When South Dragons Basketball Club co-owners Mark Cowan and Raphael Geminder decided to not enter a submission for the 2009-2010 NBL season, the basketball world was rocked by the move, with fans saying here we go again.
The 2008/2009 NBL champions left sporting mad Melbourne with one team once again, the Melbourne Tigers, who reversed their decision to also pull out of the season.
As the revamped season limps back into the sporting landscape, with the season less than two months away, it is all but certain that after this year, which many see as merely a holding season, there will once again be two teams representing Victoria in the NBL.
Yet the one thing that is not known is whether it will be called the South Dragons or another totally new name.
Melbourne Victory boss Geoff Lord has so far shown a strong interest in taking over the second license, with it potentially called the Melbourne Victory Basketball Club.
The interest has not gone away, with Lord still working behind the scenes to get it done.
If he is successful, which looks all but certain at this stage, the dilemma becomes whether he keeps the name the South Dragons, and as a previous member and passionate supporter of the South Dragons, I’m here to tell the Melbourne Victory owner that if he wants this venture to be successful, he must keep the South Dragons name for a number of reasons.
One reason is that supporters of clubs who have held the second license, like the South East Melbourne Magic, Victorian Titans, North Melbourne Giants and now more recently the South Dragons, have been through a lot with their clubs continuing to fold.
This meant for a lot of supporters the South Dragons, who were their last chance for basketball.
Melbourne Victory should be very careful not to alienate the few passionate basketball supporters left in the state, in the naive belief that their football fans are going to go support the basketball just because their team owns the club.
If you remeber Carlton’s attempt with football, you would understand that it doesn’t always work.
The second reason is that the South Dragons had an extremely good relationship with basketball associations, with many of them very good people to have on your side. The best thing for Melbourne Victory to do is build on the strong links Cowan forged with the associations rather than starting again.
Thirdly, the Dragons have spent over a million dollars, if not more, on marketing the club in basketball quarters and creating a market leading club which is the envy of the NBL. With much of the ground work done in creating an image, the new owners would be left with a pretty easy job.
And finally the club now has history.
With the South Dragons Basketball Club winning the 2008/2009 NBL championship, it would be a shame to kill a club who has enjoyed recent success. The club is known as a successful club now, and we all know that brings the kids to the club.
In order to make the venture successful, Learn from the mistakes of the past and don’t start again!
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