Asia key for our Hoops dreams
THE Gold Coast has been revealed as a potential venue for a Chinese team playing in the National Basketball League.
The NBL is keen to expand its push into Asia to eventually include a Chinese team that could play some “home” games out of Australia.
The Gold Coast is being spruiked as a possible venue.
Plenty of sports are keen to establish links with Asia and China, in particular, given that country’s massive population and the potential for broadcast and sponsorship links.
The Gold Coast Suns were part of the AFL’s first regular season match in Shanghai earlier this year, while Gold Coaster Paul Broughton is pushing rugby league’s cause through his China Australia Sport Education group.
But with basketball already having a strong foothold in China, the NBL’s push into the country could be the most successful of them all.
The league will send an AllAustralian team to play three matches in China next month, with the Chinese national team coming to Australia later in July to play Melbourne United, as well as the Brisbane Bullets on the Gold Coast.
Bullets general manager Richard Clarke said the Coast could be a potential venue for a Chinese team.
“This game with team China coming to play the Bullets is an example of where the NBL is trying to head with this connection to China, potentially having a Chinese team within the competition and playing some home games within Australia,” Clarke said.
“And Gold Coast is a potential venue for that. That sort of thing is exciting.
“Basketball is one of the top two sports in the world both for viewership and participation, there’s over a million participants in Australia and growing, so the chance for the NBL to expand – both within Australia with more teams and into China or other parts of Asia – no other sport has that opportunity right now.”
The return of top-level basketball to the Gold Coast is a fillip for the sport in the region. The loss of the Blaze in 2012 was a massive blow.
The Bullets may only be playing two games – against China next month before bringing an NBL game here in October – but the importance cannot be underestimated.
It only takes a second to spark a dream and some junior sitting in the grandstand at Carrara could be the next Patrick Mills or Lauren Jackson.
The move to have a Gold Coast team back in the NBL is not dead, just a way off.