple of days for a month, no one's going to attend every game. Even the hardcore United or SEM fans wouldn't attend 3 games a week for 3 straight weeks.

Personally I haven't attended an NBL game since the 2019 GF

It's all about seasons of life, family commitments take priority these days.

But even the LV of 10 or 15 years ago, who attended every Tigers home game and even a couple of Dragons games when they entered the comp to support basketball, even that old LV wouldn't have gone to every game of the NBL cup. He probably would've attended 4 games over the 3 weeks. That's about the max anyone would attend, anyone who has any sort of life whatsoever!

So it makes sense that the United and SEM games will have hugely reduced crowds to normal. And if the games arent included in memberships, adds more weight to this reality.

And of course games involving non Melb teams will have tiny crowds.

I reckon in future years, have the NBL cup running concurrently in either Sydney/Illawarra and Melbourne, or Perth and Melbourne. Then switch some teams half way through the cup. But basically, the concept would be to increase the number of game nights with at least one true home team. Double header nights with 4 teams, and they should aim for 90% of the time, one of those 4 teams being from the host city. That would reduce the number of games with <1,000 ppl which does look terrible on TV and has zero atmosphere in the venue.

[He probably would've attended 4 games over the 3 weeks]

When I say 4 games, I mean 4 game nights. Which really makes it 8 games.

Attending a double header makes a big night. 2 NBL games is longer than an AFL game or any sport in this country except say Test Cricket or a 5 set tennis match.

Splitting the cup between 2 cities would obviously mean much bigger crowds across the board. With COVID they probably wanted everyone in one place, but in future years 2 cities is a no brainer IMO.

You could have the host teams play their "CUP" games in the last round of the regular season preceding the cup. So those teams wouldn't need to travel. So say, Sydney/Illawarra/Melb and SEM play double headers against each other immediately before the CUP. Then in the CUP, those teams stay put while Perth, Adelaide, Cairns, Brisbane and NZ are split- some of them starting in Melb then switching to Sydney, and the others vice versa.

[Then in the CUP, those teams stay put while Perth, Adelaide, Cairns, Brisbane and NZ are split- some of them starting in Melb then switching to Sydney, and the others vice versa.]

This doesnt work exactly as I've written it, as those non-host teams still need to play the non-host teams from the other city. So there's a few logistics to work out. But they should look at this option.

Anon #127
"Why? You paid for 14 home games. These games are over and above those 14 games."

My point is WHY are these games over and above the 14 home games they paid for? The games count towards the regular season and should therefore be a part of the 14 home game the Melbourne teams have.

Great pics, it gives those of us at home a better perspective.

The double headers coming up featuring no Melbourne team are going to be ugly though.

Perth rac almost full

To the guy that said about no laptops. That might change tomorrow. The first 4 days, the event security have been Australian Open security which has been more strict than usual. Tomorrow regular security returns.

It just goes to show how ridiculous the law is in regards to courtsiding. Hyper vigilant when it comes to tennis but for every other sport and racing it isn't really policed at all. Idiots.

By law courtsiding is illegal (ridiculous as it may be), so they can't tell the AO staff just to drop it all of a sudden. It really is a farce.

Still an unfair advantage unless the league commits to moving the Cup to different cities each year.

Just home fans (if the rocked up), home rings (they aren'tstandardisedin NBL), home beds, home families, home practice facilities.

I just think that Vic fans wouldn't be so happy if all teams were in Perth for a cup because our owner owned the league and our government wanted to by them a title. Just a thought.

Yeah, ignore everything else and just the fact that they're sleeping in their own beds while everyone else is in hotels for at least a month is a huge edge.

United even got to open against Perth, who had already been on the road for a long time, instead of getting a team that'd traveled specifically for the Cup.

[Yeah, ignore everything else and just the fact that they're sleeping in their own beds while everyone else is in hotels for at least a month is a huge edge.]

Yeah, and the results in the AFL and NRL with Richmond and the Storm really illustrated this point exceptionally well.


Wait a second!

Players families were allowed into the hub, they had whole resorts booked out, they played 1 game per week, 8 teams were able to have home games. Brisbane and Gold Coast weren't given bonus home games they were made to travel and play away.

Wait a second... Brisbane made a preliminary final

[I expect the NBL has a larger "home ground advantage" than either of those leagues. ]

Comparing apples and oranges.

There's 2 AFL venues with 4 or 5 host teams, and other venues with 2 host teams. So there's way more games than are essentially neutral

In interstate games, true home/away games, I suspect AFL would have a bigger home/away W/L discrepancy than NBL.

It's not the travel factor or the sleeping factor that gives teams a home advantage- it's the crowd. Look at this year's NBA Home and Away results for proof of that.

AFL has the added factor of different ground shapes, so for example a team like Geelong plays on a uniquely long and thin ground and no one else plays there, so Geelong is almost unbeatable down there.

Anyway, point is "Sleeping in your own bed" and travel are overrated factors.

Tell that to West Coast players whos careers on average multiple years shorter due to travel.
Easy to say its overated LV when your team are sleeping in their own beds, betting you are a Collingwood fan as well and think its a gruelling travel schedule to play on the Gold Coast once a year.

The point I've been trying to make is that if these games count towards regular season they should count as SEM and Melbourne home games as they are at home. They shouldn't get 7 bonus home games because the Vic government bought a tournament.

7 teams are disadvantaged, 2 are heavily favoured.

[Tell that to West Coast players whos careers on average multiple years shorter due to travel.
Easy to say its overated LV when your team are sleeping in their own beds, ]

West Coast travels what, 50-60,000 kms a year. Melbourne teams travel 15-30,000kms from memory.

West Coast players spend what, an average of 3 hours a week on a plane during the season? It's not that much. All NBA teams travel 2-3 times as many kms as West Coast. Yes, a less physically taxing sport and yes private jets but still, 3 hours a week is nothing.

From an equity perspective SEM and United huge advantage from NBL cup of course. It'll be in different cities in future years. If your city's government isn't interested though, don't blame the NBL, blame your government.

No, I think I'll blame the NBL for making cup games count towards regular season.

And those numbers don't take into account time at airport, time in transit to and from airport, time in hotels.

NBA player are also paid crap loads more and its relatively equal across all teams.

And I have said over and over that I have no issue with the cup or where it is, have it in Melbourne every year. But it shouldn't count towards regular season unless the it counts as home games for the home sides.

The Cup is also a menace for historical stats.

If they're listed as neutral games, then you have a new category that isn't H/A.

If they're listed as home/away pending who is named first, then you have nonsensical results of Melbourne teams playing "away" games against non-Melbourne teams. Not even sure if they've ensured notionally that its 4H/4A anyway for the Cup.

(Perth have played home games in Singapore, Darwin, Bunbury and Kalgoorlie but given those were at the choice of the club, I have no issue with assigning them as home games)

All cup games are definitely 'N', not H or A.

@Perthworld

Seems a simple approach - all Cup games considered Neutral.

Yet PER v SEM in Melbourne is hardly neutral, is it?

Not only that, but they've moved it away from John Cain Arena, which has hosted all NBL Cup games so far, to the State Basketball Centre, which is SEM's home court.

Any reason they're not playing games on Labour Day? They're doing 5pm tip off on weeknights but not taking advantage of a public holiday?

@Numbers

Are your stats on a database or spreadsheet? I guess after all of these years adding a third variable may be a pain.