Hoops

Wollongong Hawks placed in voluntary administration

A coil,e of points about the football comparisons.
1. Frank Lowy barely put a cent into football. He did own part of Sydney FC for a few years. The company he chairs, but does not own, sponsors the community and women's football products for very obvious commercial reasons. If you run a retail empire, your core business IS women and children.
2. The national league close and 're-boot' option is open to a sport that has SEABL quality national wide (now emerging as a Sony sponsored national 2nd tier) and countless leagues overseas for professional / semi-professional players to seek refuge in.
3. An 'Asia strategy' will canibalise domestic interest if the ratio of domestic to Asian teams is not right. Super Rugby (Australia) is in real troubled because even rugby struggles to get people interested in the non-domestic games. Football leaves both rugby and basketball for dead in Australia and Asia. Getting the ratio right is much easier I'd football wanted to do this (ignoring it's existing participation in the Asian Champions League).
4. 'Indoor' is no longer the advantage it once was. Football stadiums are more plentiful and all weather than when the NSL last intersted anyone.
5. The original A-League TV deal was very modest to say the least. Only $17m for 4 years (as a yard stick, Melbourne Victory alone has an annual turnover of $20m). So why did private equity club owners agree to jointly loose over $200m over the last decade, with one year of losses alone probably greater than the losses in the NBL experienced over the entire decade?

Football and basketball share some market challenges, but the sheer scale and scope of football from participation and beyond means there is now, given a decade of sound
strategy, little to compare them.

It seems to me that the NBL should have listened to Neil. And listened carefully.

That's true Isaac, interest needs to be milked or fostered into enthusiasm, then passion can come, but always easier if someone at the opposing end is a basketball fan too. You make good points, not rocket science is it?

Would they consider SEABL?

I know there has been some talk of games being played at the uni due to the costs of playing out of the WEC, but nothing has come of it.
The uni has the funds to build and operate a suitable facility, in which they could host other events too. They have plenty of land and parking , people to market to, could leverage off existing food and beverage facilities pre game.
They have modern courts right now, although I can't see how they fit 3000 + people as it is. I see a lot of mutual benefits all round with this type of arrangement.
If the Hawks end up in some type of regional or"B" league with a lower budget then at least they're still the Hawks.

The worst outcome would be if as a result of the current events the Hawks are gone and are spun into the next Western Sydney Razorwolves or Melbourne Magic Dragons, that would be tragic for a foundation club.

Interesting, so Isaac you believe it is the University that is loath to get involved, fair enough as there usually needs to be someone on their board with a passion for basketball to make it work I'd say.

Yes, a big shame really...

Let's explore that for just a moment, shall we. A big regional city of around 300,000 or so population could potentially have a large university in it.

Like Geelong in some ways, it seems Wollongong is reinventing itself as an education, service, tourism, health and technology town, moving away from the large industrial and manufacturing sector of yesteryear.

I know here in Geelong the Deakin University is building on and expanding, has thousands of students I believe and I can't see it slowing down either.

Could an NBL franchise not look at working with such an organisation to get a stadium built that would be of mutual benefit to the school and the team playing from it? Would the students not be keen to attend and make up at least half of the crowd, is there any scope for this to occur here in Australia?

The gong is more of a uni town these days than a steel town. The steel and the port facilities are still prominent, but new facilities are being built around the uni and hospital and health care industries these days.
The hawks getting any sort of deal with the uni would be ideal, they have plenty of seats and the uni has over 19,000 students. I'm sure they'd buy beer at games.

Don't get me worng here, I want the NBL to survive, continue to operate and if possible thrive and grow, but it would be so hard to follow a National league of less than at least 8 teams...

Dazz, better get out of your ivory tower and see Australia!

NBL has said that they would continue with seven teams.

...or woman...

:)

Somone has a very creative PR man...

Now that Spencely has taken the team from community owned with a proper board to a one man board who decided to place the Hawks into voluntary admin, what is stopping him from letting the club go and taking the team licence to a bigger market better suited to the corporate dollar?
What is his real motivation in all of this? Why bail on a team after one year, he has plenty of money. The long term commitment to the Hawks is not there.

It is true Kobe. That's the difference.
Why would they leave if it wasn't and move to a poor venue.

I do hope the Hawks pull through to the other side, but the whole saga shows that the league needs to go into bean bag room and have a rethink about how things should and need to be done.

The NBL is sporting entertainment, plain and simple. There are many other forms of entertainment that it is competing against and so the product needs to be presented in a format that customers want.

If you look at it strategically: (feel free to add)
Strengths
* The League has been going since 1979
* Across Australia and New Zealand
* Basketball is an indoor sport, so can be played in all weather, all times of the year
* The League standard is a good basketball standard in relative terms
* Exciting to watch
* Players are generally clean cut and there are no bad behaviour issues (e.g. look at AFL drug scandals, NRL rape scandals, Cricket match fixing (Pakistan))

Weaknesses
* No FTA contract in place for 2016 season
* Media coverage very poor
* Financial viability of clubs varies too much
* Always seems to have a cloud of doubt over some aspect of the NBL
* Player rosters can change too much from year to year
* No "B" league supporting the leagues
* Crowd attendances average around 5,000/game compared to 30,000 for AFL
* No major league sponsor
* Sponsorship gaps
* Lack of discussion on FTA "sports programmes"
* Arena standards vary too greatly
* Merchandising
* NBL TV seems erratic
* Reffing standard seems erratic (That'll get some discussion!)

Opportunities
* More teams in the competition
* Linkages with Oceania/Asia (similar to the soccer)
* "State of Origin" style games
* Develop stronger links with state leagues
* Themed rounds (eg Rivalry, Heritage etc)

Threats
* Failure of current teams off court
* Lack of interest in league as supporters move to other sports/entertainment
* Failure of league itself
* Lack of organisational skills puts supporters off
* Season injuries can kill a team's chances (e.g. Kings 15)

I imagine the discussions/disagreements within this thread is not too dissimilar to those that take place between team owners/administrators, NBL administrators and other key stakeholders.

Koberulz, you need to understand that the TEC had promised to drop their rent. They lied. The Crocs then moved.

What's the general consensus on here about Fraser Neil's vision of more regional teams playing in smaller venues ? Personally I liked his plans and here appeared to at least get things moving forwards as opposed to going backwards now.

I'd like to see a revised Salary cap of 400-500K for local players (8) with 2imports falling outside the salary cap ( similar to how the marquee rule works now) .

There was a change of ownership, and the Crocs needed to negotiate a deal at a time after the previous owners had moved out, but before the new owners had moved in. So there was nobody to negotiate with, and thus no deal could be done.

Crocs are playing in a venue and are lucky to even be in the NBL, because the NBL demanded they play in a stadium they couldn't afford.

Interestingly, perception of how that is packaged Isaac would be important I feel, whether we dress a league down or spruik it up can be subjective.

Meeting half way, or appearing to for the sake of some egos may have to be entertained...

@Isaac, you are probably going to be right in part, but I was trying to see past the bickering and infighting, ah well if they cook the goose as they say!!

@XY, don't tempt or prod for that brother...

Bear, that was your positive spin on things? I would hate to see you try to tear shreds out of them.

Definetly dont want to see Pokies involved in Basketball. They cause too much grief and misery already.
(as spoken by the family member of a person who was utterly WRECKED by Pokies).

Have always thought the NBL worked best like the Big Bash operating out of the Capital Cities.

...nest eggs...

I can see the Hawks had no choice, this was their only option, it is sad to read all this negativity about the NBL though, so I'll have a go at some positive...

The league could look at a few things from this season and apply them or improve on them for next season. Not everything went badly, there needs to be an honest and scientific post season analysis.

Some surveys need to be done, asking the public out there what they want, what will be their incentive to watch the NBL Live and on TV?

I have mentioned in the past, that we need leadership and courage, I am not sure how we will go in that area without a white knight so to speak. Owners of teams all have a vested interest in their next eggs, that may be holding the league back in terms of what needs to change, they may not have the courage to make the necessary changes...

There are examples of other sports at a national level here that have been moving forward, are we however asking too much too soon or can we have the NBL present a longer term plan that they can stick to?

Seems we had a plan, but got rid of our CEO, maybe we need to look at this and get back on track in the leadership stakes?

Post season MVP, boy that is a disaster (not the decision, the concept and celebration), we need to respect the league better than this IMHO!

I can't see the league moving forward as a divided group of individual franchises, all with their own agendas. On court, sure, go and kill one another, but off court we just need to move in the same direction (dare I say leadership is needed again)...

In some respects crowds were up, in some places they were down and we had media exposure (some good, some not so). If we can take the positives and the league can right itself with a view that one league needs everyone's support and everyone needs the support of the league, surely we can steady this ship?

Limited salaries is one way to go.

Personally, I'd like to see the NBL have lower overall salaries and have higher bonuses/performance payments.

That means that if the team does good and makes the playoffs, their increased revenue from the playoffs (sponsorship, gate takings etc) will cover the additional salary increase. It is also an incentive for players to actually work hard and not just "collect a decent paycheck".

On the flipside, if a team does horrible (e.g. Wollongong), you're going to save a lot of money - i.e. Melbourne missed the playoffs - they could have saved $100k in terms of withheld bonus payments.

Of course, the only issue is that some teams won't do this - i.e. Perth, allowing them to snap up the finest quality in the league because those players would want guaranteed amounts.

ATF said that Wollongong Coal had their sponsorship contract terminated.... interesting

More about Wollongong's scenario is up on PnR:

Hawks slump further into nest, place themselves into voluntary administration

I remain optimistically optimistic...but it is now getting tougher...

I would have no problem whatsoever if Jack Bendat wanted to own the whole league - in a Frank Lowy kind of way with the A-League.

That may be the only way to save this fragile league.

Only hope is people with lots of money and a passion for basketball get involved now, we don't have the fan base and the only way to get one is to get money and get nba-talent players, and names that people are familiar with. Unfortunately China has beaten us too it.

Guys like marbury, AI coming here are the only thing that'll save us now.

Few things I would be happy with seeing (doubt they will):

1) Bogut throwing some money around
2) NBA buying NBL
3) Sack everyone involved in the NBL and start over (in particular those involved with the whole MVP thing on weekend)
4) try and merge into one of the strong asian leagues - might only mean 3/4 nil teams make it.

Time to approach the NBA to reach out and save us...

To go along with NZ taking part in their 4th GF in 5 years and a regional team making up the other part of the grand final tie.

I'm thrilled for Cairns and NZ have obviously earned their success but it must be making NBL HQ tear their hair out, because the sponsors won't be enjoying it!

At what point can other clubs start making offers? Coenraad and Forman would be great pickups for most teams. Adelaide could probably do with Martin too.

hahaha Happy Days - they're going to need bigger jerseys brother:)

Exactly. Chasing new opportunities and looking after existing teams are not mutually exclusive. A healthier league helps the strugglers too.
eg. A new TV deal would certainly help Wollongong's cause.

Ouch. Not a good time for the NBL. Wollongong and Townsville struggling, no Brisbane, no new TV deal.

Looked like thinga were on the up and the start of the season, it all seems to be going pear shaped.

With the fall in commodity prices Wollongong Coal pulling out doesn't surprise me.

My hot tip is that they're going to be fine.

Source is twitter. The Age, Boti and several others have tweeted about it in the last 30 minutes.

Does anyone know what Aaron Bruce is doing this season? Is he looking to sign with someone in the NBL? Going to stay in the states and play there? Has he given up the game all together?