Hoops

The future of the Sydney Kings

Paul: Is getting a Ball a good thing?

I dont see how Goorjan could send a club broke. THere is a hard salary cap, he cant spend beyond it. THe Accountants at the club would say you have X amount to spend.

I just dont see him coaching in Australia again.

Or are you referring to the amount the Kings would have to pay HIM to coach the team?

Yeah I saw a good article RE Matt Nielsen about returning to the Kingdome after the game.

I think hes great over here in Perth and has so much to teach our guys. He was FIRED up on the Bench with the guys RE the recent United game. Beal and he get along pretty well.

If I was a coach and I saw how 'active' the Owners of the Sydney Kings are in the hiring and firing of my players, Id be pretty justified in not taking that job.

Yeah, while Goorj's demands have been talked about and are pricey, they're effective, and I'm pretty sure having one of the most crooked blokes around who swindled half the country is what drove them to not exist anymore... Somehow I think the owners would be ok with paying the price for Goorj if it was going to get results... His price would just be too high though, he's on a good gig in China, isn't he?

I asked Matty Nielsen in passing (hopefully it wasn't TOO begging) this afternoon after the game (once he put on something with a Kings logo, that red outfit just isn't right) if he was keen on a head coaching gig next season and he sort of laughed it off and said not yet... Maybe I should have actually begged... He was with BJ Carter at the time and he'd make a handy assistant...

As for the new location, the highest attendance was "4,236 (85% of capacity*)" according to austadiums and if I recall was a grand final game, so that would have been chockas, so not sure where the 85% capacity comes from as I can't recall it ever being arranged differently, unless they want to count more standing room GA tickets?

It was great to see a large number at the Kingdome one last time, not black curtains and at least on a few occasions, nicely loud, but we just really need a team we can get behind and in all honesty, we don't actually have that atm...

From an outsiders perspective, I moved to Sydney in January and just saw my first kings game vs my Cats. My opinion is (putting aside the team) it was aweful.

1.location- it's good they are moving to Homebush as they can market themselves to the huge western Sydney market, no one lives in the city and its a nightmare to get to on a Sunday let alone the high value Friday nights.

2. Atmosphere- it's non existent, the crowd barely made a whisper until Greg Hire set that bad screen. The court side announcer is....ummmm, did they have one? It was a voice behind a desk that periodically says a players name or 'who's ball?'. Perth (the only team I can speak for) has an announcer who is constantly moving through the crowd making sure the everyone is pumped, the dancers who don't dance... I could keep going.

3. Music- I know some people don't like it but it's like a library in there, get some tunes. Even a band like the breakers is better than nothing

4. Marketing and tickets- if I wasn't a cats member I wouldn't have known this game was coming up. Then when I got tickets I was put in the back row as they were the best available, expecting a sell out I was surprised to see whole rows free in court side sections.

5. Lastly...Kids- I'm not sure if due to the special event it wasn't on, but where was the juniors game at half time? 2 local clubs get a run at half time in nearly every city. Where was the Fan Zone outside? All I saw was a Maccas and a Japanese garden.

So much to fix to get people in before you need to change the team

The gold old Kings. Once a powerhouse & now a joke. The prices to watch this pathetic team are super expensive & that's another reason no-one goes to the game or really cares too much. My son plays basketball in a 16's team & neither him or any of his team mates are interested in going to watch the Kings play. No matter where they play. Lack of interest. Lack of a winning team. Lack of anything to want to get the kids to come & watch so called professional basketball.