NBL finals crowds experience dramatic rise

Crowds for the recently completed National Basketball League Finals series more than doubled the attendance at last season's iiNet NBL Championship post-season, Basketball Australia has announced.

All three games of the recent NBL Grand Final series between the New Zealand Breakers and Perth Wildcats were total sell-outs, while 54,696 people flocked to see the nine NBL Finals games at an average of over 6,000 people at each game.

That is more than twice the total number of fans that attended the 2011 NBL Finals series, when 26,066 people tasted the post-season action. In total, 579,839 people attended iiNet NBL Championship games in season 2011/12.

The growth in Finals attendance follows the recent announcement that the average NBL attendance at regular season games had grown for the third straight season in a row.
Crowds at NBL regular season matches this season rose by 3% over the 2010/11 campaign.

Over the past three seasons the average NBL regular season crowd has grown each year, with a total growth of 20% in crowds across the league since the 2009/10 season.

Basketball Australia Chairman Kristina Keneally said the huge crowds at the Finals helped cap off what was an immensely successful 2011/12 campaign.

Keneally "we couldn't have asked for a better way to finish the season than with three amazingly close and emotional games of basketball played before capacity crowds in Auckland and Perth.

"The atmosphere at the games was simply phenomenal and I have no doubt we will have converted lots of people who were previously just casual fans into ardent supporters through the course of the Grand Final series.

"This season we have once again seen significant growth across the board for the NBL in all major key performance areas.

"That is a terrific indicator of the buoyant health of the league and sets us up perfectly to capitalise on that growth next season. We have already renegotiated an improved TV contract with our Australian broadcast partner TEN through the 2014/15 season and the majority of our major corporate partners are already confirmed in long-term agreements. It is a truly exciting time for the NBL and we have good reason for optimism."

The 2012/13 iiNet NBL Championship season is expected to tip-off in early October 2012.