Hoops

"Australia’s sporting obsession is waning"

Anon^ that has more to do with culture than passion, although the two are not mutually exclusive I guess.

Plus there is no passion from them anymore as win or lose they are getting paid a fixed salary (in most sports) and it isn't linked to performance. Athletes are also more interested in "cruising" to extend their careers rather than put it all out there on the court of field. You don't see blood and tears anymore.

I think it has a bit to do with sports now being 100% professional with ridiculous salaries; there are less characters and personalities, the fans can't relate as well to the players. The players are just machines and though being spectacular at their sport, it's just like watching two robots battle sometimes.

"Grassroots participation in basketball has grown during the last two decades, has it not?"

In line with population growth. i.e., numbers have grown at the same rate as population has grown but no faster. Other physical recreation activities' participation rates have grown faster than population growth. However, those have mostly been in individual activities that are not organised sports and are driven by the middle to older aged adult population. e.g., activities like cycling, gym workouts, walking, running.

There's a discussion of basketball popularity between 1990s and today, which includes comparative participation stats: http://www.hoops.com.au/forum/40207-aussie-basketball-popularity-2016-v-early-90s/#p605852

When it comes to sporting obsession or fanaticism we tend to judge it by crowd numbers and there are many factors, some mentioned above, that come in as potential and very real causes for slight increases or decreases.

I am uncertain as to how this translates into a passion or intensity in the love of sport being analysed the way this company has done it.

I dare say the intensity of Collingwood, Richmond, Carlton and Essendon fans will sway the statistics one way or the other depending on how successful their teams are in the AFL.

Similarly, in the NRL should their old time rivals and historically large crowd drawing teams also get back into the finals. As for the ARL, well no Aussie teams are doing well, so of course crowds will not get so involved.

Other international sports are the same, tennis, cricket, soccer, motor racing etc... have all had a slight step back waiting for our next champions to emerge!

People love success, the NBL has seen a surge, lets hope it continues, but I think the Australian passion for sport is unchanged, we are just craving for more winners and less whingers!

Possible juxtaposition of the rising interest in the NBL due to NBA, I heard the Kyrie Irving trade news on ABC Radio this morning.

Its a substantial report as opposed to usual one liners on MSM where the presenter sadly mispronounced the name as Keree Irvine. He did brought up the issue of unprotected draft pick though which raised my eyebrows.

Okay, so I didn't read it because it's behind a pay wall, but based on the write up above, what a load of nonsense. In the past decade living costs have risen sharply, household disposable income has dropped and employment patterns have changed. Sports attendance is falling because it's too damn expensive, too far and you have to be up too early in the morning. This is the same reason why the bloody wildcats have dominated the Nbl for the last decade: cashed up Fifo miners don't blink at the price of a night out at the basketball, the stadium's easy to get to via a few bars and you can get home easily afterwards and sleep off all the overpriced piss you've been chucking down your hole.

How did they get the crowd average of 8100 in 2017 and 6500 in 2016? These wouldn't have been season averages but rather yearly figures, correct? The average from last season was 6,500.

Nice to see the NBL buck the trend of some of the other higher profile leagues, however its climbing up from a very low point whereas other leagues are sliding down or remaining stagnant after a boom period.

As for the AFL, you could easily point their crowd drop to Gold Coast and GWS entering the league, plus more games in Canberra, Tasmania, Alice Springs etc.

Note: Avocado consumption has increased while NRL attendance has decreased.

Thus, Avocados provide immunity to NRL.

The article makes a lot of assumptions and strident declarations based on some broad correlations.....

Smells like a Gemba PR crafted into a story, pitching their services to the sports with 'diminishing' fan bases.

I wonder what basis they have for the explanation that greater NBA has positively influenced NBL crowds - probably nothing other than correlations.

"The article puts the NBL's improvement down to better access to the NBA, but I'd guess that access to NBA has worked against the NBL."

"I think there is value in promotion of a sport in general."

I imagine both are true. Most posters seem to agree that the league 'dropped the ball' for part of the 90's and the 00's. Historical data might suggest that the Larry Kestelman era (proactive promotion etc.) has initiated something of a return to the mean, almost irrespective of the NBA.

Grassroots participation in basketball has grown during the last two decades, has it not?

Certainly the NBA has some impact in maintaining interest in the sport, particularly when the previous NBL admin dropped the ball. However, to claim that better access to the NBA is the main reason for a resurgence in NBL, that's open to debate.

The current NBL admin pushes hard to make the league more visible in MSM. There's better co-ordination between the league and various clubs in generating and maintaining fan interest, NBL TV is one such platform. Free access for one team of choice and the Telstra partnership were instrumental in luring the 'engaged' to pass through the turnstiles.

Pro sports in the near future will reach a point where it starts taking in less revenue. We are presently in a time where rights values skyrocket each deal. Future generations have so much more entertainment options available and following a team will be too much of an attention/focus burden.

The only guy to win an NBL and AFL premiership has called it day. More of a battering ram ruckman than ballerina but he has been one of the most passionate players you'll see.

Will be remembered very fondly by Port fans.