2008-09 NBL Season

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:59 am

Around 4 months early I know!

I read our bloody idiot owner has fallen behind on player payments AGAIN. Firepower is snake oil.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/basketball/b ... 47712.html

I also see the Sydney Kings membership packages have been released with a full list of home fixtures.

http://admin.sydneykings.com.au/site/_c ... source.pdf

On the plus side, the tickets are affordable. They've come down or been stagnant in ticket price for a while now. Basketball is becoming affordable. On the down side, the 15 home games are broken up into 7 Wednesdays (plus 1 Thursday, 2 Fridays, 3 Saturdays and 2 Sundays). Bloody TV deal. RLWC commitments mean I will miss many of the early games but I will be back for the later ones.

Are any other fixture lists out there? There are none on the NBL site.

hot_dogma · Post by **hot_dogma** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:03 pm

It seems the Kings and Bullets maybe up the blurter.

beastjim · Post by **beastjim** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:21 pm

The Bullets really seem to be gone now. They have until June 30 to find another white knight and I just don't think there is somebody willing to do it. Eddy Groves was a god send for the place, but how many people can sustain losses ranging up to about $1 million a year.

Was it a similar thing for the kings? The didn't specify what was happening to them on the news.

However if both those teams left the competition, it would leave a massive hole in the competition, that I would have my doubts about the NBL recovering from.

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:12 pm

Jeffles apparently the NBL fixtures will be out this week.

There is one particular city in the country that is interested in getting an NBL side...

As has been the recent history of the NBL, if one falls by the way side, there are others to fill the void.

The Bullets really are a concern, great venue, inner city location, top of the ladder clash against the Wildcats and still it did not sell out its 3500 seat venue.

Compare this to the Wildcats who charge more for tickets, have no public transport to their venue, is in the middle of woop woop (bush) and you can see the issues the Bullets had of having any dent in the sporting market of Brisbane.

Which is completely different an hour down the road on the Gold Coast, which is bringing basketball to a whole new breed of basketball fans and has a very young audience. Optimism is the word here...

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:11 pm

Thanks Egan.

Basketball Australia is going through a period of Government review similar to the various ones soccer went through. I think good things can come of that but I hope there is something to salvage by the time all the reporting is finished and the strategies are finalised. You are rightt hat the GC and Perth have been positive. Things are looking good in Melbourne too. Wollongong survived some uncertainty this year as did the Razorbacks though these clubs are not out of jail yet.

Losing the Kings will be a big blow and ditto the Bullets. They've been positive forces on the sport and the league. One hopes they can survive but I see little on the horizon to get excited about.

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:16 pm

I was going to do an article, but heck I don't have time and its the least of my priorities.

Apparently Launceston is preparing a bid for an NBL side. The support for Basketball is unbelievable and there is a desire to move into the NBL (presently play in the SEBL, the womans competition).

Crowds, sponsorship is huge and Launceston seems to be a city that ticks every box for an NBL side. A long with the NBL's desire to fill departing franchises with new ones.

The NBL is not going backwards everywhere. Townsville, Cairns, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth remain stable and deliver outcomes that continues to go along positive trends. This is even the case with Singapore...

Just because a few clubs are faltering does not mean the competition is going to fall over. If it wasn't for the FFA the Mariners, Glory and Victory may not be here...

Yet there has been little to denegrate the overall health of the A-League. The NBL is not in as bad a shape as most people think...

wolves and victory man · Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:44 pm

Whats Launceston's stadium for basketball?

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:58 pm

http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=100

I would imagine this would be the venue used for an NBL side...

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:39 am

Lost in the hoopla of last night's State of Origin, the Sydney Kings (read: Tim Johnston of Firepower Snake Oil) did not meet the deadline to wipe their debts. Looks like the Kings are dead.

Mr Johnston, I would not piss on you if you were on fire.

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:25 am

What happened about Mike Wreblwjaskpolishname?

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:37 am

He said he'll take over the licence but not the debt of the old ownership group. The Snake Oil merchant has failed to pay a lot of bills.

Chuck Harmison is having a press conference this morning.

Dasher39 · Post by **Dasher39** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:02 am

It's also reported that he wanted the Kings to sit out this coming NBL season so he could get everything in order and do a complete re-launch. The NBL, obviously, didn't want that.

Not only are the Sydney Kings in trouble, the entire league is in trouble with Hummer re-evealuating their sponsorship with Fox Sports also looking at not renewing their TV rights deal.

A major overhaul is needed.

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:12 am

Dasher39 wrote:Not only are the Sydney Kings in trouble, the entire league is in trouble with Hummer re-evealuating their sponsorship with Fox Sports also looking at not renewing their TV rights deal.

A major overhaul is needed.

The Telegraph have carried that line for a few years - i.e. The Kings draw the big names sponsors to the League. They did that with Phillips and now with Hummer. I find that difficult to swallow. Sydney will still be represented - albeit by the Clipperpigs, a club that actually made their deadline last year. It's not like the largest city in the country will go completely without.

As far as the overhaul goes, they're halfway through. The NBL and Basketball Australia (BA) are being absorbed into one overarching administrative body. There are loads of reports and submissions on the BA website.

Chuck Harmison was on AFL AM last night. The audio is available here:

http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=ne ... y&id=75170

I can't access it from work. Will have to listen tonight (or someone here can give me a summary).

dibo · Post by **dibo** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:15 am

Jeffles wrote:
Dasher39 wrote:Not only are the Sydney Kings in trouble, the entire league is in trouble with Hummer re-evealuating their sponsorship with Fox Sports also looking at not renewing their TV rights deal.

A major overhaul is needed.
The Telegraph have carried that line for a few years - i.e. The Kings draw the big names sponsors to the League. They did that with Phillips and now with Hummer. I find that difficult to swallow. Sydney will still be represented - albeit by the Clipperpigs, a club that actually made their deadline last year. It's not like the largest city in the country will go completely without.

As far as the overhaul goes, they're halfway through. The NBL and Basketball Australia (BA) are being absorbed into one overarching administrative body. There are loads of reports and submissions on the BA website.

Chuck Harmison was on AFL AM last night. The audio is available here:

http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=ne ... y&id=75170

I can't access it from work. Will have to listen tonight (or someone here can give me a summary).

they need to take on an A-League style transformation (why do I feel a lot of sports will be saying that in coming years?).

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:16 am

Yep the Terror seems to think that Kings = NBL. And according to that same article Fox is only paying 800k pa to the NBL

Btw, the NBL commissioner must be the least effective administrator in the country. We only hear anything out of him when there's bad news. Ben Buckley, Demetriou, David Gallop and John O'Neill have high profiles at all times but this bloke's damn near invisible.