Basketball Australia (BA) have dug their heels in and are planning to go ahead with a reduced seven-team interim national league starting later this year.
There was widespread speculation the proposed new NBL set for late 2009 was going to be put on hold to iron out the massive creases that remain on the domestic scene.
Instead, BA plan to go ahead with what is essentially a shadow competition without any presence in Australia’s three biggest markets – Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
The proposed clubs at this stage are Perth, Townsville, Cairns, Wollongong, New Zealand, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.
In a frustrating revelation, BA could not even confirm on Tuesday the new league would definitely go ahead this year, with further meetings with the seven clubs to take place on Wednesday.
What they could say is the seven-team model is their preferred scenario for 2009-10.
The plan is to then add teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from 2010 onwards, when the new national league would finally be realised.
BA chief executive Larry Sengstock said their immediate concern was providing some avenue for current players and staff to ply their trade in Australia.
“We are absolutely committed to ensuring that our competition and the teams within it are financially viable and long-term sustainable,” he said at a packed media conference in Sydney.
“We’re therefore working with our teams on a two-stage basis.
“Stage two … is to have a new national competition in 2010.
“In the meantime, stage one is to work with our teams that we have now because we as a sport recognise that we don’t have the ability to take time off.
“We have a number of people who work in our sport, who play our sport, and want to ensure we give them every opportunity to continue in their chosen field.”
A number of current and former players have expressed disappointment with those running the game, with many clearly not expecting the proposed new league to go ahead this year.
But Sengstock suggested they weren’t aware of all the facts and were just the kind of people BA were aiming to keep in the game with the interim league.
“It’s not necessarily their fault, unfortunately they’ve come out and made some statements that probably are uninformed in some respects,” Sengstock said.
“But that’s one of the reasons we are looking to make sure we provide for those players, so they don’t become disenchanted and we look after them and the young kids coming through.”
While the situation remains bleak, Sengstock – who has been in the job for just two weeks – insists basketball can still be revived.
“I didn’t have grey hair when I started,” Sengstock said.
“It has been a tough couple of weeks.
“This is a bit of the rough ground we have to go over in order to get some clear water going forward.
“This game is very strong in this country, we just need to work our way through some of the issues we have now, but in the end I think we’ve got a great palette to work with.”
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