Structural review of Aussie basketball

SINGAPORE – While going over the papers in this booming city-state, one article in the July 20, 2007 issue of the revered Straits Times entitled “Slingers set to stay on in NBL” seemed to jump out of the page and promptly attracted my attention.

The article, written by Jeanette Wang, says, “Game on, Singapore Slingers. Southeast Asia’s first professional basketball team look set to return for their second season in the Australia-based National Basketball League (NBL) in September.”

Having read Wang’s description of the Singapore Slingers as Southeast Asia’s first professional basketball team, I was forced to reconfirm with fellow STAR sports journalist Quinito Henson that the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was established in 1975. Having confirmed that the PBA was founded in 1975, the PBA thus correctly lays claim to being Asia’s first professional basketball league (and its members, automatically, the first professional basketball teams in Asia).

In contrast, the Singapore Slingers joined the NBL only in season 2006-07 and were organized some three months before the NBL 06-07 season took off. The NBL, on the other hand, is on its 27th season, which makes it at least five years the PBA’s junior.

According to NBL records, the NBL awarded the Singapore Slingers the license to play in the NBL with the approval of the international basketball federation (FIBA) to extend the coverage of the NBL into Asia. The Slingers bought an existing license of an NBL team to make it into a league that is bruited about as a novel basketball experiment in Asia.

There were earlier attempts to form professional basketball leagues with the same National Basketball Association (NBA) format in North America that the NBL is trying to duplicate but across the Asian continent.

Former US congressman Ralph Harding, approached several Philippine basketball officials and businessmen, including Araneta Coliseum’s Jorge (Nene) Araneta, in the early ‘90’s about the formation of the Asian Professional Basketball Association (APBA). Like its model, the NBA, the APBA would include club teams representing cities in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, among others.

Harding had moved resolutely to pursue his dream to the point that he managed to present his idea to then President Fidel V. Ramos and get the support of Carl Men Ky of the Asian Basketball Confederation.

After a few years, the APBA idea died down, a victim most likely of the Asian economic meltdown of 1998 and other complex factors affecting such a multi-country initiative.

Going back to the Slingers, the team is made up of a number of veteran American and Australian players and former members of the Singapore national team. The Slingers are coached by Australian Gordie McLeod and have as their assistant coach, former Singapore national player Neo Beng Siang. The closest link Filipinos have with the Singaporean pro team is former Red Bull and PBA MVP Marquin Chandler who once suited up for the Slingers.

According to Wang, there had been talk that the12-team league’s first Asian franchise was plagued with problems. Despite reaching the quarterfinals, unexpectedly, many say, of last season’s play-offs in February, the Slingers reportedly lost S$1 million (about P30 million). Their home games last season saw an average of only 10 percent attendance at the 10,700-seat Singapore Indoor Stadium.

But with a booming economy where money is not a serious problem, Thursday last week, Singapore Slingers chairman Wee Siew Kim (whose being Member of Parliament will certainly do no harm to the franchise) said, “We’re definitely set to play. I don’t believe there is anything holding us back.”

MP Wee estimated the Slingers’ operating cost at about S$3 million (P90 million) a year. Revenue would come mainly from sponsorships and other sources such as merchandise sales.

One thing going for the Slingers is the support of government for what is essentially a private venture through the Singapore Sports Council (the counterpart of the Philippine Sports Commission).

Back in Australia, we can once again learn a thing or two from the Aussies in the area of sports administration and governance. The Australian Sport Commission (ASC), Basketball Australia (BA) and the NBL announced a structural review of basketball in Australia. The review will recommend a structure and governance framework for the delivery of the sport from a national level, according to ASC.

Our SBP-BAP officials should monitor how the Aussies will solicit views from all sectors and how they intend to carry out these reforms with the help of government and corporations like Erns & Young. We’ll have more on this, next week.