Sports

Hurdles emerge for Southern Huskies’ NBL bid

The boss of the National Basketball League (NBL) has named several hurdles to Tasmania's bid for a team by 2020.

Chief executive officer Jeremy Loeliger believes the television audience could potentially be small and the cost of broadcasting games too expensive.

He also named local corporate sponsorship as a hurdle for the Southern Huskies.

Loeliger and league owner Larry Kestleman have met bid bankroller Justin Hickey and business partner Michael Sutton at NBL headquarters in Melbourne to discuss the Southern Huskies audacious bid to re-establish a Tasmanian presence in the competition.

The informal meeting went for about 90 minutes and provided Hickey and Sutton with a chance to initially present their bid to league powerbrokers.

But despite garnering enormous public support in the weeks since the Huskies branding was unveiled, the bid is far from certain to be a success.

"It [the Tasmanian bid] does represent a small market from a TV audience point of view and such a significant driver for commercial value in sporting leagues is viewership numbers" Loeliger said.

"To produce a product that is up to the same spec as other regions down in Tasmania I think would be a significant logistical exercise and there are real costs that come with that."

Recently, the Huskies' newly formed website crashed when it launched $10 foundation memberships, with several thousand selling within hours.

"[That] certainly goes a long way to demonstrating to us that there's an appetite for an NBL team in Tasmania, but it's a big difference to go from a $10 commitment to a three-year ticket, which I think is the business model that the Huskies are proposing," Loeliger said.

"We would want to do some real market testing in Tasmania to ensure both fan support and more importantly local corporate support was there to ensure this team was not only sustainable but successful."

The Huskies' goal of entering the league for the start of the 2019-20 season also seems unlikely to be met.

"At this stage that would be a very significant undertaking, and things would have to fall into place very efficiently in the near future if that was to be a realistic prospect," Loeliger said.

Justin Hickey

Bid proponent Justin Hickey has made an unsolicited bid to buy the Derwent Entertainment Centre, and if successful he plans pour $90 million into the site and base the Huskies there.

He emerged from the meeting happy with how talks unfolded.

"We chewed the fat quite openly and honestly about our plans and our wants and they responded with what they'd like to see from any new licence coming in," he said.

"It was more fact finding from our perspective. They're all businessmen, and we put together a strong case study outlining why we're doing what we do and they certainly weren't against it."

Last month, the ninth licence was sold to American businessman Romie Chaudhari and Loeliger confirmed the 10th licence would be sold for a similar fee, although it is not known how much that is.

Several low-key bidders are emerging across the country, but the licence itself is only a "theoretical possibility" at this stage, according to Loeliger.

"Multiple towns and cities, states and a number of other investors who have expressed interest on a similar basis to Romie Chaudhari are interested in securing the 10th licence and then working with us to determine the best location," he said.

"People I think are realising that the 10th licence will be the last one available for a number of years. We have a lot of work to do to make some tough decisions."

The Southern Huskies plan to meet with the NBL again in about six weeks.

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Sports

Hurdles emerge for Southern Huskies’ NBL bid

The boss of the National Basketball League (NBL) has named several hurdles to Tasmania's bid for a team by 2020.

Chief executive officer Jeremy Loeliger believes the television audience could potentially be small and the cost of broadcasting games too expensive.

He also named local corporate sponsorship as a hurdle for the Southern Huskies.

Loeliger and league owner Larry Kestleman have met bid bankroller Justin Hickey and business partner Michael Sutton at NBL headquarters in Melbourne to discuss the Southern Huskies audacious bid to re-establish a Tasmanian presence in the competition.

The informal meeting went for about 90 minutes and provided Hickey and Sutton with a chance to initially present their bid to league powerbrokers.

But despite garnering enormous public support in the weeks since the Huskies branding was unveiled, the bid is far from certain to be a success.

"It [the Tasmanian bid] does represent a small market from a TV audience point of view and such a significant driver for commercial value in sporting leagues is viewership numbers" Loeliger said.

"To produce a product that is up to the same spec as other regions down in Tasmania I think would be a significant logistical exercise and there are real costs that come with that."

Recently, the Huskies' newly formed website crashed when it launched $10 foundation memberships, with several thousand selling within hours.

"[That] certainly goes a long way to demonstrating to us that there's an appetite for an NBL team in Tasmania, but it's a big difference to go from a $10 commitment to a three-year ticket, which I think is the business model that the Huskies are proposing," Loeliger said.

"We would want to do some real market testing in Tasmania to ensure both fan support and more importantly local corporate support was there to ensure this team was not only sustainable but successful."

The Huskies' goal of entering the league for the start of the 2019-20 season also seems unlikely to be met.

"At this stage that would be a very significant undertaking, and things would have to fall into place very efficiently in the near future if that was to be a realistic prospect," Loeliger said.

Justin Hickey

Bid proponent Justin Hickey has made an unsolicited bid to buy the Derwent Entertainment Centre, and if successful he plans pour $90 million into the site and base the Huskies there.

He emerged from the meeting happy with how talks unfolded.

"We chewed the fat quite openly and honestly about our plans and our wants and they responded with what they'd like to see from any new licence coming in," he said.

"It was more fact finding from our perspective. They're all businessmen, and we put together a strong case study outlining why we're doing what we do and they certainly weren't against it."

Last month, the ninth licence was sold to American businessman Romie Chaudhari and Loeliger confirmed the 10th licence would be sold for a similar fee, although it is not known how much that is.

Several low-key bidders are emerging across the country, but the licence itself is only a "theoretical possibility" at this stage, according to Loeliger.

"Multiple towns and cities, states and a number of other investors who have expressed interest on a similar basis to Romie Chaudhari are interested in securing the 10th licence and then working with us to determine the best location," he said.

"People I think are realising that the 10th licence will be the last one available for a number of years. We have a lot of work to do to make some tough decisions."

The Southern Huskies plan to meet with the NBL again in about six weeks.

Original Article

[contf]
[contfnew]

ABC .net

[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]

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