One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on February 11, 2015, 11:22:37 PM
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Richmond Tigers investigate future NBL franchise in Melbourne's south-east
Roy Ward
The Age
February 12, 2015
Richmond Football Club has investigated fielding a team in the National Basketball League but not in its famous yellow-and-black colours.
Fairfax Media understands Richmond were working in secret with the NBL in a bid to run a second Melbourne franchise with a group of Tigers' staff building a proposal which met all the NBL's criteria except for attracting the independent money needed to fund the early seasons.
It is understood the bid to get a team up and running in the 2015-16 season has stalled after the club ran out of time and required more financial backing. Club officials are still to decide whether to continue the process for the 2016-17 or beyond.
The Tigers wanted to attract new financial backing for its NBL side.
The NBL side would not play as Richmond Tigers due to the AFL's demands to keep sole use of club identities. This also prohibited the use of the much-loved yellow and black colours.
Former South Dragons owner Mark Cowan, a passionate Richmond supporter, was working with the club and the NBL to put the Richmond-backed team into the NBL for next season with the team based in and representing south-east Melbourne but potentially playing at Hisense Arena.
The South Dragons identity was being considered as the team's name and colours due to its existing fan base and connections in south-east Melbourne, but other names were being considered.
The Tigers also reached out to NBA clubs about a possible partnership and continue to look into attracting an NBA side as a partner to the NBL team.
Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale was flying to America on Wednesday but his trip is not believed to be connected to the NBL expansion.
With Australia's profile growing in the NBA due to a record number of NBA and WNBA players, such partnerships could become more attractive.
Richmond's interest in taking up an NBL licence was based on their desire to build stronger connections in south-eastern Melbourne and its growing population.
With Richmond having a large supporter base in those suburbs, the club's plan was to set up a successful NBL franchise with independent financial support and sponsors but backed by the Tigers' commercial, marketing and media divisions.
The Tigers would then have access to many more potential members as the population in the area grows.
A Richmond spokesman said the club was not progressing with the bid but The Age understands there is nothing stopping the Tigers revisiting their plans for future seasons.
"Richmond has a very significant supporter base in Melbourne's south-east , a part of Melbourne that is also significantly invested in basketball," he said.
"As part of our engagement strategy in the region, we did make some preliminary inquiries with the NBL but it has not progressed beyond that point.
"As a club we need to continue to look for innovative ways to grow our consumer base and for that reason we felt this was an opportunity worth investigating.
"Clearly our core business is winning games of football and we continue to look for opportunities that can strengthen our business and underpin that core objective."
Basketball has long been one of the most popular sports in south-eastern Melbourne as shown by the large player bases of the Dandenong, Kilsyth, Nunawading and Knox associations along with the rapidly growing associations at Cranbourne and Pakenham.
The Richmond-backed NBL bid is not believed to be aligned with the south-east Melbourne bid which has worked for several years to make a community-controlled NBL team in that region.
The community bid is still working to win the NBL's approval and continues to make its case to the league.
The Age understands current NBL club Melbourne United's stadium deal with the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust doesn't exclude other future NBL clubs making a deal to use their stadiums.
An NBL spokeswoman said the league would not comment on NBL expansion talks.
"The NBL will not discuss the details of any confidential negotiations," she said.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/basketball/richmond-tigers-investigate-future-nbl-franchise-in-melbournes-southeast-20150211-13c2m5.html
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I would be in support of this venture. Australian clubs will follow European sporting clubs into the "Superclub" model where sporting clubs run different teams in different sports. Its a shame this didn't stay a secret every other club in Melbourne will start investigating this possibility.
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Collingwood and Hawthorn already planning it now
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and it'll only work if they're Tigers too
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This must be why we are keeping Matt Dea on the list. :facepalm
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Chris Anstey is available as a Melbourne Tigers link anyway :shh
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Still say we should have a national netball and have the netballers socialise with our top footballers
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:clapping Fooled all the nay-sayers here with their trip to the states. All they could worry about was trying to find a negative out of the trip and come to the conclusion that we went in a bid to try and find out why we lose finals when in reality we were discussing possible deals and trying an innovative (in the AFL) way to get ahead of the pack. Well done RFC
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Makes sense - game's turning into Ghettoball anyway....though it would've been more fitting had we done this when Wallace was coach....
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Stupid idea , we d attract thousands more members if we offered free upgrades on meal deal at maccas or 3 weeklys at blockbuster for $5 on presentation of a RFC membership,,,This is an absurd :banghead
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Stupid idea , we d attract thousands more members if we offered free upgrades on meal deal at maccas or 3 weeklys at blockbuster for $5 on presentation of a RFC membership,,,This is an absurd :banghead
McDonald's upgrades will attract thousands? We're not Collingwood.
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Hampson, Dea, Soldo.. Just need a couple more and we have a team. :whistle
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Stupid idea , we d attract thousands more members if we offered free upgrades on meal deal at maccas or 3 weeklys at blockbuster for $5 on presentation of a RFC membership,,,This is an absurd :banghead
McDonald's upgrades will attract thousands? We're not Collingwood.
I'd expect a dietician to say that :lol
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Yep outs Vickery, Grigg
Ins whoever the guard and the point guard is.
Fantastic multiskilling opportunity for all involved.
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As for backing a NBL side - basketball currently is hardly in good shape financially and administration wise. Then there's the catch 22 of the name and colours. Not being allowed to be called the Tigers or have yellow & black colours, doesn't promote our brand; on the flip side, opposition AFL club supporters won't hop on board a franchise backed by an arch-rival. Carlton and Collingwood found this out with Soccer in the NSL days and their clubs failed after only a few years. I can't see the AFL either, allowing one of its clubs to financially back a sporting competitor in any case.