from the Herald Sun

THE National Basketball League will be replaced by a new elite competition from next year in one of the major outcomes of a report into basketball in Australia.
The NBL and Basketball Australia are set to merge next month in a restructure aimed at securing the future of the sport.

With crowd support dwindling, the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets, were forced out of this year's NBL competition for financial reasons while the Singapore team were also cut from the league.

The report was commissioned by Basketball Australia, the NBL and the Australian Sports Commission.

It was highly critical of the current NBL competition, which recently got underway, and the WNBL.

As well as the new men's league, it recommends the new national body work with world body FIBA to create an Asian Club Championship, to start in 2010.

"The current NBL is not able to play the role it should in showcasing the sport," it said.

"It receives significantly more media coverage for its lack of relevance and off-court issues than it does for the quality of its on-court performance.

"Declining crowds and TV market share and apathy towards its heroes have led to the NBL not taking its rightful place as a major tier-one competition in Australia.

"The WNBL is one of the world's leading women's leagues but Australian sports fans have little connection to the stars of the league, the world champion Opals or the heroes of the team."

It said there was a "growing gulf" between the basketball community, which has never been stronger with 230,000 registered players and approximately 650,000 recreational players, and the elite level of the game.

It recommends that the national teams, the Boomers and the Opals, play regularly in Australia against quality opposition to build "basketball heroes" among the representative players an improve media and commercial opportunities.