Tasmania is set to rejoin the National Basketball League after a 25-year absence in a deal to be announced in Hobart today.
According to the Mercury, NBL owner Larry Kestelman is due to award the league’s tenth licence to the state this afternoon.
The new team is expected to join the competition for the 2021-22 season.
The announcement hinges on the Glenorchy City Council agreeing to sell the Derwent Entertainment Centre to the state government, which will contribute $40 million to its redevelopment to prepare it as the team’s home court.
Tasmania has been represented by three teams in the history of the NBL: the Devonport Warriors the Launceston Casino City Tigers and, most recently, the Hobart Devils, which dissolved in 1996.
Establishing a new team in the Apple Isle has been under serious consideration for at least six months, with the establishment of the NBL Tasmania Advisory Board in August 2019 preceding the state hosting the 2019-20 preseason competition.
Kestelman has previously said he was hoping to have a deal ready to announce before the end of 2019, but negotiations with the state government continued into the new year.
A new team would be the first to compete in the NBL since South East Melbourne Phoenix joined the competition in 2019-20.
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