Hoops

Should the 6ers move from the dome?

It looks to me like some people here are slightly mis-informed or assuming several things. I don't pretend to know everything but there are some things I have noticed in this thread that are based on incorrect assumptions.

1 - Adelaide Arena is owned by Scouts SA and Church Basketball NOT the Adelaide 36ers. As such they already pay rent at the arena. It is correct that this would not be as much as renting the AEC Arena but it is still a cost to the club.

2 - The F&B (food outlets) are not run by the arena or the team, they are run by an outside company called Encore Group. The 36ers can't even get some free food and drinks for major sponsors as part of their package and the rates for corporat are ridiculous. This would be the same at any venue.

3 - The Entertainment Center is not booked out years in advance and only available on weeknights. There are many corporate events run on weekends and the AEC from my experience would not be that difficult a venue to book and isn't as expensive as some make it out to be. The expense will be in the extra's you need to add to the empty space such as supply of your own court, PA, Video Replay screens etc. Basically it would end up being 2 -3 days rental due to the time to set up everything. Hardly worth it.

4 - The suggestion of war memorial drive tennis courts being enclosed. From information I have heard over the past few years this is in the pipeline but not likely to be any time soon. If it does get done it would appear to be a smaller venue than the current arena and would have to keep a lot of the "historic" pieces making it an unlikely solutions.

Basically I think the 6ers are stuck at the dome due to the telling the government no a decade or so ago for them to build a stadium out near the state sports center. For those of you saying "we need something like Melbourne with all the sports together", well the govt did actually try that and got turned down so now it is a velodrome.

I think the best bet in the medium term is to either have better public transport in place which due to the infrastructure is buses only, or move to the Netball SA Stadium (ETSA park). The Netball stadium would need a make over and additional seating put in place though. (currently 3200 capacity compared to 8000)

My 2 cents, feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Perth were averaging 3-4000 when at Challenge Stadium. That increased to nearly 12K by moving to the CBD. Challenge Stadium was very hard to get to and had very difficult public transport options, it kept me away from alot of games. Since it moved to the Arena in the city I have been to almost every game. IMO opinion moving the 6ers to somewhere central COULD help increase attendances.

Imagine if Memorial Drive , right next to Adelaide Oval, was converted to an indoor fascility ( similar to Margaret Court Arena in Melb)suitable for tennis, basketball, netball etc!

All the benifits of the new Adelaide oval. Great central location, ease of access, its right where the people are. Things to do before and after the games.

The negative is teams would have to hire the venue and so their break even crowd numbers might be high.
The government should do it to get better use out of the area and continue to bring life to the city centre.
Training and admin away for the playing venue is really not an issue. It's of some benifit now but would not be an issue.

The Dome is the perfect place and if you talk to the players its the one place they can train, go to the gym, go to the offices etc.

Unless the games are packed out, then it could be considered, but the benefits of staying outweigh the benefits of moving.

I would be interested to see a survey of past members who may have stopped going. Why did they stop? What were there reasons? Similarly with non-members. What would it take to get them to go to the basketball?

this reminds me of the now defunct Victoria Titans and to a lesser extent of the also now defunct Victoria Giants.

Both clubs moved to a different venue and was the end of an era of basketball. the Tigers got lucky.

moving stadiums makes it harder for transportation for players etc. and the next problem, say PINK or Beyoncé or Kylie are performing at the EC and it takes 3 days to set up stage lighting at 3 days to 3 days to dismantle and the boys need to train and no longer can train at Adelaide arena. what do they do? use a public court? sorry but Isaac is right, this has been done and thought about and in my infinite wisdom, id be surprised if the 36ers ever made an approach to the EC. Reckon its cushy right now at AA

The Sixers management would be constantly reviewing their marketing and business plan.

Should they move? Well there would need to be a compelling business case for them. If you take the Perth example, they outgrew their stadium, but also had a massive membership drive to do so.

The Adelaide Oval example with AFL is a good example of "field of dreams" Build it and they will come. The move to the Oval (or return) was great for North Adelaide and spectators could see a game, then kick on to a pub, or a restaurant. If the Sixers moved to the AEC, what's in it for them? what's in it for the spectators?

There's no real reason to move at the moment.

I flew over for Victoria for opening night. Never been to Adelaide or the Arena before.

I found getting there for a non local was a cab. Lucky one of the players who is a friend of mine dropped me back otherwise it would have been expensive both ways.

However I can imagine when full it would just be awesome. Sound system needs an upgrade.. Perhaps a new announcer, some more activities etc. and get the place pumping. The atmosphere would be unbeatable and ant talk of a relocation would be squashed...

We have public transport to Hisence here in Melbourne and still nobody goes to games.. So there's my answer

Was the basketball played at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in the past? CAN it be played there?

It makes sense to play it at a location that is close /on top off public transport.