Hoops

NBL in Trouble?

Social media is now a backbone of both grassroots sport and professional sport yet, its only when 'gameday' arrives do they 36ers management use this tool.

In my mind, too little too late.

The word has to be put out there and yet its free. Those in high positions and indeed green pants know this yet fail to tap into the small but good market.

Its all good and well having good management but if these areas arent being utilised, then it isnt the supporters fault, its the administrators fault for not putting the product out there.

If you have an item to sell and its genuine, worthy of its status in a market and you dont advertise it well, how the **** do you intend people to buy it, let alone speak about it?

Just adding to the marketing comments above. I posted this "rant" on the NBL facebook a couple of weeks back.

Link > https://www.facebook.com/TheNBL/posts/467718269946734

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If a casual basketball fan jumped onto this page over the weekend they could be excused for thinking it was off-season.

Not one post about upcoming games since an all encompassing post on Friday.

Not one post with progress & full time scores.

It's disappointing that unofficial sites like And The Foul.net put in more effort to keep fans informed than the official social media presence.

Some clubs are doing a great job, but none of it is being promoted by the league. Is it because not all clubs aren't as strong in this realm? Perhaps their needs to be a Salary Cap place on this too to even it out.

I might be biased, but i think the stuff on the Wollongong Hawks page is pretty good & timely.

Perth, Melbourne and Townsville are extremely active with good content the NBL could easily be sharing to the wider audience. Cairns are doing good stuff with the Stiendl rookie blog and the 2nd coming of Pull the Trigger.

How many general facebook users know you can create a list to keep track of all teams? Like this: https://www.facebook.com/lists/10151082762896971

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My comments about keeping fans updated comes as a fan of the NBL, but also from doing it from a club level (i do the Hawks online social/digital stuff in a few hours each week plus game nights).

In my rant, i neglected to add that its free to look at what NBA & NFL are doing on Facebook and other social platforms. They are in-season so there's plenty of good ideas to take. They've spent the $ to determine best practise, why not follow?

The NBL's lack of effective communication and promotion to the general public hurts. A burst of hype about the NEW season soon fizzles.

There are so many cogs that just don't work together at every level the product seems to need a reboot every year.

The view (still often said in media) is that it is an American sport transplanted here struggling for recognition.

It's a moot point but the NBL needed to tweak things during the 90's boom (TV timeouts for one) to move ahead of AFL/NRL - which have followed this US model.

The crazy thing is the product itself is pretty good, and definately marketable. But the disconnect between NBL-Nationals-State-Local will see things continue to falter for a long time yet.

They did have the 36ers in the radio studio last 2 seasons , but insufficient callers.
'Julius Hodge' the biggest media here.

Bear - the new BA CEO was on TV , she said they'll do on line registrations , so they can email every basketballer. Sounds pretty good.

Media presence is a key part to marketing

Marketing is the key. I would love to see how the Sixers could learn from the Wildcats.

Crowds are a real issue for the 36ers right now

If they want to be able to keep playing at the Brett Maher Court under a new owner, then crowds or more specifically revenue, need to increase

NBL is a big deal in NZ since the Breakers won their first title. They do news stories from Atlas Place the day before game day most weeks along with news items on all their results. Financially they are fine. Can't speak about any other clubs