Final buzzer for Huskies

Huskies pull pin, but hope not lost

TASMANIAN basketball fans have been assured the demise of the Southern Huskies won’t impact plans for a locally based NBL team.

An NBL spokesman last night said plans for a Tassie team were “progressing well” despite the Huskies folding.

THE Southern Huskies’ bombshell to withdraw immediately from New Zealand and the NBL1 competition will have no impact on the Australian NBL’s plans to establish a team in the state.

Just a year into a five-year agreement with the NZNBL — and having taken over the NBL1 licence from the Hobart Chargers — the Huskies have packed up, citing an “untenable” relationship with Basketball Tasmania. It comes as NBL owner Larry Kestelman continues his discussions with the Glenorchy City Council and the State Government to establish a Tasmanian team in the NBL.

“It has no effect whatsoever on the NBL’s plans for a 10th team in Tasmania. These plans are progressing well and we look forward to bringing the NBL Blitz to Tasmania next month,” an NBL spokesman said.

BTas chief executive Chris McCoy said he was shocked when Huskies CEO Mike Sutton delivered the news.

It is understood outstanding debts of at least $150,000 are the catalyst for the decision, and in a statement the organisation said “arrangements will be made with all remaining creditors to be paid”.

“We had correspondence with the Huskies stating some of the great areas they achieved in year one and then stating some of our concerns and wanting a bit of a road map forward to ramp things up into year two,” McCoy said.

“Unfortunately they’ve decided that’s not in their interests. We thank the Huskies for what they did with the state and their investment in year one, and in some ways they’ve paved the way for the NBL discussions.

“Part of our role is to protect the integrity of the sport, so certainly we’ve asked some questions about their plans. We can’t make any apology for that because that’s our role as a state sporting organisation.

“The line about being untenable, I’d need some more clarification from the Huskies management on that one.

“It was always going to be their decision on whether they ramped things up for year two and increased their professionalism and took that next stage of growth, or whether they determined it was too difficult.”

The GCC confirmed to the Mercury the Huskies owe just under $20,000 for use of the DEC, while it is believed the figure outstanding at the Silverdome is even higher.

Kingborough Sports Centre is understood to be owed more than $10,000.

“The Huskies owe us $19,908.94 for the use of the DEC for the NZNBL season,” a GCC spokesman said. “That amount has been overdue for some time. We are looking forward to receiving payment in accordance with the terms of our contract with the Huskies.”

NZNBL general manager Justin Nelson said it was disappointing the Huskies were withdrawing from the league, leaving the competition with just seven teams after the Supercity Rangers had their contract terminated earlier in the week. Nelson said the Huskies still owed money to the league, but it was nothing “significant”.

“There’s a few payments left to be made and we’ll work through the process with them of clearing up those final payments before they exit. The guys were straight on the phone to us today and spoke to us before the news went public and we expect that they will finalise their accounts with us.”

Nelson said the board would meet soon to discuss the licence agreement with the Huskies, given they have walked out with four years remaining.