Swansea City co-owner Romie Chaudhari has been awarded a licence for a new NBL team, with the location for the competition’s ninth franchise yet to be determined.
NBL owner Larry Kestelman is committed to expanding the eight-team competition by 2019/20 with Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Chaudhari already invested in the league as a small stakeholder in the consortium which purchased the New Zealand Breakers earlier this year.
“We will now work with him to identify the most suitable location for the new team but we’ve already had huge interest from around the country as we look to meet demand and growing interest in the game.” NBL Chief Executive Jeremy Loeliger said.
Swampy
Guest
Were Kestelman and choudri playing poker and choudri won an nbl licence as part of a bet?
Internal Fixation
Guest
We saw a rigged finals series last year. When LK owns a team the others have no chance. Sobey head butt ejection was a sad joke. Particularly when Childress was taken out by a dirty Barlow cheap shot. This is a sad blow for the integrity of the NBL.
anon
Roar Pro
The Australian "pro sports" market is the most saturated on Earth given our relatively small population. The entire professional sports model of fleecing spectators to watch a second-rate competition, hawking media rights to TV broadcasters, etc is dying. People have found other ways to be entertained, especially people under 25. Not to mention I can watch basketball or soccer from any corner of the Earth whenever I want in HD.
Damo
Guest
My money is on a 2nd Melbourne team. But you're right that it's weird disclosing the deal without a location. Maybe the new owner is willing to discuss location options and they're doing some more analysis work? I'm not sure if it's necessarily rushed if it's not until 19/20 and there has already been work done around a new Tassie team and investigations into Newcastle, Gold Coast (please no) and even a second Perth team (that won't work either). I also think this announcement may be part of a game with rumors of new TV deals being revealed soon. He may have needed this confirmation to seal the deal.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
The NBL must be relatively confident on the funding. Otherwise what is the point of even announcing it? Save it for when there's actually a location.
Scott Pryde
Expert
You can't make this up. Owns one team, is a stakeholder in another and doesn't even know where the new licence will be located. Good on the NBL for expanding, but this feels rushed.