Hoops

Is there enough spectator support for basketball ?

581- I certainly know what I'd rather watch for 40 minutes. Give me the game over your pissing every day thanks.
I do get your point though and perhaps NBL has to go back to 12 minute quarters next season.

A couple, phil. Next time one of the crew trips over me, I'll ask how many people they have at the game.
I think your estimate is too low, and mine is probably too high.

Anon #341393, It's a good point, but from what I've seen the "second rate athletic basketball players" are in demand by the AFL; so that classification doesn't stick to everyone in Basketball.

Basketball in the past few years have increased the costs of going to a game, but they're still better than AFL tickets and on par with most A-League tickets. And considering you can pay upwards of $1200 for a seat at Boston Garden that's only $25.00 here clearly shows that "if the sport is popular, they will pay". It may be extreme comparing a Celtics ticket versus a Sixers ticket, but there's a reason why people go to a game in the NBA and pay that amount.

Yes, there is a problem and it's being addressed. However realists understand that 2-3 years won't do it. That's the length of time it will take to stabilize the league and secure the existing fanbase.

Statman, you nailed the topic on the head with a good answer. Case closed.

Anon 341337, while it's always good to throw the "social responsibility" question into these conversations; but businesses don't need social acceptance to make money.

As Statman said, businesses get involved in sponsorships due to the advertising and association benefits, nothing more. Basketball needs to become an attractive venture with plenty of TV, Radio etc. coverage spamming over the airways.

Technically the cost of slapping a brand on a team logo and donating an amount to funding a team is cheaper than paying for reoccuring TV adverts; but there's no point if no one is going to see the logo on the jerseys.

The pinnacle goal that NBL would need to do is get full weekend coverage, and a bigger piece of the sports report on the evening news. With all due respect to how well the league is going so far, that goal is at least 10-15 years away.

The AFL have a much better, more streamlined PR machine. In today's "Crowvertiser", a full page dedicated to AFL in the off season. All filled with "non-stories" which look like they could be straight from a PR Company Press Release.

Story 1: "My ATM owes Power $350K" - big deal. ABC Learning owes ?
Story 2: "Strong bodies on Port roster" - some even stronger ones elsewhere, but is it newsworthy?
Story 3: "Captain Kirk's new sunship enterprise" - story of ex Swan Kirk going to GC Suns - yep, that made my day just knowing that.
Story 4: "Ready to exceed Day's dream", by Zac Milbank. The story of one WWT Eagles struggle to play SANFL, now he had a premiership medal and Essendon are after him (Presumably so he can play in their reserves?) Gee, a good news story that makes you feel all happy and ready to take on the day. Now I feel like climbing on my unicorn and riding off to slay the dragon and rescue the princess locked in a castle by her evil step mother.

Phil, not many fewer TV personnel required to cover a basketball game compared with the bigger sports. There'd be less cameras at bball, but total staff would still be 20-30, counting those in the OB van and looking after the equipment outside the stadium. Yvonne and I photographed a lawn bowls test match between Australia and South Africa recently. ABC had 5 or 6 cameras and about 25 people on the job. We had no idea there were so many until they asked us to photograph "the team" on the occasion of its last bowls coverage. The cost of such an exercise was the ABC's main reason for planning to abandon bowls and local footy.

Who says BHP and heh others dont put anything back into the community?

I seem to recall them announcing a project where they will be spending 30 billion in SA alone. Sure it doesnt get their name on a basketball singlet but Id suggest that building an entire town and employing how ever many thousands of people (both directly and indirectly) is a pretty good effort.

and before everyone says 'oh they are only spending that money to make themselves even bigger profits', isnt that what we sponsorship is all about? Do you reckon that Nike or gatorade just sponsor sports to get a warm fuzzy feeling? Of course not, they are doing it to sell more of their product and make more profits.

Basketball is starting pretty much from ground zero a couple of seasons ago, we just need to ensure that the sport keeps taking small steps and continues to put itself forward as a professionally run, entertaining package and hope that by doing all the little things right suport will grow and revenue will increase. Then in turn we can reinvest in the game via promotion.

Anon, good point; but every company you mentioned is a global conglomerate in their respective markets.

Unfortunately the whole process is staggered and requires a longer approach than more would like.

Your first objective is that the teams need to increase their existing numbers by putting on a performance that will keep existing numbers constant and encourage that "loyal" fan-base to get the word out. This means for example, the Sixers needing to return to some guaranteed finals form as they had just on about 7 years ago.

Once the existing fan-base is guaranteed and you get the additional people turning out, then you guarantee sellouts. Maintain the sellouts and then you need to start advertising to encourage the value of getting a Sixers ticket.

When you get the over-demand for a Sixers game again, then you can start to get the word out to the more lucrative sponsors who will be interested in investing in a team that has a popular demand.

This progressive chain needs to be spread across all teams. The "expansions" are always a bonus, but only if the plan is sustainable and you have a guaranteed fan-base to kick things off.

Once the global demand is up, then you start advertising the league and build corporate interest. We have the benefit of having a lot of close games for the past few seasons; unfortunately the fair share of live games on TV haven't covered these (but you can't predict).

Keep in mind that the AFL did this and make a national push at the right time to get the masses interested and the corporate sponsors.

NBL can do just the same, but it starts with maintaining and securing the loyal fan-base for each team before trying to rope in the rest of the nation.

I remember someone telling me once that with AFL, you can get 35,000 every second week for six months of the year, with NBL, it's 5,000 every week or second week.

Media coverage and PR has a lot to do with spectators as well.

The AFL always have a story in the Crowvertiser every day, even if it 's a "made up story" about someone's groin, or behaving badly, or "next big thing"