Basketball On The Internet.

IMAGINE this scenario: Twelve NBL teams playing out of boutique-sized venues around the country, with every game on FTA television and matches on any/every night of the week.

And how about this? Maybe there are minimal weekend matches!

Wait, don’t hover over your keyboard just yet, ready to flay and fillet me.

I’m talking Season 2015-16, given the current and brilliant BA-brokered deal with Network Ten only concludes at the end of the 2014-15 season.

That means at least one more season of treading water as far as growing the NBL as a television product because, let’s face facts, Ten does less-than-nothing to promote its free-to-air basketball exclusivity.

I see the Big Bash League ads coming at me at a rate of knots and the NBL ads coming at a rate of nots.

(Guess that’s the difference between maybe forking out $40mill for a product as opposed to $40k.)

But, like all good things, the Ten-ONE deal eventually will come to an end.

Despite ever-controversial Hall of Famer and basketball-lover Ken Cole insisting the NBL indeed MUST return to winter (his latest blog is right here at: http://www.botinagy.com/blog/the-real-fun-in-coaching/) I don’t see/hear it happening.

Will that mean in the near future the loss of players such as Chris Goulding and Daniel Johnson to more lucrative playing opportunities overseas? More than likely.

But just as that is somewhat inevitable, players returning from overseas to play here in winter is not. Cannot imagine anyone on a million-dollar deal or on several hundred-thou per season in Europe or the USA wanting to then play for respective peanuts in Australia, not only putting their career at risk or shortening it by playing for 12 months. Not to mention Boomer expectations.

That said, as inevitable as it is the NBL will lose unique talents such as The Unicorn and DJ, the influx of an AJ Ogilvy and Cody Ellis, or return of a Mark Worthington and Steve Markovic are just as inevitable.

So let’s try this. In the 2014-15 season, the NBL subtlely programs some fixtures in January – when so many people are on holidays and, certainly, their children are – on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night, luring fans out midweek against what they may be accustomed to doing.

It being holidays, fans are less resistant and even happier when it means less weekend fixturing, so you can head to your beach shack or Saturday-Sunday away having fun in the sun without compromising your NBL season tickets.

And hey, maybe clubs market Friday night fixtures toward corporates and Gen Y, while Sunday arvo games toward families?

This all becomes abundantly more plausible when you have two key elements in place; boutique-style stadia where trying to get 6,000+ is no longer your goal but grabbing one of say, 3,000 available seats makes the NBL a super-hot ticket AND, in conjunction with that, a FTA television deal that gives you very game live.

Can’t get that hot ticket? That’s OK. It is live on FTA.

And don’t think for even a millisecond that inexpensive local content for our major FTA television networks - with a potential live game every night - won’t tickle the interest of a 7mate or a GEM or an SBS-2.

The only clubs potentially hurt by switching to smaller venues right now would be Perth Wildcats and, maybe, NZ Breakers.

But not having to find an 8,000-capacity entertainment centre would open the door fairly widely for a Brisbane Bullets to play out of a Convention Centre, a South East Melbourne Magic at the SBC, and make returning to the league viable for potential clubs in a Newcastle, Canberra and/or a Hobart.

It also immediately assists Cairns, Townsville and Wollongong too.

A lot of clubs are hurt by the expense of having to play out of venues they struggle to fill. Imagine if that struggle was removed with playing in a smaller venue more desirable?

Then the ticket becomes a super-hot one, especially when fans can see what the atmosphere is like AT a game because it is being nightly conveyed on television.

“Geez, it looks pretty good to be there luv,” you can probably hear someone saying while they watch a game like the Wollongong-Perth overtimer on the telly.

“Better put a bid in for a ticket now!”

Sure, it means the NBL does become a little television-dependent but full (small) houses and clubs freed to work on marketing, publicity and promotion of themselves and the league – there’s advertising revenue to reap as well through every game being on live FTA television so they can charge a little more for that sponsor logo for example – and we have an alternate vision for the future.

There’s more!

But that will come in Part 2 of “Crystal ballin’ ”.

Let me know your thoughts at botirnagy@gmail.com