New Year Challenges for 'Resurgent' Basketball

Basketball Australia Chief Executive Larry Sengstock says the New Year is presenting a new set of challenges for the National Basketball League (NBL) as it looks to capitalise in 2011 on the strong growth achieved in 2010.

Last year saw the NBL, make a series of huge advances including an expansion to nine teams with the readmission of the Sydney Kings, a move back to free-to-air television with the signing of a five-year deal with Network Ten and its digital sports channel ONE and the signing of a three-year partnership with iiNet that saw the competition become known as the iiNet NBL Championship. Additional new long-term partnerships were also formed with Centrebet, AND1 and Spalding, all of which has the NBL poised to make further advances in 2011 according to Sengstock.

As Sengstock explains "2010 for the NBL was all about laying a strong foundation for future growth and we are definitely now in a position to capitalise on all of last year's hard work.

"Our new partnerships with iiNet, Centrebet, AND1 and Spalding have given the NBL a financial injection which we have since invested back into the sport. Fans have seen the direct result of that with increased marketing activities and behind the scenes we have also been able to put in place some key staff to help further drive growth."�?

Despite the Kings' 1-13 win-loss record, Sengstock is adamant that the return of a Sydney team to the iiNet NBL Championship has been a success.

"The greatest fallacy in sports is that success on the court equals success off it. There are countless examples in every professional sport that comprehensively disprove that theory. Only one team can win the title each year, so the health of a team simply cannot be judged in championship trophies or wins and losses.

"Despite their losses on-court, the Kings have been competitive in almost every game, they lead the NBL in attendance, they have been visiting literally hundreds of schools and local basketball associations as part of an extensive grass roots program and their website is continually the leader among all teams in terms of fan traffic.

"Their continued participation in the NBL also gives young basketball players in Sydney a team to follow and something to aspire to, as well as providing additional playing spots at the elite level for Australian talent. Sydneyâs return to the league has been great for the NBL and great for basketball overall."

Sengstock said the NBL's next challenge was to re-establish a sustainable NBL team in Brisbane and wouldn't rule out the possibility of a tenth club entering the iiNet NBL Championship for the 2011/12 season.

"Some passionate and dedicated people in Brisbane have been putting in a lot of hard work behind the scenes to try to bring the Bullets back to the NBL next season and there have been some positive signs on that front in recent weeks" Sengstock stated, adding "there remains however a lot of work to be done before we would consider issuing a tenth NBL license. We simply must ensure any new team that enters the competition is financially viable in the long-term.

"We are committed to having an NBL team back in Brisbane at some point in the not too distant future but whether that is next season or the season after remains to be seen. We have to follow the appropriate process and simply can't rush our due diligence on any new potential expansion team."

In a further boost to the NBL, the Cairns Taipans had their first sell-out of the Cairns Convention Centre since 2008 when they attracted 5,300 people to their New Year's Eve game against the Sydney Kings. Overall, average attendance per game is up significantly in the NBL this season. The league average is 3,905 compared to last seasonâs average of 3,590.

Image shows basketball at Allphones Arena.

5th January 2011 - IINET JOINS WITH WOMEN’S NBL