Cairns Taipans in strife

[Dogwatcher]

The Taipans look like they're in administration.
Pretty bleak for basketball at the moment.

[Wedgie]

They were always going to get the arse with next season's revamp anyway.
Mind you the way things are going it wont be much of a revamp, its not like they'll be able to get rid of too many teams.
Cairns have had a fairly good supporter base in the past but have a crap deal with their venue which has left them up the proverbial creek.

[whufc]

They were always going to get the arse with next season's revamp anyway.
Mind you the way things are going it wont be much of a revamp, its not like they'll be able to get rid of too many teams.
Cairns have had a fairly good supporter base in the past but have a crap deal with their venue which has left them up the proverbial creek.

Im not a massive basketball fan but i do keep an eye out for the 36ers results. Would it be fair to say the NBL needs a A-League type revamp, having 1 team from each state expect for maybe 2 in Melbourne, Queensland and Sydney.

eg,

Adelaide 36ers
Sydney Spirit (now Bogut has lent a hand and money)
Perth Wildcats
Melbourne Tigers
South Dragons
Gold Coast Blaze
A Brisbane based team
Wollongong Hawks
New Zealand Breakers
Play them teams with a top 5 final series, similar to the SANFL.

Or do you think it needs a total revamp with all teams restarting again under new indentity's just like the A-League? What would be the ideal amount of teams from where in Australia?

It would be sad to see the NBL not exsist at some level.

[CK]

All pretty sensible stuff there whufc. I'm pretty passionate about basketball in this country and the revamp is one of the biggest crossroads the sport has ever faced. This one MUST be gotten right otherwise it can never recover.

The first thing that MUST transpire is a free-to-air deal from somewhere, and that means games shown the same day, not two days later in a graveyard slot. The audience started to drop off when a) the NBA card craze died out in Australia and b) free-to-air at realistic times disappeared. While Fox has done a great job with its telecasts, it is still a minority audience exposure, due to the take-up rate of Fox overall, and in particular, the sports channels (when compared to overall television audience). The game MUST be dragged to the people to get the crowds back.

As for the suggestions on the teams, all pretty sound. Agree on Adelaide 36ers, Perth Wildcats, Melbourne Tigers, New Zealand Breakers and South Dragons. All have proven themselves in the financial side. There needs to be a team from metropolitan NSW, and logically, Sydney Spirit fits the model, although the crowd issue - quite aside from the financial ones - must be very concerning to the NBL. It means a lot of fans have simply disappeared from the ashes of the Kings and to an extent, the Razorbacks (the Spirit only retaining some of the fans) and will be hard to win back. Interesting to note that, on the weekend of the crisis when they played South Dragons, they opened the doors for $10 adults and still only got around 2400. Compare this to Adelaide with crowds around 4500+ with $20 and $25 admission (Silver/Gold).

I'm not so certain about Wollongong, although regional NSW needs a team also. This then leads to what to do with Queensland already having three relatively strong teams - Cairns, Townsville and Gold Coast. This issue with Cairns notwithstanding, the numbers on doors indicate it can be sustained, but it does create a disparity in state representation.

Where does this leave Tasmania and the Northern Territory? Its been a long time since the Tassie Devils and if the AFL bid doesn't succeed, its an option for a team at a national level of a major sport. Games are very slowly being hosted in the NT to test the waters. Does this suggest an eventual 12 team competition is being assessed?

Either way, this really is last chance saloon for the NBL and has to be right the first time.

[Wedgie]

The problem is a revamp for soccer was always going to be a complete overahaul taking the traditional clubs out of the elite competition and starting afresh.
Basketball can't do that as its set up in most states already.
I honestly don't know how they can revamp it, but it doesn't matter what they do nothing will replicate the A-League as its 2 completely different situations, in essence the NBL has always been set up like the A-League changed to recently.
The only positive about any "revamp" is Fox have already pledged a heap of money.
They probably just have to advertise heavily and get the theatre goers in like happened in the A-League perhaps.

[bayman]

well i don't know what they charge to get in around the country but about 3 years ago i was a semi regular for the year because of the 2 for 1 tickets that were all over the place & easy to get, i didn't mind paying $22.00 or thereabouts for little bayman & myself to go with these tickets but for him & i to go without those tickets is over $50.00 including the carparking which is ludicrous imho because he can go to the footy for FREE, the afl for about $10.00 if he wanted to, it cost him nothing at the recent test match on the sunday & $10.00 on the saturday, he'll go to tomorrows one dayer & it'll cost him no more than $5.00, in other words for those with a limited budget or like me who just has a passing interest it is way too much to get in & remember this isn't the nba ffs

[whufc]

Thanks heaps and a great post.

I always hated the finals system they had in either 07,08 where eight or nine teams out of the league made the play-offs. It left way to many teams comfortably in the finals from a couple of weeks in the season leaving the majority of the regular season stagnant and insignificant.

If it was a 12 team comp i would only be going with a 5-6 team playoff series, which i think would maintain more interest in the regular season even though there would be less teams playing finals.

And yeah paying $20+ dollars to see a game which only has 48 minutes of playing time is a bit steep IMHO.

[CK]

Bayman - its $9 for kids in Gold, $7 for Silver, provided 14 and under; although I do see what you are saying. On the other hand, its our state team in a national competition, so would want to be wary of cheapening the brand too much.

[Gozu]

It looks as if the Taipans will be able to carry on for the rest of the season at this stage and they're are expected to merge with the Townsville Crocs next season in the revamped NBL playing home games in both Cairns and Townsville.

[Wedgie]

It looks as if the Taipans will be able to carry on for the rest of the season at this stage and they're are expected to merge with the Townsville Crocs next season in the revamped NBL playing home games in both Cairns and Townsville.

Crikey, that'll be interesting considering they like each other as much as Port and the Crows do!

[bayman]

Bayman - its $9 for kids in Gold, $7 for Silver, provided 14 and under; although I do see what you are saying. On the other hand, its our state team in a national competition, so would want to be wary of cheapening the brand too much.

ck, they charge top $ for what in reality is a c grade competition, yes it maybe a national & semi international competition but in reality the standard is way off the elite level & they should charge less, if they charged $10-$12 i'd go but when it is double that no way i would pay that & as for these prices the year i went i think (from memory) the lowest price i saw was in the $18.00, i didn't see anything like $7.00/$9.00 which for a kid is too much imho anyway because the kids is who you want there because they'll be the ones paying in the future

[Gozu]

Crikey, that'll be interesting considering they like each other as much as Port and the Crows do!

Yeah I know but I think realistically it has a chance to work, supposedly the ground is being laid. The Taipans owners are sick of plunging big money into underperforming teams and realise on their own they would probably struggle to afford a team in next year's comp. A bit of a low act to say "We're second to bottom and dont have a great future so we're going to pull out right now and let everyone else pay for our poor management".

[Gozu]

ck, they charge top $ for what in reality is a c grade competition, yes it maybe a national & semi international competition but in reality the standard is way off the elite level & they should charge less, if they charged $10-$12 i'd go but when it is double that no way i would pay that & as for these prices the year i went i think (from memory) the lowest price i saw was in the $18.00, i didn't see anything like $7.00/$9.00 which for a kid is too much imho anyway because the kids is who you want there because they'll be the ones paying in the future

The NBL is way better than a C grade competiton. Obviously it's the elite league in Australia but more importantly most world basketball people consider the NBL to be in the top five leagues in the world. The standard has actually never been higher in the NBL's 30 year history then right now, it's just the miss-management of a couple of owners and the fact basketball is well down the totem poll of sports in this country.

Then you factor in how respected the NBL is internationally for it's standard and the efforts of both of our national teams over the years in punching way above our weight of a population of just 20 million, it's mindblowing. The only country that out performs us in basketball per population wise is Lithuania and there basketball is their nation's #1 sport!