NEXT PLEASE

Now Tassie awaits 10th NBL team licence

THE NBL is officially expanding — with the powerful Tasmanian consortium focusing on the 10th licence.

NBL owner Larry Kestelman announced a ninth licence yesterday to businessman Romie Chaudhari for the 2019-20 season, despite there being no lo- cation or name for the team as yet. The strong Tassie push, led by Hobart Chargers president, former premier David Bartlett, and backed by millionaire Justin Hickey, is moving forward with plans to buy the Derwent Entertainment Centre as part of a bid it believes will be undeniable.

However, the consortium was left a little unsure what yesterday’s announcement meant for the path forward.

“It’s unclear what this means for our bid but what is clear is that the NBL has an appetite for expansion and that is good,” Bartlett said.

Where Chaudhari takes the ninth licence remains un- known. Competing groups are in Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast, but while Melbourne is favoured to have a second team, there are question marks around a suitable arena.

Melbourne United plays at Hisense Arena, but should the second Melbourne franchise wish to play at the same venue, Hisense would be unable to host games every weekend because of concerts and other entertainment as well as being unavailable during Australian Open tennis.

Chaudhari is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur who is also a co-owner, director and board member of EFL Championship Club Swansea City and co- owner of the e-sports team the Immortals. He said he sees the NBL as “one of the premier leagues in the world and a global entertainment product watched by fans around the world”.

“Wherever we end up locating this team, I want it to unify and represent the community and help build a world-class team fans can be proud of,” Chaudhari said. “The NBL is coming off a record season in attendance, broadcast audiences and corporate support and there couldn’t be a better time to be involved in Australian basketball.”

Kestelman said a decision on the new team’s location would depend on access to world-class training and facilities that are up to NBL standards, while NBL chief executive Jeremy Loeliger added: “We will now work with him to identify the most suitable location for the new team, but we’ve already had huge interest from around the country as we look to meet demand and growing interest in the game.”