Nbl Faces Crunch Time
Illawarra Mercury
Monday March 24, 2008
While the national football, rugby league and Aussie rules competitions are rating through the roof, TIM KEEBLE reports that basketball is struggling to keep pace and find its place in the Australian sporting landscape.
THE financial woes of NBL glamour clubs Sydney and Brisbane might be cause for mirth among Wollongong Hawks supporters, but basketball's troubles in Australia are no laughing matter.A boom sport in this country in the late '80s and early '90s, the hoops game has all but dropped off the radar since the turn of the century.Our national programs are still strong - the Opals are the world champions - and Australia continues to provide top junior prospects to the United States collegiate system.But while the A-League, NRL and AFL grow in strength and popularity, the NBL is going nowhere fast.Despite expansion into Cairns, New Zealand and Singapore and the return of franchises in Melbourne and the Gold Coast, the NBL is still struggling for credibility and a rightful place in Australia's sporting landscape.The fact perennial powerhouses Sydney and Brisbane are fighting for survival speaks volumes for the league's precarious state.Brisbane won the 2007 championship, while the Brian Goorjian-coached Kings have played in five of the past six grand final series and captured three titles.But Sydney's success has done nothing to boost the attendance figures - they averaged less than 3500 fans per home game in 2007-08 - and team owner Tim Johnston wants to sell the club amid accusations of late staff payments.Brisbane owner Eddy Groves has also put the Bullets up for sale, while general manager Jeff Van Groningen quit his post last Monday.While talk in basketball circles is that both clubs will survive, which team will be next?The league has become accustomed to dealing with financial dramas at one club or another on an annual basis.Perhaps of greater concern is that the NBL itself only secured a naming rights sponsor (HUMMER) shortly before the start of the 2007-08 season.NBL boss Chuck Harmison readily admits basketball is in desperate need of a facelift.The NBL has been working closely with Basketball Australia and other bodies for the past 12 months to raise the sport's profile.Last week it started phase two of a "comprehensive structural reform process".Basketball Australia and the NBL have enlisted the James Henderson Dynamic Sports and Entertainment Group (DSEG) to undertake the second stage of the review."DSEG and the team of consultants they have contracted to this project have worked with rugby league, soccer, horse racing and countless other sports to help identify the right structure to be successful, so their appointment to undertake stage two of our reform process is a coup," Harmison said."They will deliver a wide ranging report that will include recommendations regarding the structure of the NBL that will help shape the future of the HUMMER Championship. "It is an exciting time for basketball, as stage two will help us address the structural issues that have prevented us from achieving the amazing potential that we have as a sport with 450 million players worldwide."Stage one of the review was completed in November, with the major recommendation being a move to a single unified national body.DSEG's final report - due in June - will include recommendations for "management structure" and the "design of an extensive three-year business plan".Soccer bottomed out in Australia before re-inventing itself as the fast-growing A-League.Basketball can't bank on similar success under a new banner, but change is definitely required.Unless they are squeezed out of a revised eight or 10-team competition, the Hawks will be around for at least three years.The club faced its own crisis in December and January and was on the brink of folding before the community rallied at the last minute.The Friends of the Hawks fund raised almost $300,000.Australian Health Management (ahm) and The IMB got on board with three-year sponsorship deals.Now Hawks coach Eric Cooks is waiting in the wings to swoop on any players if the Bullets and Kings collapse, a scenario so ironic it would have seemed preposterous less than two months ago.Basketball can't afford to be without teams in capital cities like Brisbane and Sydney, but the league risks opening a huge can of worms if it props up the Bullets and Kings.Wollongong, West Sydney and Hunter received no financial help and questions of double-standards will be asked if the league assists the big boys.The Bullets have already struck out with their plea for help from the Queensland Government."I understand the Bullets are going out looking for a new owner and I understand they're in a very difficult position," Premier Anna Bligh said on Tuesday."At this stage we have no plans (to back the club)".Gold Coast CEO Dave Claxton is confident Brisbane will pull through and believes the standard of basketball has never been better in Australia."I know Brisbane will survive," Claxton said. "The talent and skills have never been higher in all the days that I have watched the NBL. "You only had to watch the grand final series - that's the best grand final series I have seen. "I am more than happy with the product."However, Claxton wasn't as kind to the Kings."Sydney over the last few years have concentrated heavily on paying their players and winning championships, but that is not necessarily the most successful business model," he said. Basketball is not without high-profile followers.Steve Waugh was in the crowd in the grand final series, Anthony Mundine loves his hoops and Paul Roos is a huge fan of Goorjian, so much so that recently he based an entire newspaper column around the Sydney coach.There is a lot to like about the NBL. The product, as Claxton puts it, provides no shortage of thrills and entertainment.But the league has to work harder to promote and market itself, while continuing to push hard for a free-to-air TV presence.In many ways, this is the recession or fade-out basketball needed.Rock star Pink could have been speaking for hoops in Australia when she sang "I'm not dead, just floating". Now the sport has to find a way to rise again.As Harmison stated in a Mercury interview in January, the game itself has "never been stronger"."Basketball and the NBL is still there ... and as I tell people, we are probably the best-kept secret in Australian sport," he said."We have world-class players playing in a world-class league, but we just don't do a very good job of telling anybody."
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury
