Hoops

High Stakes Hoops tips off to tiny crowd

What concerns me is how bad it will look on Adelaide in future years when this tournament is held in a different city. They started in Adelaide because of the basketball crowds they get here and yet the organisation was so poor, hardly anyone went. The organisers will now learn from their mistakes and improve on it in the future. The improvement will benefit another city who will get better crowds as a result of it and then make Adelaide look bad because they couldn't attract a crowd.

Isaac, you may be right with this comment

You have to choose between live coverage (getting on TV at all would be hard!) or a crowd and I think they made the call about TV very early.

X, was Jackson talking some trash or something? From my comfy spot on the couch, I saw nothing but inspired defence from the guy. He disrupted the Rush all night by getting his hands in everything. I'd almost forgotten people could play defence that way after this season ;-)

A bit on the TV news services tonite about Maher's "comeback" and Cole on the sidelines and up against hodge tomorrow - should help a bit with crowd.

should have given out free tickets at local shopping centres and schools....a non existant paying crowd looks pathetic on TV.

TC, I'm with you mate, that Fleet team was fun to watch. Nice to see a team that plays smart and hustles so hard on defence.

Jackson didn't show much offensively, but he was in everything on the defensive end. Don't know if stats are available anywhere, but he must have had a lot of steals and deflections!

Riley Luettgerodt looked like a real smart player, outworking opponents on both ends of the floor. Made me think of a mini Ricketts. Didn't show much range though, so that might count against him for an NBL spot.

Chris Goulding: another smart player with good court vision, he can flat out score and worked really hard defensively, rebounding very well against bigger opponents. You can come play for the Sixers anytime you want Chris! ;-)

Luke gave the Fleet a massive advantage inside. The Rush got back into the game when the Fleet went away from the big fella in the third quarter. I still get frustrated with how often Luke gets muscled out of position, but he should still be a dominant NBL big man for years to come if he stays in Oz.

Trueman: the Breakers have a real solid young big there. Held the fort pretty well when Luke got in foul trouble.

Nice to see Will Farley still has game as well.

Does live really matter?

You could play some during the day - LIVE
Some at night - replayed later that night or as a lead in to the following days game.

Best of both worlds, get some live and some at crowd friendly times. Don't have to worry about finding out the score and ruining the replay because you couldn't find it if you tried.

Don't need it over 2 weekends but including Saturday is a must from an attendance point of view surely, and it gives you something to watch after the AFL Saturday night.

The line ups are fine.

The lack of promotion and weekday scheduling is not.

From the sounds of it even Sheffield Shield cricket gets higher numbers.

Credit where it is due, thanks to JVG for organising a bball event in Adelaide. But next time hopefully he schedules it so more fans can go and watch or watch it on tv. If they had night games and Saturday games I am sure viewership and attendance would be alot better.

Isaac, someone should tell Dann that then, because he is 6'8 and he played like a big man today! Defended the paint aggressively, rebounded well, defended Galen Young a few times, was always looking to get into the paint to overpower and shoot over his opponent.

Are any stats being recorded and put on a website anywhere??

I love it how the team rosters are still "coming soon" on the event website.

thats good to hear Isaac, glad they werent expecting much. i think tomorrow will be a better day but who knows. i told my little brother to go so him and his mates will be there all day tomorrow, he is in school and he plays ball for a club not sure which he is only 14 but he said he had no idea it was happening, so very poor advertising as we already know

Embarassing crowd, hope it picks up later in the day.

I enjoyed the first game though. Millard broke the game open with some steals and fast break points after the Cyclones fought hard and lead in the early stages. After looking good early though, Millard also showed that his outside shot might be a little suspect.

Dann was good for the Cyclones, wouldn't mind seeing him as a backup big man for the Sixers rather than Coops. Mario Brown was solid too as a hustling big man and Woodberry showed he can shoot, but struggled with his handles a bit under pressure. (Anyone know if he is related to Steve Woodberry?)

Monarchs clearly the superior team. Their bench depth really told on the Cyclones, who once tired, were easily overcome on the glass and turned the ball over too much. Galen Young was too big inside for the Cyclones and they had too many athletes with Hodge, Tucker, Millard, etc.

Nice TV Sports Basketball reference TC2. Great game in its day. I remember many epic battles against Brick Riordan's team. Wasn't he part of the 'Cinemaware' team whose players were all named after the game developers? Funny how they always seemed to rip it up - it was the ultimate example of 'computer bullshit' when they'd go on unstoppable runs!

does anyone know why it has been setup the way it has? there is no way in anyones right mind that they expected a massive turnout. so is this what they were expecting? are they just expecting to make it back from the people viewing on tv at home? i can see the tv part helping but i agree that the empty crowd is hurting it too. mind you ill be going tomorrow.

OMG ulius still carrying on in the post game interview.

Two of the WORST free throws I have eva seen followed by a pitiful jumper.

Not a high standard, very loose atm

How are Ohmi Godfrey and Brick Riordin going?

Reading this thread is like watching a Ricky Gervais TV show. Feeling terribly uncomfortable but yet I can't look away...

There is no question that the promotion has been terrible. Even if you get 1000 people to the final (doubtful), there has been too much reliance on viral promotion.

There are just a whole heap of problems with this and I'm not even a marketing person:

- Prohibitive scheduling
- Reliance on core basketball community
- Minimal promotion to broad audience / over-reliance on viral marketing
- Little brand recognition. While there are established names playing, does anyone care about any particular team?

It actually opens up new sponsorship opportunities. Someone like Aussie Home Loans could now jump on board and tie in their Low Interest products with the low interest tournament.

It looks really bad on TV...

Just heard the same thing from a mate watching on TV. This is absolutely hilarious. Next to no promotion and poor scheduling; Foot Locker must have money to piss away if they've brought all these players in to play to no one.

Also; a little birdy tells me Maher may be considering something very "Un Maher-like" during tomorrow's game at 6pm. I'll let you lookup who the Fleet are playing and make your own conclusions =D

very disappointing, but what were they expecting? people gotta work. ill be going tomorrow though along with a few others. does anyone know if there is a live scoreboard version?