When the NBA released its schedule for international pre-season games, Australia again missed out.
The chance for the NBA to play games in Australia has been talked about for years but has never got off the ground. The closest Australia has come to was the canceled All-Star tour during the last NBA lockout.
The potential earnings of an NBA game being held on our shores is huge with Australia having the largest number of NBA league pass subscribers outside of the United States and the league itself maybe the most popular overseas sporting league, with stars such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant being just as well known amongst today’s youth as local stars like Lance Franklin, Michael Clarke and Billy Slater.
Merchandise such as jerseys are selling in record numbers and the NBA is even considering starting a local version of NBA TV. But perhaps the biggest group that could gain from the NBA coming to Australia would be Basketball Australia.
Despite a strong showing by the Boomers at the London Olympics, the domestic league, the National Basketball League (NBL), is struggling to regain public acceptance.
Gone are the heydays of the NBL in the late ’80s to the late ’90s, when players such as Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal and Lanard Copeland helped the NBL hold its own during the winter months, where it competed against the monoliths of the AFL and the NSWRL/ARL/NRL.
After the move to the summer months during the 1998-99 season, the league plummeted during the next decade with the low point coming in 2008 and 2009 when the league lost former powerhouse, the Sydney Kings, a founding member of the NBL, the Brisbane Bullets, the troubled Singapore Slingers, and the premiers of that season, South Dragons.
The league had no free-to-air presence and virtually had no media coverage.
Now the league has regained some of the lost ground with the Sydney Kings returning and having a strong free-to-air presence on Network Ten, but it still lags behind where it used to be in the public eye.
If you went into any playground or workplace in the country and ask someone to name five players in the NBL, you would be lucky to get one name from most. The league lacks big names so it should use the name recognition of the NBA and its starts to boost the NBL.
A game such as NBL All-Stars versus, perhaps, the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat or even the Golden State Warriors with Australian star Andrew Bogut would create a huge publicity boost for the NBL and basketball in Australia.
It would also be perfectly placed as if played in September or early October, the NBL season would be kicking off, allowing new fans to catch a glimpse of the NBL’s stars and perhaps viewing games during the season as a result.
The opportunity for a big audience on free-to=air TV should be too big an opportunity for the NBL to pass up, possibly having a similar reaction to the 2007 football match between Sydney FC and the LA Galaxy with their mega-star David Beckham, which was the A-League’s first major free-to-air TV coverage and was successful in showing the league to new fans.
The match could help teams and the league gain financial footing and if held in a city like Brisbane, could lay the ground work for a NBL team there.
However, one stumbling block remains; the NBA itself. At the present time, David Stern and the league seem more interested in increasing the NBA’s presence in Europe and Asia than in Australia.
So, therefore, Basketball Australia and the NBL should be doing everything possible to get the NBA down under as the potential gain to the domestic scene is tremendous.
Brodie
Roar Guru
This is great. I really want the NBL back in Brisbane. I know me and 5 other mates who would be all over a season membership. Guy's like Rose, LeBron, Durant, Melo will help the profile in future years.
Johnno
Guest
Is this the real Lanard Copeland. Wow if so you were awesome in your day, Would love the NBL to return to what it was the 90's when it was so popular. Change of season the right move.
Lanard Copeland
Guest
...whoop! - that fix was faster than me on tha break!! much appreciated - all is forgiven fellas. For what its worth - I think a move back to the winter season like we used to have it back in the day is a good place to start! ...& also John Dorge had the stinkiest pits in the business. Keep up the good work & remember ...you cant beat what you cant catch. LC
Lochlan Balloch
Roar Rookie
Im really sorry about that mistake
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Fixed! Sorry, fine sir.
Lanard Copeland
Guest
...all of those years finishing Gaze's 'oops & entertaing the good people of Melbourne & they still can't get my name right. damn. Best regards Lanard Copeland
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
"NBA Asia Vice-President of International Media Distribution and Global Merchandising Geraldine Pamphile told Fairfax Media that Australia had the largest amount of subscribers to ILP outside of the United States." http://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/nba-consider-more-opportunities-in-australia-following-success-of-league-pass-20130213-2ecqn.html
mahonjt
Guest
Basketball needs a fundamental rethink. There can be no short-cuts and substitutes for this. Comparisons with football are lazy and will not assist the game. Apart from a few general similarities (international, all-stars, inclusive 'young' etc...) there is very little to compare the two: (1) One is a football code. Football (as a sport, regardless of code) is somehow very deeply, tribal way - is embedded in the Australian psyche in a way no other sport is, except maybe cricket which is on the wane. (2) Football has been around for 150 years in Australia, so despite the perceptions of some egg-ball fans, it is as Australian as any other sport despite one of its great advantages – its cultural reach through its diversity and inclusiveness in ethnic, gender and body-type terms. (3) Football has a truly national footprint in a way even other football codes don't. (4) The capitalisation of one A-League club (Melbourne) is greater than the entire NBL, and its market value is even greater again. (5) The NSL, while semi-pro in technical terms, was for 28 years increasingly professional in wage terms. Despite the shut down and all the media hype, the A-League built naturally on this economic development and by reforming the governance of the game to ensure went mainstream – which is now has. (6) Football's wide Asian reach (47 Asian countries are members of the AFC) is aligned with our national interest and people, including governments and corporates, are only now starting to understand this. (7) Football has 1.7M participants and is still growing quickly. (8) A-League football is increasingly a substitute for football fans who find the EPL entertaining, yet remote and for players who find second division European football unattractive and are now either not departing or returning early (with the exception of up to 4 big football economies). (9) A 2nd division of football is finally underway and will be completed in 2014. Importantly it is truly national, semi-professional, focused on development, and given the nature of the game, able to be fully be integrated into both down to the grassroots and up to the professional levels via a national Cup competition (a third unique TV product in combination with the A-League and the Socceroos). One last thought, (10) just compare the impact of the long-standing ‘NBL All Stars’ concept with the A-League’s instantly sold out game at ANZ stadium with Manchester United? This simple comparison alone should indicate the difference in scale, scope and potential of the two leagues. Basketball needs to find its strengths – not simply hope that the success of one “summer sport” is somehow magically repeatable in another.
Johnno
Guest
We get behind the boomers and the Opals at the Olympics but that's it. Interestingly Eurobasket is really on top of the last Olympics 2012 really trying to get basketball going in the UK. The eurobasket club grand final will be held in London this yea.r
mushi
Roar Guru
Football is a very different beast though. I look at the two and think Level of natural interest. I love Basketball and have only a passing interest in round ball, but I think there are more natural soccer fans than basketball fans, perhaps a product of the amount of ex-pat English and Austrlaian gap year fans trying to recreate the English feel. Cash: The NBL jsut doesn't have the cash to pull an A League and go get say a Tracey McGrady or Vince Carter out here for a year. We are getting Johnny Flynn, Johnny Flynn is not a Del Piero, Dwight Yorke or Robbie Fowler. National team: Australia gets behind the socceroos, the boomers? I just don't see it Now this is all just my random thoughts with no real deep analysis on my part but I just can't see the NBL replicating the A League "success"
Johnno
Guest
mushi good point. The NBA is the pinnacle league and will stay that way for at least the next 20 years probably longer more like 40 years. But like in soccer with the EPL and euro champion's league, countries have domestic leagues and like to follow a domestic league to eg A-league,MLS,J-League,K-league. So the NBL will have traction still. Your right in the 90's, we only got a few highlight's of channel 10 and steve carrion and billy woods on sunday basketball. The NBL basically had a monopoly , plus lived off the highlights reels of the NBA, so fans could not really develop a connection to NBA teams, as they only saw highlights reels on ten. Forget youtube , no such thing back then in the 90's. And the A5 hoops digest and one on one magazine, was about it, and your upper deck basketball cards. Be great to get some leroy loggins and derrick rucker imports back. Heck as the article says i don't even know any NBL players anymore. heck i couldn't even confirm if Glen Saville retired in OZ or in europe. In the 90's i could name all the team squads of the NBL and all the coaches too. From Adrien Hurley to Brian Kerle, to Lindsay Gaze, and many many more.
mushi
Roar Guru
The other thing Johnno, and this goes back to the high level of NBA league pass penetration being bad, is that back in the early 90s we couldn't watch NBA games. I bought those A5 hoops digest books that were a month out of date by the time they got to our shores. If you wanted to watch the NBA the clsoest thing you got was to tune into [ten] and get you some Leroy Loggins and Derrick Rucker time. Now if the NBA excites you do you go out and watch an inferior version of it or do you fire up the lap top, tablet or Foxtel IQ and watch you some NBA?
mushi
Roar Guru
I've fallen for "hearing" something and assuming ti was true before. i wouldn't mind seeing the actual data source. If it is the case then there is no reason for the NBA to ever come here. Think about it if I've got two markets: - one worth potentially 10m at my most optimistic level of penetration and it already makes 5m with no marketing expense, and - one worth potentially 20m at my most optimistic level of penetration and it already makes 2m with no marketing expense Which market does it make more sense to deploy my attention to? the one with a 5m optimistic upside or the one with an 18m optimistic upside (and probably a 3m to 10m conservative upside)
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
I actually heard the same stat, Mushi. I was surprised, but apparently it's true.
Johnno
Guest
-The NBL rode of the free marketing of the Micheal Jordan NBA era of the 90's. -Lebron James is a star but he doesn't have the same wider audience reach that MJ had. Not yet anyway. The NBL today Townsville crocodiles are in big trouble and may fold. The owner handed in his licence. Basketball Australia rejected this, saying they have to give 9 months notice. But interesting times up at Townsville. The NBL should move it's season to January-May. A leaner meaner season. And you will get access to Eurobasket imports. The NBL style imports of the halcyon days of the 80's and 90's, Dwayne Mclain, Acie Earl,Scott fisher, ricky grace, rob roase, these type of standard imports will all come back, as they will be able to play in the OZ off season. -Like the A-league soccer the NBL are part of Asia-pacific now too, the A-league is not trying to be bigger than the j-league or the chinese super league, It can't, but it can get some market share and traction. -An Asian basketball club champion's league is on the cards too. -Kristina Keneally, ex NSW premier and Basketball Australia ceo, is deliviering a "white paper" on basketball soon,. Going to be interesting and where to next for the NBL. The new-tv thing this year was a good thing. -Alignment is the key,and the white paper will be talking about that. Linking Boomer-NBL-3rd tier SEABL,juniorbasketball -FIBA now after the Basketball world cup in 2014, is changing and expanding the world cup, going to be about 32 teams in 2019 world cup. And qualifying processes etc, and Australia will stay in oceania, but to qualify will have to go through Asia , to get into Olympics i think or the world cup , us and NZ. -So exciting times for the NBL, if it can work out a few loose ends, and change the season timetable . -get a 2nd Melbourne team, a brisbane team, a 2nd sydney team at west sydney, and look at say a Geelong, and gold coast to comeback, or Hobart or Newcastle, and keep Townsville too.
mushi
Roar Guru
Not sure where you got the data on Australia being the largest non US market for NBA league pass, but assuming it is true that gives even less reason to come here. For the players it is the most painful trip in terms distance and time zones. And when you think of potential market size we are miles behind Europe, SE Asia, china, south America etc. So why use one of your limited resources to get better penetration into a small market that already over performs? Wouldn't that be your lowest return on investment option available?
Mella
Guest
The NBA's probably just too big to be interested in Australia, its huge in China, big in Europe, even Latin America would be a much bigger market than Aus. I think BA and the NBL should have a look at developing better ties with China. For the Boomers try to replicate a Bledisloe Cup like annual three match series with China outside the NBA season and really make sure you get full strength nationals teams. The NBL should look at a Champions league like set up, maybe top 4 teams versus the CBA top 4. Then you get a bit of NBA glam cause guys like Tracey McGrady and Stephan Marbury are playing in the CBA. If this guy from New Zealand Steven Adams becomes an NBA star (ok give it five years) even a series with NZ could have real star power in the future. BA really isn't making the most of basketballs international strength.