Canberra secures new NBL role amid expansion team hopes
Sebastian Tan |
Canberra is one step closer to hosting an NBL team for the first time in more than two decades, the league’s parent company chief executive says.
The NBL’s in-season competition, the Ignite Cup, will undergo a shake-up with the tournament’s finals set to move from the Gold Coast to Canberra’s AIS Arena.
It’s the latest competition development in the nation’s capital as speculation grows that the league is looking to expand into Canberra along with Darwin, the Gold Coast and a second Sydney team.
Competition executives have said they want to grow the current 10-team league, but new clubs will have to have capacity to host at least 8000 spectators.
With the ACT government announcing it will refurbish the Canberra Convention and Entertainment precinct, hope remains that the city can secure an NBL team for the first time since the Canberra Cannons were last involved in 2003.
The Cannons won three NBL titles before relocating to Newcastle, while the Sydney Kings now play some regular season matches at AIS Arena.
Admitting he would have loved to announce a Cannons rebirth on Monday, NBL Group CEO David Stevenson still gave every indication that the league is eyeing the capital.
“We’ve got strong confidence that we can work together with Basketball ACT, with everyone involved in the sport to make sure that hopefully once the venue gets approved, that we can build a great team,” he said.
“What we’re building is a really strong business case, and it’s not just about what happens at the game; it’s the economic contribution that’s really important for us.”
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr added that a minimum of 7500 seats are planned for the Canberra Convention and Entertainment precinct revamp.
“A key element of the business case is having a basketball team play there, or more than one basketball team actually. But it’s not just a basketball stadium, it’s got to accommodate other uses as well,” Barr said.
“The AIS Arena is a fantastic venue, but it sort of maxes out at about 5000 people.
“It was very clear in talking both to live music promoters, to the major sporting organisations … that we were missing out because 5000 was too small.”
But before expansion, the nation’s capital will have to settle for the midweek Ignite Cup, an NBL competition involving 20 games held on Wednesday nights.
The four most successful teams will compete for a share in $550,000 when they progress to the semi-finals in Canberra on February 19 before the decider on February 21.
The NBL’s MVP Awards are also moving from Melbourne for the first time in more than a decade and will be hosted at the Great Hall in Canberra’s Parliament House.
AAP