Basketball: Breakers all smiles as ANBL season gets green light

The Breakers are one of seven teams to make formal submissions to contest this year's ANBL. Photo / Brett Phibbs

SYDNEY - There were wide grins at New Zealand Breakers headquarters in Auckland today after Basketball Australia (BA) confirmed tentative plans for a seven-team national league starting later this year.

Grim reports in Sydney of the death of basketball, and a year-long hiatus for the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL), were given a rosier tint by BA chief executive Larry Sengstock.

He confirmed the Breakers are among seven teams to provide a formal submission for the 2009-10 season by last night's deadline and that all seven will meet in Melbourne tomorrow to thrash out details of the competition.

"It's certainly the outcome that we were looking for," Breakers general manager Richard Clarke told NZPA.

"Just playing at all was our ideal scenario. We had very good momentum last year with our results, our crowds and television viewers, so to not play next season would have put a big dent in that."

Clarke is confident a minimum seven-team league will tipoff in late September, pending tomorrow's meeting which he and the Breakers' owners will attend.

He has spoken to the other six teams - Adelaide, Cairns, Gold Coast, Perth, Townsville and Wollongong - and all are ready to play.

They are all required to satisfy the BA board of their long-term viability.

It appeared likely the ANBL would be forced into a hiatus in 2009-10 due to a lack of interest after last year's two grand finalists, South Dragons and Melbourne Tigers, withdrew in the past week, saying the league was "clearly unsustainable".

But Sengstock, a former Olympian in the top job for only the past two weeks, said BA had an obligation to provide a product with a view to a true national competition starting in 2010.

There are no teams from Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane in 2009-10, although talks are underway with an alternate Melbourne franchise to potentially make it an eight-team league.

Sengstock said the Breakers' strength was one of the main reasons why the league could continue.

"New Zealand have been one of our success stories in the league, they have really blossomed in the last year or two," he said.

"They have been absolute supporters of what we're doing. I would see that as being a success story for us and something we need to foster and continue."

Clarke said with the two Melbourne teams withdrawing, the talent pool would be spread around and would make 2009-10 a "very competitive league".

The Breakers hosted a semifinal for the first time last season.

Clarke expected a more rigid salary cap of A$1 million ($1.27 million), but said no plans on player recruitment would be made until after the league was set in stone.

They had seven players already contracted for this season: CJ Bruton, Paul Henare, Kirk Penney, Oscar Forman, Dillon Boucher, Thomas Abercrombie and development player Alex Pledger. Tony Ronaldson, Phill Jones, Rick Rickert and Tim Behrendorff were off contract.

"We haven't been able to do a lot on that front yet. The salary cap will decide who else we can sign," Clarke said.

Meanwhile, Sengstock expressed annoyance at the late defection of the two Melbourne clubs.

They had expressed a desire to be part of the 2010-11 competition but he said there were no guarantees.

"They have been supportive of this process and been involved in the process, but for them to change their mind at this late stage has been a disappointment to us all and made our job much more difficult."

- NZPA