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Opinion

Important lessons the A-League can learn from the NBL

17th December, 2019
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Roar Rookie
17th December, 2019
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This year, there has been controversy surrounding the rivalry between the National Basketball League and the A-League.

As a fan of both sports – albeit heavily favouring football over basketball – I am in a great position to unpack things the NBL does better than the A-League.

Advertising
Advertising for the A-League has been notoriously poor since the competition came into existence.

Their strategy is to create a singular, high-budget advertisement for the entire league, each season, and to somehow magically appeal to people in every market.

NBL marketing is done by each individual team, with a common radio ad that tells listeners when the next game is on.

A case study of how the NBL’s marketing works better is Perth, where the Wildcats and Glory compete for the rank of the state’s fourth most-popular sporting team – behind West Coast Eagles, Fremantle Dockers and Perth Scorchers.

The Wildcats reign supreme in attendance, and that is likely because of their advertising. Wildcats’ advertising can be seen on TV, on the radio, in newspapers, on buses and in train stations, often showing a list of fixtures and ticket prices, alongside an image of a player and a catchy slogan.

Glory’s advertising pales in comparison. The most prevalent ad this season was a 30-second video featuring Chris Ikonomidis dribbling for three seconds.

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Chris Ikonomidis of the Glory

AAP Image/Darren Pateman

Glory have run some thorough campaigns, including last year’s ‘Fill the park’, which resulted in a city A-League record of almost 18,000 attendees.

The fact that this has happened infrequently suggests A-League teams cannot afford it more often, as the marketing budget is instead spent on campaigns such as ‘Where heroes are made’.

The A-League must move to a more efficient, team-based strategy.

Playing arenas
In the 2019-20 season, Brisbane Roar, Newcastle Jets, Melbourne City, Western United and Wellington Phoenix all play in stadiums inappropriate for football, or the size of their club.

In the NBL, all teams play in appropriately sized, purpose-built arenas. This provides an exciting atmosphere that would be eliminated if each team had another 5000 empty seats.

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If every team in the A-League played in boutique stadia, such as Adelaide United’s Hindmarsh Stadium, it would create an atmosphere to make football one of the hottest sporting tickets in Australia.

Foreign player signings
As neither leagues are world-class competitions, they both have to choose wisely when it comes to signing foreign players.

The two leagues have different approaches, with the A-League signing older players with proven talent, while the NBL prefers young players.

A case study of this can be seen when comparing the highest profile players – Alessandro Del Piero (who was 37 when he joined Sydney FC), and LaMelo Ball (who was 18 when he joined Illawarra Hawks).

Del Piero was a great asset who helped raise Sydney FC’s average attendance from 11,861 in 2011-12 to 18,637 in 2012-13, and brought massive crowds in across the country.

The foreign exposure the Italian brought to the A-League however, is minimal compared to the constant talk about LaMelo in the United States basketball media.

Further, LaMelo has led to a record NBL crowd in Sydney of 17,541 and helped bring the NBL average attendance from 6149 in 2018-19 to 7357 in 2019-20.

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The A-League should change its marquee player policy to something akin to the NBL’s Next Stars program, which helps bring NBA draft prospects to Australia.

Players that the A-League could target include the likes of Celtic’s 16-year-old Karamoko Dembele and Paris Saint-Germain’s 16-year-old Xavi Simmons.

With the promise of first-team football in a quality league before moving to a big European club, they could increase Australia’s reputation on the world stage.

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