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VEGAS may be off the NBL map for now but the league already is reviewing potential locations for its 2014 Blitz Tournament and second annual Loggins-Bruton Trophy.

League CEO Fraser Neill said on the agenda was the prospect of taking the Blitz to potential new locations.

For “new”, maybe substitute “suitor” locations.

The NBL’s annual preseason tournament last year settled on its best format yet with championship points for quarters won, on top of points for winning a game.

It made the opponent less relevant, allowed clubs to focus on themselves – a large part of any preseason series – and produced an array of tight and exciting contests throughout.

The Blitz and other NBL preseason series such as the Sunshine Challenge or even going back to the K-Mart Classics of the 80s have been played in myriad locations but Neill said he was entertaining staging the 2014 version in a potential new city.

If you are thinking of locales such as Brisbane, south-eastern Melbourne, Tasmania or Canberra – the most often referred-to sites for potential NBL teams in the 2015-16 expansion – pat yourself on the back.

“There are pros and cons for going to an existing location or trying new ones,” Neill said.

The league tried to “test the waters” in 2011 when it staged the second round of the Blitz at Chandler Stadium in Brisbane after also holding matches at great older venues such as Auchenflower.

Sadly though, in typical Basketball Australia fashion – BA was administering the NBL at the time – little or no effort, time or energy was spent publicising the event to the wider community.

It meant while the NBL hit Brisbane again to ostensibly test the waters for a return of big league action, it was only the local basketball community which knew much about it.

To say the NBL/BA missed a wonderful marketing opportunity would be an understatement to rival the pain many of us felt not receiving our High Performance Calendars in last year's Christmas stocking.

Patty Mills was playing with Melbourne Tigers at the time and was completely amenable to helping publicise the event in any way.

Patty wasn’t yet the Patty he is with San Antonio but he already was logging NBA minutes with the Spurs’ current Western Conference semi-final opponent Portland Trail Blazers.

He rapidly was becoming the face of Australian basketball and would have had a huge impact on Brisbane television news services, radio and the Courier Mail newspaper.

But he never was utilised in that manner and the Sunshine Challenge’s biggest challenges remained drawing a crowd or any interest.

As a means to measure Brisbane interest in re-starting the Bullets, it essentially was irrelevant and meaningless.

Such a shame. Wasted opportunities are littered across the NBL’s chequered history, especially while BA remained convinced in its own variation of the “Field of Dreams” philosophy – “if we stage it, they will come.”

They didn’t.

But typically, BA left out telling anyone about it, as if Brisbane would know the Blitz was happening by osmosis.

“I can’t speak to that but staging the Blitz in a region considering participation in the NBL has merit,” Neill said, the lessons of the past not lost on the “new kid in town.”

Stay tuned for an announcement on the location and dates in the coming weeks.

But despite the growing groundswell of player dissent over the NBL’s decision to retain its controversial Player Points System, don’t expect any changes to the revamped version already released by the League.

Retired former Melbourne captain Tommy Greer has added his voice to the chorus decrying the PPS, NBL Players Association president Jacob Holmes leading the call for its dismantling.

“If we can get a better system, then we would certainly look at it,” Neill said.

“We invited the NBLPA to the general managers’ two-day meeting in March.

“Jacob was there and we went over the NBL strategy of the player points and Jacob put forward his thoughts and objections.

“But as I have said, we are open to listening to alternate systems and if the NBLPA has one or is working on one, we will look at it.”

TOMORROW: Spoke at length today with FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann, covering a range of topics. It’s all here tomorrow.