Another blow to the NBL as the Spirit collapses
Roar Rookie
By Trevor, 26 Nov 2008 Trevor is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Basketball, NBL, Sydney
The NBL released a statement yesterday regarding the dire financial problems of the Sydney based Spirit. At this stage they claim it’s too early to decide on the future of the team, but say the Spirit may not be able to continue for the remainder of the season.
This is another example as to why the NBL has called for a complete overhaul, including stringent financial guidelines for future franchises.
Hopefully a way can be found to keep the Spirit viable this season. If the new NBL is to prosper I feel they need a team in Sydney.
Maybe this could be an opportunity to reintroduce the beloved Kings or perhaps even relocate another troubled franchise for next season.
Photo by Trevor Jackson
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Pippinu said | November 26th 2008 @ 8:23am | Report comment
Crawford report Mark II anyone?
Ronnie from Lonnie said | November 26th 2008 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Looks to be the case, Pippinu. I think moves are already afoot to merge the NBL with the national administrative body? However, the rot seems so bad that a report is probably required.
Hard to believe the NBL was giving the VFL/AFL a decent touch-up back in the late 1980′s/early 1990′s.
Even though I don’t get into basketball, it’s sad to see what’s happening to the sport at the national league level, esp. given the sport is the world’s second most popular representative teams sport after football.
Speaking of which, the NBL’s woes are indeed a very timely warning to the FFA and HAL to keep on running a tight operation from the point of view of on-field quality control and fiscal responsibility.
I think Rebecca Wilson was sort of trying to argue this before her article degenerated into a rambling, pointless and embarassing exercise.
Michael DiFabrizio said | November 26th 2008 @ 11:58am | Report comment
Guys, they’ve already had the report and it was released a couple of months back. There was cause for a bit of Crawford Report-type optimism in there (including an audacious goal to become a top 3 sport in Australia in terms of attendees and participation — i’m geussing that’s the two of them combined.)
But basically, the NBL and BA are merging and an as yet un-named new NBL is set to start next year. They’re the fundamentals of it.
The loss of the Spirit seemed somewhat inevitable given the push for the return of the Sydney Kings. And it is fair enough, the Spirit pulled a crowd earlier this year of below 1,000. At a national level that is simply not good enough. That said, it is a shame this is happening mid-season as players have bills to be paid and the scheduling for the rest of the season will need to somehow be adjusted.