Hoops

Latest on the Southern Huskies

No worries!

Put everything in here Daniel. Not the other old topic please.

Wait to hear for their first few signings. OMG.

It's not quite official, but The Mercury has the sccop in their paper today.
Paywall article.

"THE Southern Huskies are almost certain to have a team on the floor next year when they become the first organisation from Australia to join the New Zealand NBL. The Mercury can reveal the Huskies consortium, led by Justin Hickey and business partner Mike Sutton, are deep in negotiations with Basketball New Zealand about featuring in the 2019 season.

It is understood a verbal agreement is in place between the two parties, with a formal announcement expected in the coming weeks once minor details are finalised. The New Zealand NBL currently has eight teams based in Auckland, Christchurch, Invercargill, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Wellington, with the fixture starting in April and running until the end of July.
It is considered a stronger competition than the recently disbanded SEABL, with a number of locals and Australian players earning NBL contracts on the back of strong performances in the league. The likes of Tom Abercrombie, Alex Pledger, Corey Webster, Dillon Boucher, Tai Wesley and Reuben Te Rangi have all become household names in basketball after winning season and finals MVP awards in the past 15 years.

The NZ NBL this year had an 18-game home and away roster. It is believed the Huskies would have eight home games in Tasmania, split evenly between the north and the south.

The Silverdome would host matches in Launceston, while the Derwent Entertainment Centre — owned by the Glenorchy City Council, which recently rejected an offer from Hickey’s HydraPlay consortium to purchase the venue — would be the logical choice in the south. However it is unsure how an arrangement would work given the bitter end to negotiations between the two parties. To reduce travel costs it is likely the Huskies would play double headers in New Zealand.

The move is also likely to have a considerable impact on the Hobart Chargers, both on and off the floor. Chargers coach Anthony Stewart, who guided the club to the SEABL championship, has openly declared his ambitions to coach at a higher level and would be a front runner to take the reins, while star trio Craig Moller, Tre Nichols and Mathiang Muo would all likely favour signing with the Huskies rather than playing in the newly formed Victorian Elite league with Hobart.

When contacted by the Mercury, chief executive of Basketball New Zealand Iain Potter declined to comment other than to say the league was in discussions with another team, while Hickey is overseas and unavailable.

True,the glenorchy city council will probably regret that decision,but we have also lost our big hope of getting an nbl team awell.

No the GCC lost a golden opportunity to off load a white elephant that will now affect ratepayers for ever.

I don't see them entering the nbl for 4 to 5 years,especially considering we lost a golden opportunity to own the DEC.

The way property prices are going in Hobart they could spend $75M on a decent stadium and then sell it off after 10 years for about double that amount.

I don't see them ever building a new stadium in hobart,i have done a google search on potential prices for a stadium and they would be looking at 40 million minimum for their size range.

Where in Hobart would they play?

I can't understand why an overseas league would want a new team that would only be in the league for 3 to 5 years.

Has this been officially announced?

More info?

One is coming soon...

It doesn't surprise me they didn't make an announcement,we will probably be waiting a long time before any announcement unfortunately.

Update? It's been two weeks or so

Dave, I would imagine they could still rent the DEC next year if needed. I hope they end up with a stadium at Macquarie Point, it would be better for them and better for the city, would be an amazing development in that spot if done right.

I’m not really involved with the Slingers anymore; I haven’t been up to Singapore in years. Michael Johnson is still there, though.

I’m actually based in Hobart these days, so the Huskies bid is of great interest. Hoping it all goes well for them!

And yet these Taswegians think they can support an AFL team...Embarrassing!

Dave are you still involved with the Slingers?

There’s a new post on the Huskies’ Facebook page; Luuuc has posted a link in the other Huskies thread. It sounds much more positive than the Mercury interview with Hickey; basically they’ve completely shut the door on the DEC and will now look to build their own stadium ready for the NBL bid. Macquarie Point was mentioned as a possibility, as Paul suggested.

That of course leaves the question as to where they’ll play if they join the NZNBL next year. Assuming that the DEC is out of the equation, the only other venue I can think of is Kingborough, where the Devils used to play prior to the DEC being built, and it’s not very large.

Another thought - given how close David Bartlett is to the Huskies consortium, will this impact where the Chargers play next year, assuming they’ll be in the new BV league? It’s certainly been an interesting few weeks for Tassie basketball.

Justin Hickey doesn’t seem the person who could ‘bankroll’ such a venture. At least going by the businesses attached to his LI profile.

As an impartial observer, whoever is speaking for the Huskies seems kind of like an unprofessional peanut. Who actually is It?

Get out there and protest tassie make your voice heard. Someone chain themselves to the stadium.. We need the Huskies in the NBL. Love from Melbourne

Perhaps some of the thinking of some Councillors is that if they refuse to sell, force the consortium builds elsewhere, and then the council can close down the DEC and use/sell the land for something that is cash flow positive.

On a darker interpretation,
I know more than a few local Councillors whose thinking would be precisely that, some even have business interests/associates that make a good living off disposed disposed land that was ex Local govt, state govt, NFPs or community run NGO's and charities

We are generally biased cos we love basketball, the council is probably biased cos they dont care about it.

Ideally, if they could find a spot near the docks and build the entertainment precinct they are planning there it would be huge for Hobart. State govt should be right behind that and would make their venue even more viable. Lots of ifs and buts there, but would be a great result. On the flipside, doing it at the DEC has potential to be another significant boost for the northern suburbs, so hopefully the council handles this ok and gets the deal done with a slightly improved offer from Hydraplay.

It is probably a bit of a complex scenario...

The GCC is not in a good financial position and has a history of poor management by the elected council members.

Therefore the council wants to maximise the amount of money they get for any asset. Which is the right thing to do for their community.

The Huskies don't want to pay too much for an asset that will require substantial capital investment to provide the venue facility they need to build & provide a quality entertainment venue. Overpaying for the asset is not good business, so they too are also doing the right thing.

Alternatively if the Huskies have the $$$, do a deal with TAS State Govt, and obtain some State Land and takeout a long peppercorn lease and build a new stadium from scratch hopefully with the Govt support to provide appropriate transport infrastructure.

There's an article on the Mercury website (behind a paywall) that quotes a GCC source as saying that the Huskies offer was "below half" the lowest valuation of the DEC, and equivalent to "a nice house in Battery Point" (Hobart's most expensive suburb). Given the state valuer general's valuation was quoted as $4m, that would imply an offer of less than $2m.

Yet there's a comment from the Huskies on their Facebook page which says:

"We've not been able to see anything relating to the site so we took a stab in the dark at a valuation based on a losing business and land value. It turns out we were pretty close to the Valuer Generals valuation and would have paid it. We'll most likely seek to build our own stadium now."

Which would indicate it was closer to the $4m mark. Very odd way to carry out a negotiation. One presumes the newly built stadium won't be in the Glenorchy area, if you know what I mean.

Also, there's a line in the Huskies' statement about obtaining a license to play in an unnamed competition in 2019. Given the Tassie teams' woes with BV, I'm assuming it's not the SEABL replacement. NZNBL?

'Shit for Thought' LOL that's such a brutal and deep burn

Tasmania to small of a market, I say no thanks