Basketball On The Internet.

VALUE for money. That's the most obvious benefit of the proposed "merger'' of the Adelaide 36ers and Adelaide Lightning national league clubs.

While it is not technically a "merger'' per se - it's definitely a de facto relationship, not a marriage where they take the same name - they will share a number of resources, including admin, sales and marketing.

Most importantly, they have asked for what Stephanie Talbot might describe as a "$h!+load'' of NBL/WNBL double-headers which has to make it an even bigger "night at the basketball'' in Adelaide in 2013-14.

Those early years at the (then) Clipsal Powerhouse when the Lightning tipped off the night and would have 6,000-plus fans there for the last quarter before the 36ers started, were memorable.

"We never thought of ourselves as a curtain-raiser,'' four-time Olympian and Lightning legend Rachael Sporn told me.

"We started games with our own crowd and would finish with huge support. And in close finishes, that was often when we needed it.''

Lightning subsequently drew 7,100 to their 1995 stand-alone Grand Final with Melbourne.

That doesn't occur too often anywhere these days.

On the surface it certainly appears the WNBL had better brand recognition when it shared the stage with the NBL and, frankly, it points to the big advantage basketball has over other team sports.

It is played by both sexes.

I've long been an advocate of the big advantage that gives us as a sport over football and netball for example.

It's why my personal view is All Star weekend should feature the NBL's elite AND the WNBL's elite, with both leagues showcasing their best in a double-header night/day.
And that in such an All Star weekend, an event such as the 3-point shooting contest could be jointly contested to find Australia's top long-range shooter, man or woman.

Or factor in a "teams" event, as the NBA does now by including legends and WNBA players.

But I digress.

It's not as though the NBL is taking Australia by storm at present. And the WNBL continues to be treated like a red-headed stepchild by BA, despite platitudes to the contrary.

For the life of me, I cannot see a good reason why more NBL/WNBL clubs would not follow Adelaide's lead and unite with their city counterparts, if not reunite, as the case may be.

Why not have the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames on the same program, for example?

Five of the eight NBL clubs could do it. The three that could not are unique though. Cairns and Wollongong operate on community-based models and already are well serving their community.

And life seems to be travelling pretty well across the Tasman in New Zealand too where the Breakers are rightly now identified as the nation's club.

So given the impact on that trio would be negligible, why not have the Crocodiles and Fire work together in Townsville? Perth Wildcats and West Coast Waves jointly raise the flag in Western Australia?

(Yes, you can argue the Wildcats are doing pretty fine on their own out west and it is a good argument. But exposing the women to an incoming crowd of 11,000 can only further grow our game.)

Who would Melbourne Tigers double with?

Long ago that club's unique problems with capturing mainstream Melbourne's support were laid bare here - that kids playing against Tiger junior teams for a decade had no desire to identify with that club when they reached the potential to play at NBL level.

Now Bulleen's WNBL entity finds itself trying to equate with a broader Melbourne base.

My (e)mail is the club is moving toward being called the Melbourne Boomers and it is not hard to see the logic in that. (Such a shame that a Boomer is a male kangaroo and, as such, has no real connection to a women's team, apart from it being the inherited club nickname.)

With Dandenong well-established and a long way from the CBD, and reigning champion Bendigo even further, the Melbourne Boomers and Melbourne Tigers makes sense as a double-headed entity too.

It means value-for-money, greater brand recognition and growth, and our clubs taking some advantage of the fact basketball is an international sport and a sport for all.