NBL Set for Asian Market

[Beaussie]

Asia ripe for NBL pickings
By NIKKI TUGWELL
December 8, 2004
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story ... id=2350708


THE Sydney Kings will play the Perth Wildcats in Singapore in January as part of the NBL's push into Asia.

League commissioner Rick Burton has long voiced his belief that the Australian league needs to break into the lucrative Asian market.

Kings chairman John Kench yesterday echoed those sentiments, saying he believes it is the first step in convincing Australian spectators that the NBL's top players, the likes of Kings captain Jason Smith, were some of the world's best.

The regular-season game between the Kings (third on the ladder) and fourth-placed Wildcats will be on January 28.

"Part of the Australian psyche is being able to prove that you can compete on a global stage," Kench said. "I think it will help people to be conscious of that fact that it is a great sport that is played at a very high level in Australia.

"I had a very keen basketball follower say to me, 'Why do I want to watch the NBL? Maybe it's not Australia being the best it can be? I'll watch the NBA because that is the pinnacle of the sport'.

"Or people will watch English Premier League soccer not Australian soccer. It is this feeling that we are not quite at this top level.

"We see this as one way to get people to realise that when they go to the Entertainment Centre, they're seeing guys who are some of the world's best. They want to see that they can compete on a global stage and we see this as being part of that process."

The game will be broadcast on the ESPN Star Network to a potential 57million households and televised live in Australia via Fox Sports. It will be played at the 10,000-seat Singapore Indoor Stadium.

"The next thing you look at is a very strong Singapore or Malaysian team or Korean team saying, 'We saw you got great ratings, we'd love to play you in Sydney or Manila," Kench said.

Perth and the two-time defending champion Kings clashed in the 2002-03 NBL grand final and have a healthy rivalry.

Wildcats chief executive Andrew Vlahov has been a main negotiator behind the game and is hoping the fixture will be held in Singapore for the next three years.

"It's very, very good news and about the biggest thing we've done as a club and probably as a league," Vlahov said.

It took 12 months longer than Vlahov had hoped but Burton is keeping the promise he made when he took his newly created job prior to the 2003-04 season to make several positive announcements.

Burton believes a move into the Asian market is crucial, a viewpoint shared by Vlahov, who has flagged the idea of a future Champions League-style competition involving Australian and Asian teams.

"We feel pretty positive that [Perth and the NBL are] are strategically making the right decisions," Vlahov said. "It's an absolutely magnificent venue [and] marketing will be very important. From reports there's a lot of interest in that youth culture in basketball."

The Kings' next game is against the Hunter Pirates at the Entertainment Centre on December 16.

[Beaussie]

Talking to a part owner of the Kings the other night at half time, it seems the NBL is in negotiations with Channel 10 to get FTA coverage for this season, particularly the playoffs. Fingers crossed that we see the NBL on FTA sometime soon. He also said the key to the future of the NBL was breaking into the Asian market.

[crocodileman]

They're wasting their time and money - they can't even attract crowds or interest in Australia. To me, basketball was one of those games that benefitted from the Americanisation of our culture in the late 80's and early 90's with throngs of willing teens trying to be rebellious by wearing their caps around the wrong way.

Luckily for us all, this phase is passing and so relegating basketball back to the same status that baseball has been enjoying for a while.

It's over - Kings (I never liked royalty), Wildcats (none in Australia), Bullets (attractive to lunatics like Martin Bryant), Sixers (wtf is that?). The only club with some sense are Townsville!