HUSKIES WATCH AND WAIT
A SUCCESSFUL Southern Huskies campaign will see Tasmania re-enter the NBL in 2020 after the ninth licence was allocated to southeast Melbourne yesterday.
The ninth team will join the league for the 2019-20 season, but NBL chief executive Jeremy Loeliger said the wait for the 10th team to enter the competition would not be long.
“I don’t think it is a fair way away,” Loeliger said on Melbourne’s SEN radio.
“I think 2020 would be a very realistic target for a 10th team in the competition, so we would only have probably one season of nine teams.
“It is a matter of all the stars aligning in terms of infrastructure for training, infrastructure for playing, public interest in the region and commercial support in the region.”
The Huskies consortium is negotiating with Glenorchy City Council over the sale of the proposed home of the Tasmanian NBL team, the Derwent Entertainment Centre.
If it is successful in purchasing the venue, the consortium will then put a formal bid to the NBL to become the 10th club.
But for now, the NBL has confirmed that the ninth team will be based in southeast Melbourne.
The yet to be named franchise will play games at Melbourne Arena starting in the 2019-20 season.
“This is an exciting moment for the NBL as we announce a second team in Melbourne,” Loeliger said.
The NBL announced in July that Romie Chaudhari, coowner of English Championship soccer team Swansea City, had been awarded a licence.
“We said when we granted the licence for a ninth team that its location would depend on having access to first-class training, administrative and playing facilities,” Loeliger said.
“The investment in the State Basketball Centre and Melbourne Arena makes southeast Melbourne the ideal location for the next NBL team.”
A deal has been agreed to move the Australian Basket- ball Centre of Excellence from Canberra to Melbourne’s southeast — with the Victorian Government yesterday committing $82 million for expansion of the State Basketball Centre if re-elected and Knox City Council giving $25 million to the expansion project.
The Victorian Government will add a further $13 million to upgrade Melbourne Arena if re-elected. The newest NBL team will be based at the State Basketball Centre and play two regular-season games there each season.