Basketball: NZ get foothold in Australian league

11.00am

A New Zealand-based consortium has bought its way into the Australian national basketball league (NBL).

The consortium bought out the financially troubled Canberra Cannons and will bankroll that franchise for the remainder of the 2002-2003 league season.

It will then transfer the franchise from Canberra to New Zealand for the 2003-2004 season.

The NBL board accepted the consortium's offer at a meeting in Sydney yesterday.

With debts exceeding A$500,000 ($556,235), the Cannons went into voluntary administration on Tuesday.

Before their collapse the Cannons had been fourth in the league after posting seven wins and five losses.

The identity and composition of the consortium is not known while it is also unclear whether the new administration has to clear those debts, what the annual costs of the deal amount to and where in New Zealand the franchise will be relocated to next year.

Previous bids to get a New Zealand team into the Australian league failed but that was before the Tall Blacks shook up the basketball community by finishing fourth at the world championships in the United States this year.

Most of the Tall Blacks are already locked in to lucrative deals offshore, but emerging talent could be employed by a New Zealand franchise competing across the Tasman.

It is understood that high profile Waikato coach Jeff Green has an involvement in the new Cannons' management.

Aucklander Ian Shaw, who headed the previous attempt to have a New Zealand side in the Australian league, told NZPA he was not involved in the consortium taking over the Canberra Cannons.

Shaw said it would cost $2 million annually for a New Zealand-based side to compete in the NBL and that sort of money was available.

Previous bids for entry were sunk due to the A$1 million licence fee demanded by the NBL board, which went to the league and could not be used by the franchise.

He understood that fee had since been halved and was uncertain whether it applied anyway in the case of franchise ownership being transferred.

Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) chief executive David Crocker was unavailable to comment.

He was in Sydney yesterday where it is understood he met Australian officials as he ties up the Tall Blacks' international programme for 2003.

It is thought the Canberra issue may have been discussed also, although BBNZ is understood to have no financial or business input into a New Zealand entry in the NBL.

- NZPA