Travel might be a problem/expense. Plus SEBL teams usually have a lot more money/resources than our ABL teams, even Sturt.

I feel it would only be to the detrement of the SA League.

Sure SEABL is of a higher quality of basketball, but going by the nationals over the last few years the difference hasnt been that much.

If there was to be a Adelaide team enter the SEABL besides all the extra costs those 10-12 players that you take out of the local league only make the difference in competitions even greater.

Anyway there is a SA team in the SEABL - Mt Gambier! so just support them :-)

SEABL Women, don't pay anyone (including the coach) and you could do it for approx $35,000

SEABL Men - Don't pay anyone, $45,000 would just about do it.

If the SEABL teams don't pay anyone, how the hell do the individuals survive?

Added to that, from what I am told, it costs around $40K to nominate a team in the SEABL.

Gaawwddd, it was an example of what the absolute bottom line was, you would not be in the same ball park in the men with a couple of quality players and that cost dollars...

Typical mens budget would be in the order of $70,000...

$70,000 would also be at the lower end of the scale

Lets get basketball as a whole fixed in SA before we start looking at the SEBL. The old days of SEBL were great but there is a reason we are not in it at the moment. One of the main reasons is finance.

Most SEABL teams get about 400 to 500 spectators to the games; Geelong get about 1,400 per game and pay their players with imports being on good money. Most of the clubs have good sponsors and are the top B/Ball team in the town so the community gets right behind them.

As far as standard goes there really isn't that much difference between the two comps.

TK,

With respect, the other conferences have stepped ahead of Central (in the men).

Big V are pretty much on a par with SEABL these days (SEABL has dropped in standard especially over the last two years). Waratah is progressively getting stronger and the Sunstate (nth Qld basically) is quite strong.

If you think back when the big expansion started around 2001 the Central was always beating other conference teams; however in the last two ABA finals Central has taken a bit of a beating on the first day of finals (not sure which conferences beat them).

The women is a different case. While SEABL have badly diluted the bottom end of their women with NW Tassie and Albury they are still generally a bit ahead of the others. Waratah women is crap, Qld patchy, Big V starting to do what their men did and pick up but Central would still be very competitive.

Yeah, the Big V are making a big push over the past few years eg rep team in the NBL Blitz and a number of bench NBL players on some of the teams. But from memory I don't think they can go to the ABA finals (could have changed not sure).

The Big V champion does compete in the ABA National Finals.

Last year Sandringham were Big V champs and Dandenong also received a wildcard entry into the finals.

In the women Eltham represented the Big V.

To be brutally honest, I don't think an Adelaide team could compete in SEABL, unless they were a combination team from the BEST players in the ABL. Last year in the ABA Nationals, Woodville went to Geelong, and got hammered by Sandringham and a QBL team, and for a Waratah team (Sydney Comets) to lose to a SEABL team (Bendigo Braves) with Shawn Redhage canning 47 points shows the power of the high-range SEABL clubs. The only other league, other than the SEABL, which has enough clout to upset them, is Queensland... and this has been proven by the majority of National Finals winners either being SEABL or QBL teams... and both leagues have at least 1 import in every club as the norm... it is rare to see a SEABL or QBL club without an import or two.

how about an open National week long open tournament, aka Cutters v Bombers

A team to spend more than 70k on their local state league team in the mid 90's.