South Dragons pull out of NBL

[Mr66]

Chairman Mark Cowan has just announced that the defending champions won't be playing in the NBL in 2009-10.

[gadj1976]

I just read the article too. What a joke the NBL will be if it goes ahead this season.

[heater31]

the common denominator is the head coach. Every thing he touches turns to poo.

[Mr66]

the common denominator is the head coach. Every thing he touches turns to poo.

Even though he wins championships.
The whole sport is now (officially) a laughing stock.

[magpie in the 80's]

Now the Melbourne Tigers won't play this upcoming season.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 88,00.html

[Magpiespower]

So no teams from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

And possibly Adelaide.

What's the point?

[Booney]

There is no point MP and at this stage there is no NBL or B League or whatever they plan to call it either.

I think this is the death of B'Ball in Australia. The game has for some time been unable to command big crowds and big sponsorship $$ and as a result it has found itself fall well behind the bigger sporting pursuits of the land. I think semi-pro state leagues will just feed the National and International scene.

Sad day I think.

[Footy Smart]

RIP NBL.... very unfortunate but i dont see it coming back bigger and better. Some supporters will move onto other sports and then the NBL will need to try and get them back which will be very hard.

[Interceptor]

Basketball Australia announces 7-team comp


A national basketball competition will start later this year with just seven teams taking part.

Basketball Australia (BA) has announced its plan to go ahead with the new league, despite no teams from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne being involved.

The South Dragons and Melbourne Tigers announced over the last few days that they would not be participating in any new competition.

That leaves Perth, Adelaide, Townsville, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Wollongong and New Zealand to participate in the new league, which will tip off in October.

BA chief executive Larry Sengstock has told The World Today it is important to keep the sport going in Australia.

"We are trying to make sure that we provide opportunities for our players, our teams, our coaches, our administrators, our sponsors, supporters, and every opportunity to see basketball at its highest level in Australia in the coming years," he said.

It had been suggested that basketball follow the model of soccer and take a year off before relaunching, but Mr Sengstock said BA believed that is not the right way to go.

"They had a different support, a financial support, I suppose going forward. We don't have that," he said.

"I think they had a real reason to shut it down. They had other objectives in shutting their league down in order to restructure it. I don't think we have that.

"And I think that there's another model you could look at - baseball, that shut their league down - and hasn't recovered."

Perth Wildcats chief executive officer Nick Marvin said more information will be known about the structure of the competition after a meeting tomorrow.

He said the club's number one priority is the players.

"Unfortunately basketball is doing wonderful in Perth, it's the rest of the nation that has let us down," he said.

"So we have to make some tough decisions, but the number one focus is to keep players employed."

Former Adelaide coach Phil Smyth said the restructure could damage the sport.

"I think the bigger picture of it is that it had to be done, otherwise the league would have fallen over," he said.

"The question is now: how do they handle the relaunching?

"And I suspect that they are going to have to take a couple of steps backwards.

"I think the hardest sell is for the players to accept that they are going to have to go back to being semi-professional."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/12/2567936.htm

[Mr66]

"I think the hardest sell is for the players to accept that they are going to have to go back to being semi-professional.

They'll still be more professional than the administrators.

[76er]

I feel the death of Bball in Australia started some time ago. When channel 10 had the rights back in the late 80's early 90's they put their package together aimed solely at the kids. They also showed Sydney kings with Steve Carfino playing week in week out. With so much over the top razamatazz and Americanization many adults were turned right off. And those kids, well they moved on leaving the great holes in the stadiums.

I find this so sad. I'm sure you can remember the days when a ticket to apollo was gold.

[Dogmatic]

I wish the new league good luck however I feel it will struggle due to the logistics.
The teams could not be scattered much further apart and the expense involved in the travelling will be a killer.
Has anything changed with the stadium deals as this appeared to be an issue with the previous NBL?

[Gozu]

The Melbourne Tigers have come crawling back and have today re-joined the NBL. The Dragons look to be history after their big money man withdrew his funding because BA rightly wouldn't give him a seat on the Board. Basketball Victoria are still keen to get a team in with the Tigers but BA might stick with the eight team format for this season until the revamp next year. Shortly a partnership with Fox Sports will be announced that will see a better package than last season's deal.