Australia will be home to a new professional basketball competition when Champions League Basketball launches in May 2017. The concept is essentially Big Bash for hoops and will feature several rule variations.
Firstly, there will be ‘game breakers’, where fluorescent backboards will light up for three minutes per half and three-pointers will be worth four.
The game will last 48 minutes, there will be fewer timeouts and shorter pre-game and half-time warm-up periods.
An ‘every quarter counts’ initiative – first trialled and used by the NBL in its annual pre-season blitz – will see championship points awarded to the team winning each quarter of the game. One point per quarter won, plus three extra points for the overall winner.
Bonus points will be awarded for teams reaching 100 points during a game, even in a loss, meaning no ‘dead’ ends to games when a result may have been decided. Champions League Basketball matches continue to matter until the final buzzer. Playoff positioning may even come down to these bonus points.
Champions League Basketball (CBL) will start with eight teams and expand to twelve by 2020, featuring sides from Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
So why is the CBL so important for the future of basketball in Australia?
Interest in the sport has never been higher, the success of Australian players in the NBA has allowed the media to devote more column space to the sport. Basketball Australia have more than 400,000 registered players and there are tens of thousands of social players throughout the nation. Yet the NBL crowd numbers are suffering, with crowds reaching more than 6000 scarce outside of Perth in the 2014-15 season.
Champions League Basketball could be the key to bringing fans back to the NBL.
The competition will run from May to August, meaning fans can attend basketball all year round, while more coverage will enter the mainstream media to keep the sport in the spotlight.
Modified versions of sports appeal to the younger market. When kids get hooked on something it’s tough to get them off it which means interest should carry to the NBL.
It is a big chance to reach the international market, too. Have an overseas contingent of teams means the money they can make from television right will be increased. The easiest way to sell a product (in this case the sport of basketball as a whole) is to have the product in front of you. Yes CLB and the NBL are different leagues but this leads perfectly into my last point…
This is a huge marketing opportunity for the NBL. Players will play in both leagues, clubs have the target audience they need for season tickets sitting right in front of them. If the clubs are proactive they will use the opportunity for gift-wrapped fans to sell more tickets and merchandise.
Does CLB lead to a guaranteed increase in fans at NBL games from 2017 onwards? No, but it does gives the NBL an opportunity they so desperately need.
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