DOUBLE JEOPARDY: AFL COULD IMPERIL TASMANIA’S BID TO JOIN NBL
NOT only does the AFL refuse to give Tasmania its own team, but now the indigenous code could have a major impact on the state’s push for its return to the NBL.
The NBL’s expansion plans have become muddled for Tasmania with AFL clubs looking to own teams in the nation’s best basketball competition.
Collingwood, which has netball and AFLW teams, is one team to be reported to be interested in entering the competition, while Fremantle could be another with only one team, the Perth Wildcats, in Western Australia.
Many of the big European football teams own basketball sides.
NBL chief executive Jeremy Loeliger would not name names but said a few “had really put their hands up and were quite keen”.
“There’s no mystery as to why it makes good commercial sense and I guess there’s nothing new about the conversa- tions either, other than the fact that they’re starting to gain a bit of momentum now,” Loeliger told Sportsday radio.
“There’ve been discussions over quite some period with a number of AFL clubs and it’s building momentum now because the competition is better than it’s ever been and with talk of expansion hotting up, some of the real contenders are stepping forward.”
He said it made sense for sporting clubs to use its facilities, resources and staff across more than one sporting code.
Chargers president David Bartlett has been leading the state’s push, with a plan to have Hobart’s SEABL team NBL ready in three years.
Already the club has increased its average home crowds threefold in the first year, with plans to double it again in 2018, and participation rates have grown by 36 per cent in the last year alone.
“I can see why it makes sense for the NBL to consider that but it means they are going to existing markets instead of new markets like Tasmania,” Bartlett said. “Does it help or hinder us? I don’t know because we are not far enough down the track for a serious bid to really know.”
He said the Chargers were on track to meet their goal of being NBL ready, and he had started preliminary discussions with the State Government.
“The two things [for a Tasmanian NBL team] are finding a real commercial owner of a basketball club in Tasmania and the second thing is whether the NBL want a Tasmanian team,” he said.