Hoops

New 36ers consortium wants to buy, not invest

You can't compare what they earn with the majority of the population. The starting 5 of every team puts them in the top 50 in their field in Australia. Now compare their salaries to the top 50 doctors, lawyers, salespeople, Managers, Accountants, fashion models, whatever field that you are that good at. The fact that their salaries cannot be supported while clubs are losing money is more a reflection on the promotion of the game rather than what the player is worth.

EC, how is getting paid in excess of $100k for playing basketball for half the year getting paid what you are worth? Before you say it, yes I know not all players earn that much, but as I understand it plenty do (and much more besides).

Just compare that to what many people who work hard all year (and generally bring in a profit I might add) earn in SA. Most people will never see $100k plus for even one year of their working life.

Generally, if you are earning more than $100k, you are an Executive in government, senior manager/ director of a business, own a business, etc. You are going to be doing 55-60 hours per week minimum. Would most players spend even close to that many hours a week training, doing weights and fitness and playing?

If the league can actually turn a profit on the performance of the players, by all means, up their salaries accordingly. But right now, the sport is at rock bottom, and I agree with some of those commenting above that getting a stable league with all teams financially viable should be priority no. 1.

I don't think the players are overpaid. You have to consider that in sport they can only do it until around 35 years of age. In most other jobs you can work until 65. Why would a player put in all the effort in developing himself to play at the top level when he is only getting very few years out of it.

I don't think the Sixers are done just yet. There is a great deal of support out there in more ways than one.

Yea but Schenscher is talking about Europe now anyway, so i dont think thats a issue id rather have a league that exists and is profitable with a few more of the top ABL or returning college guys guys getting slightly bigger roles eg burdon and ng if some of the top players leave than a league that goes bust every few years trying to compete with euro salaries for top players.
Maybe season timing could be slightly altered so say schenscher could play for the 36ers at top nbl money and then go to europe for half to 3 quarters of a season, that would achieve the best of both worlds.
If the leagues cap dropped the whole league would have to drop there spending not just teams like the hawks and spirit last season so the difference between the big spenders eg dragons/tigers to teams like the hawks would be no different and if some sort of auditing was in place of the cap it would be even closer, as surely the league would notice if they dropped the cap in say half and the tigers had the same amount of talent for example, a bit of re jigging of the points cap could also help with this, and they would have to get player values right which would require a lot of adjustments from what i heard on the OT with JR.
And yea i wouldnt want them to get a seperate license, i want the 36ers to survive but if mal and eddy are being that stubborn and not selling or asking more than the nbls fees you would have to consider it wouldnt you as a last resort.

I would love to see the Sixer's play out of the entertainment centre.... Its where they should have played form the start.... Just think, if the sixers had of played out of the "ent cent" after Apolo closed BASA wouldnt have had the massive debt that it incured from the dome and we as a basketball comunity would still have a great facility like Athol Park

Yea i have thought for a while accross many sports where clubs are losing money that salary caps are too high including the AFL. Eg would clubs like Port, Kangaroos, etc be losing money if they dropped the cap by say 2million dollars, i think its around 8mil so would still be 6mil.
I think they should work out in the nbls instance a average crowd of say 3000 + a average level of sponsorship and how much profit they will make from that and work out the salary cap to ensure the clubs atleast break even.(covering venue hire, staff wages, etc aswell) That way they will pay for themselves and owners are not going to have to continiuously put money in and would be far less likely to sell. Then as the league gets stronger then slowly increase the cap. It would mean that some guys like say a CJ may go the Europe, but i say so be it atleast we will have a strong league for many years, and players currently already look to Europe and many of them who dont have a Euro passport would not last long in Europe as imports IMO, so would end up playing NBL.
I thought it was a bit weird that the newNBL increased the salary cap from last year with so many clubs struggling. I actually like Issacs idea of all clubs putting the amount of the cap into a league bank account at the start of each season, then the league pays the players, no need for bank guarantee and interest earnt can be used by the league, very smart if only BA thought of this and the owners agreed to do it.
Anyway back on topic i hope this consortium gets the team and if Mal wont sell they should go straight to BA for a license to keep a SA team in the NBL, they are willing to move to the Entertainment Centre so Mal/Eddy cant hold the dome as ransom for them to buy the team from them at there asking price if the investors deem it to be too high.