Hoops

Townsville Crocodiles enter voluntary administration

A few misconceptions above, by those in denial, that need addressing.

Yes, other national competitions have troubling issues. For NONE of them is the underlying business model in the lost.

Who cares if the AFL pays the bills of its clubs. It can afford to.

Who cares if a netball run a lean competition with low overheads to remain viable. So they should.

Who cares if everytime a rugby league player drinks he hits someone or snorts coke. The media coverage alone seems to help.

Who cares if 2 expansion clubs developed purely as 'stadium strategy' for a World Cup bid failed in the A-League years ago - because they have been replaced (with 2 more coming) and their TV deal more than doubled, while their worst performing club (financially) is about to break even? And don't kid yourself than Frank Lowy spen money on the game. He didn't, but he did work his contacts hard.

I won't talk about rugby union because, frankly, they are increasingly looking like basketball on a larger scale.

The NBL, unless to goes the way of netball or does a deal as baseball here has done with an A,erican sugar daddy is done as a national league. Basketball Australia were never the problem. Greed was and is.

It's ironic that someone above said NBL = National Bush League, when the NBL seems determined to have a capital city-only model to the point where they tell teams like Wollongong and Townsville they have to support themselves but seem to doing a lot of work to get Brisbane into the league.

As others have pointed out other sporting codes actually support their teams. Perhaps the NBL has the view that as basketball was "invented" by USA, the heart and soul of capitalism and free enterprise, they have to live by those principles (when it suits them).

BUT basketball was brought to Australia by the Russians, East Europeans and church groups - the antithesis to Kapitalism. So perhaps, to be a thriving league, the NBL should actually do more to help the whole league and not have a narrow-minded focus on capital cities who have shown themselves to not be the economic powerhouses imagined by the NBL (Brisbane, Sydney, West Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart anyone?). And hasn't Adelaide gone through its own issues over the years?.

I have heard mention that it is TV that has a large impact on the league and this is behind the capital city push. However, I remember in the '80s and '90s (you know, the old days) where local stations would broadcast games along with coverage by ABC. Seemingly, this lead to 'boom' days, ith the NBL getting bigger and bigger. THEN FOX steps in. In 1995, there were 14 teams in the NBL. In 1997 it went to 11 (Hobart, Geelong and Gold Coast dropping out). Obviously the Pay-TV deal had a wonderful effect on the league.

It is also ironic that one of the golden teams leading the golden era was Brisbane, moving from a crappy little venue to a state sports centre seating >10000 people. It seems that the NBL got all glittery and started demanding that teams move to glitzy big venues (along with glitzy big costs). Capital city teams usually had a host of venues to choose from, funded by their respective state governments. This government largesse does not seem to apply to regional areas meaning the choice of venues for regional teams was limited. The irony of all this? For those who didn't notice, it was Brisbane leading the charge. Brisbane who??

Despite the NBL having people in marketing, communications and media, I wonder what sort of a job they are doing. They struggle to get even the grand finals on ABC. ABC is our national broadcaster and is all over the WNBL, netball, soccer, golf, tennis, cricket as well as the other footie codes. Ratings aren't the prime force behind ABC. They even used to broadcast lawn bowls. Lawn Bowls?? So what has happened in the NBL that they can't even get decent airtime from the national broadcaster? I struggle to find articles in papers such as SMH and the Telegraph (I am a balanced reader, you see). I know that local papers (such as the Illawarra Mercury and, Boti in Adelaide) do a good job of covering basketball. But papers like SMH and the Tele are read widely throughout NSW. But there is net to no coverage of basketball in those papers. And people used to say that for basketball to do well, it had to do well in Sydney. Well, Sydney won the title 3 times running? What happened?

In summary (if you've bothered to read this far) the NBL is a sad little, narrow minded organisation who need to do more to protect its "product". They would do well to stop thinking of product and get back to basketball.

/rant

While this is unsubstantiated, I had heard that IMG were going to buy the league and run it, with them to pay for a free to air tv deal with it. If that's the case then it could explain a lack of comment from the league and potentially help out both the Hawks and Crocs......

The league does need to regroup and I think that a new model is needed with an independent commission.

However for the teams able to continue running, a shortened competition could still be viable to maintain / service existing fan bases. Possibly even tie in some invitational teams from NZ and Asia - make it more like an event over 2-3 months (or something like that).

The issue is that if the league did shut down (even just for one year), there is no guarantee that the players, fans, investors, media would ever come back.

I agree there needs to be mass change as it is currently a poor product, but surely continuing something (albeit terribly) is going to be less-risky than taking a year off and building from scratch.

At least hold onto the fans, players and investors you already have?

Jack is right. VA is a proactive alternative to Liquidation.

It's a rehabilitative measure more than anything. The financial position of the company is generally frozen and the administrator sits down with the directors and its creditors and discusses changes and reform on the operation of the business.

With that being said, I don't hold much hope and would be fearful that the creditors will put the business into liquidation. If it is financially troubled at this stage of the year, I can't see how it will pay its debts come pre-season (when they have to start paying players without any gate takings and/or limited, if any, sponsorship stream).

Its a bit concerning that the NBL have been so quiet about every thing lately. There's been no official word on the Beisbane bid failing and no assurance to the fans or clubs that they have anything in plan for the future of the league.

Do they have a plan if the league shrivels to 6 teams ?

Has there been any progress on the TV deal or live streaming service ?

I can't imagine that all this negative attention is doing anything to help attract major sponsors.

Yea very true,

Could Perth & NZ/power clubs stop someone just buying the other clubs, then he would essentially own around 80% of the league?? At worse they pull out and he just buys them too, i guess he may view it as too costly.

I doubt Townsville, Wollongong would cost much at all to buy at the moment, he could fund Brisbane and Melbourne 2, and offer to put some $$ into (buy a share of) clubs like the 36ers who are rumoured to be struggling a little $$$wise. How much would this cost??? surely you could buy the Crocs and Hawks for just about nothing given they have run at losses, would have very few assets, etc. He could almost just say give me the license for nothing and i guarantee the club will be in the league by funding them next year and it would be hard for the NBL to turn down id say. Would be interested to see if he has ever considered these things and why he didnt do it, maybe the clubs asked too much to sell to him?? Anyone know how much it would cost to buy a club thats not Perth or NZ right now?? surely it wouldnt be huge??

Would love to see the reasons why this was knocked back on both sides, because this direction sounded the best one to me.

Way better than as it sits now where even the existance of the NBL is in doubt at some level.

Dazz, again, if Marvin is so great why is the league in the state it's in?

Truth is last season and the start of this season there was a air of positivity and things were on the up.

After Neill went.... well here we are.

The equation isn't that difficult to solve.

Yea, i dont mind the idea of someone like Larry Kestelman runing/owning the league, on the assumption he funds all teams equally and keeps the whole league sustainable, which would be in his best interest to do so, as the current board set up doesnt seem to work, too many differing views, etc, this is where 1 owner/decision maker would help as it would go in 1 direction at the interest of the whole league, not people fighting in the interest of there club. Seems to not be 1 strong direction for the NBL shared by the whole board, which is a bad thing imo. The Vince McMahon WWE example is a good one, for better or for worse it has 1 direction and is fairly succesful.

Given the league as a whole doesnt make a profit, what harm would it do the other owners to give him this say, maybe he doesnt own 51% of each team he could buy 100% of say Townsville and Wollongong, fund a Brisbane team, buy a share of the 36ers, Kings, Taipans, he could fund a 2nd Melbourne team or atleast own a share of them, let Perth and New Zealand keep there ownership set up, but Larry gets first rights to buy a share if the owners ever want to sell. That way on top of his ownership of the Melbourne United he would own a fair chunk of the league anyway, possibly more than 51%, any reason why he couldnt buy up on all these clubs if he wanted to??

I always reckoned the owners should own the league not the clubs, it helps eliminate self interest by each club and helps make the right decision, not just the decision that suits the bigger/power clubs.

I reckon the league could be do alot worse at this point.

Channel 31 anyone? Amateur TV channel...

Just saying...

Is the underlying cause of all these unrest a sign for change? Namely, the possibility of NBL management needing to ensure transparency and clear ideals on what the league’s long-term future could look like, and how it could get there with measured plans and milestones in place.

NBL struggle intensifies: Townsville Crocodiles placed into voluntary administration

VA is about protecting whats remaining and ensuring the club doesnt trade insolvent ie. Not incur debts it cant pay. Its also used to prepare the business for sale or investment.

crocs move is to stall for time just like the hawks. Hawks getting some $'s back but its a tight race. Crocs in the same boat.

Isaac, not many. Most front offices run on minimal staff and volunteers, court hire ceases, so really it's only the coach and his off season scouting expenses

I can't help but feel that the 'Gong and the Croc's decisions were based on the likelihood the Brisbane team was unlikely to get up.

Marvin was Chairman of the NBL board until a month or so ago, why would he do a better job at CEO?

Especially given the rumours that he scuttled Neil's grand plan for the league....

I think Nick Marvin may have to put his hand up to be CEO of the NBL. He's doing something right with the wildcats organisation, mind you Jack's money helps.

Doesn't look great when a team is saying "the NBL is not able to provide clarity around the number of teams remaining in the competition or what the next season will look like" while the NBL is run (supposedly) by the teams now. Is it an excuse? A disconnect? A schism between factions of clubs?

I feared this was going to happen. They are going to need a massive cash injection to not only be sustainable for the next season but pay the massive debt that they already have.

And the thing is, nobody aside from basketball fans really care or would even know this is happening. The mainstream media is just waiting for the NBL to come out with an announcement that it will be shutting its doors indefinitely - then it might get on the news!

Clubs going into voluntary administration is nothing new for the NBL and nobody sees it as a shock anymore. The real shock will be when the competition is shut down.

I hope Townsville pull through though and the league gets through this era.

I think you'll find voluntary administration is worse than it sounds. It's one way of staving off creditors and actually refocussing the business.

An administrator will look at things like cashflow and viability. The Crocs may have had a bad season, but hopefully they are not paying interest on interest. That's when things go bad

Taipans and (I thought) every other team had been selling memberships for next season. There's some clarity around somewhere....

But from the outside looking in it's murkier than a coal miners bath water....