Basketball On The Internet.

THE WNBL has seen the light and will institute a best-of-three Grand Final series from the forthcoming 2015-16 season and beyond.

The nine clubs voted unanimously to embrace the concept which most of the league's leading coaches, along with Opals boss Brendan Joyce, have been advocating now for several years.

Best-of championship playoff formats, while not necessarily exclusively basketball's domain, generally are identified with the sport.

Basketball Australia's new WNBL General Manager Paul Maley said the season had the potential for further innovation with clubs requesting Boxing Day and New Year's Eve fixturing, and a different season-break necessary from January 10-20 while the Opals are in Rio.

"Mark Quinn is working on the draw and we've had requests for Boxing Day and New Year's Eve,"  Maley said.

With the, as yet unnamed, South East Queensland club joining the competition for 2015-16 and beyond, the WNBL is back to nine teams.

That will mean a 24-game regular season with everyone playing each other three times.

Maley said the finals would stay with their existing format of a third versus fourth knock-out semi final, and a first versus second "double chance" semi final.

The KO semi loser is eliminated, obviously, with the winner advancing to the preliminary final.

The double chance semi winner goes directly into the Grand Final to host Games 1 and 3 (if a third is necessary).

The double chance semi loser plays in the preliminary final, the winner advancing to the Grand Final series and hosting Game 2.

Additionally from the Australian Sports Commission’s report into the optimal competition model for the game, switching the season to winter definitively has been ruled out.

BA chief executive officer Anthony Moore hinted earlier this year that a switch in seasons was unlikely, given its potential clash domestically with the SEABL and internationally with the WNBA.

The recent influx of WNBA imports in their off-season and of returning Aussies from the US pro league has only helped build the quality and reputation of the WNBL.

To clash with it only would weaken the standard of the WNBL.

Clashing with the SEABL also substantially could hurt those WNBL players able to additionally supplement their incomes in the winter interstate league.