Basketball: 'Dorklanders' unlikely to host Aussies

New Zealand is on the verge of becoming home for a team in the Australian basketball league - but Auckland has been all but scrubbed from the shortlist of potential venues.

Controversial basketball identity Jeff Green is behind the venture, which by October should see a New Zealand team join the rugby league Warriors and soccer Kingz in transtasman club competitions, with their matches covered on Sky.

The financially-beaten Canberra franchise is set to be relocated to New Zealand following Australian NBL approval yesterday, conditional on them completing the final 18 games of the present season under the new ownership of Green's consortium, Proteam Holdings.

It is being viewed in Canberra as an insult to Cannons coach Cal Bruton, who battled for 48 hours to raise the necessary $450,000 to keep the Cannons alive.

Basketball New Zealand wants one of its own teams in the Australian competition, and Green believes the move is second only to the Tall Blacks' fourth place in this year's world championships in significance for the sport.

But Green, who would coach the team, blasted Auckland basketball and sport in general for an apathetic attitude which he said meant the city had little chance of becoming the team base.

Wellington and Christchurch are the frontrunners, because Green's preferred choice - his native Waikato - does not have a suitable venue.

Green said Auckland's top basketball venue, the North Shore Events Centre, did not respond to his approaches, and preference would go to "people who have decided to do some work."

"We're not going to close the door [on Auckland] ... but I call them Dorklanders now," Green said in Canberra last night.

"Stadium capacity and corporate funding is important, but more important is the atmosphere. They don't even support their Super 12 team."

A stroke of luck for Green and his partners - the financial demise of the Canberra Cannons - has opened the door for a New Zealand-based team to enter the Australian competition for the 2003/04 season.

Green and cohort Dallas Fisher were in Australia seeking information about entering a team into the Australian NBL when the Cannons, with debts of more than $550,000, went into voluntary administration on Tuesday for the third time in four years.

Australian NBL chief executive Peter Ali said of the Proteam deal: "This decision is the result of 48 hours of intensive work. This is a great example of the key basketball bodies in Australia working together for the good of the game.

"I must stress, however, that there is still a great deal of work to be done."

Green said last night that he had secured the licence - which might previously have cost $2 million - at an undisclosed but drastically reduced price.

Green, who coached the Waikato Titans to national league titles this year and last year, has a colourful history, including frequent outbursts against officials and opponents.



Green also coached the Hutt Valley Lakers to two titles in the early 1990s.

The 44-year-old had his contract as special projects manager with the Waikato tribe Tainui terminated in 1999.

He was Tainui's representative - and chairman of the club - when they were the majority owners of the Warriors and he tried with partners to buy out what was then a troubled rugby league organisation.

Green's partners in this basketball venture are Waikato businessmen Fisher and Michael Redman, a duo who were initially involved in the Tainui bid to built a $43 million stadium in Hamilton.

Fisher is a former partner of Coopers and Lybrand. He is involved in engineering and catering, and has been on the boards of the Waikato Rugby Union and Chiefs.

Redman is an advertising and marketing man who sold his company to an American group. He is on the Northern Districts Cricket board.

Green believes they can run a side below the average $2.75 million a season it costs the 12 Australian teams.

"There are lots of hurdles, but I don't see any major ones," he said.

"We were the only people who made an offer to the [Cannons'] administrator ... we legally own the licence.

"There will be a backlash from Canberra, but 75 per cent of the Australian clubs have said great, and the other 25 per cent have said nothing."

Green said he expected the rules would, crucially, be altered so that New Zealand and other Oceania players were no longer affected by import quotas.

Meanwhile, the North Shore Events Centre was last night trying to contact Green to become a contender as the team's base.

Spokesman Donald Southee said there may have been a communication breakdown and he was surprised to hear of Green's criticism.

"We are certainly very keen to bring the team here," he said.

The North Shore City Council turned the centre over to a non-profit community trust. The stadium capacity was increased to 5000 about 18 months ago.

The WestpacTrust Stadium in Canterbury holds up to 8000 people, while the Queens Wharf Event Centre in Wellington holds 3000.

Green also cast doubt on Canterbury's credentials as a base for a New Zealand club team, saying that despite having the best venue, the region was "rugby mad and red and black."