For those of you who were not sure when the 2009/10 NBL season kicks off, it is tonight over in Sheep Shagger (New Zealand) territory. That in itself is a mystery as to why you open the season in a foreign country of your own national competition.
The good news for fans is you can catch the action between the Kirk Penney, CJ Bruton led New Zealand Breakers and the Queensland Government sponsored Cairns Taipans. For those that have Fox Sports, you can fluff your couch pillows and get the popcorn ready for 5pm sharp so we can expand our vocab in Kiwi native tongue. (What will be the first word? My call is jump ball.)
To support my feelings that not many fans around the country would realise the NBL begins it's "new" season, I found this article by Matt Stevens from Gaze.com.au.
Let me know what you think about the way the 2009/10 season has been promoted.
Oh, and a tip for the game, Breakers by 20+.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Yes, The NBL Starts Tonight
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11 comments:
Far from ideal launch timing and location and I don't think you could give the league itself a passing grade from their efforts, but the clubs themselves are making a fair effort.
36ers had their season launch event last night and it was a great evening. Media coverage has been decent and the club have good regular bits started on radio and TV ads to start soon.
Main thrust seems to have been towards season ticket sales (renewals and trying to bring back those who dropped away from the couple of years prior). Once things shift towards regular game promotion, we'll hopefully see a bit more.
I don't expect to see any league-directed marketing efforts outside of ads on Fox however.
.....What?!
A very poor promotional result indeed. I'm not sure if the promotional effort just failed to get traction.
I think this season is for the fans and the players. The only new fans will come from friends of fans and kids who already play basketball.
I expect the Sydney Flames will get more people to their games as the WNBL is the top hoops competition in Sydney.
It is easy to criticise the NBL. But I do have hope and am willing to give them a chance.
The NBL should take this season to experiment with online and offline guerrilla marketing tactics. It won't matter if they make a mistake. The just have to create some buzz.
Given the financial requirements to be in the league this year, it is the clubs with the most to lose. That's the incentive to get their local community excited.
If the NBL competition doesn't work, there will eventually emerge an alternative competition.
lets just be thankful we have a league this yeat hey
If your a true NBL fan like myself, you would of known this ages ago about the season tip off and being in another country.
Isaac:
Adds cost money, where r the NBL going to get that money from if they don't have it?. They are not magic, and cant print their own, so you tell me?. No blood from that stone.
First game should have been in Perth, Melbourne or Adelaide - between teams with a traditional rivalry and a good crowd. It should also have been a week or two after the AFL/NRL Grand Finals to grab more media exposure.
Could have had a media focused season launch (even if it was a glorified press conference) with the coaches and captains of each club present too.
Clint, which is why I said I didn't expect to see any from the league.
Anyone read Tim Morrisey's article in the Telegraph?
Clint,
Believe it or not, it's not people like you (the true fans) that the NBL needs to attract, because teh true fans follow the sport year on year - it's the average sports Joe who has spare cash to burn that the league really needs, because unfortunately these constitute an otherwise silent majority.
That's basically what made the NBL so great back in the mid 90's. They were literally "stealing" dollars from other codes.
Good Call JR On the 20+ point win by NZ. Did you see CJ having a gr8 start to the season, and do you see him holding this form. Him and kirk 1-2 punch can be dangerous.
And they have some inside guys this season. They look good. Penny is da man!
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