British Basketball - The State of Play

Basketball in Britain – The State of Play
I am no expert in Basketball. In fact I know next to nothing about the sport. Sure I know get a grasp of the basic rules, I’ve held a basketball before, ‘shot some hoops’ so to speak. Aside from that limited experience, I couldn’t tell you who the NBA’s MVP will be this year, I haven’t got a clue and this will become apparent the more you read.

One thing I do know about however, is sports fans, especially in my native region, the North-East of England. Whatever the team, if we have adopted it as our own, there are no half measures, our bias blinds us from any 50-50 decisions, the ref is never on our side and players like Stephane Sessegnon and Hatem Ben Arfa are of the same ability as Lionel Messi. It’s a wonder Barcelona haven’t snapped them up. One must assume that no-one in their right mind could choose to play anywhere but Sunderland or Newcastle right?

One place where this passion is in full flow is Northumbria Sports Central, the home of the Newcastle Eagles. The Eagles are the most successful Basketball team in British history and whilst Great Britain is not exactly a hotbed of basketball, the Eagles’ silverware haul of 15 trophies, with a chance to add to that this Friday, in the last decade is certainly impressive. The Eagles’ have used a combination of a clever pricing system and the fact that the majority of the BBL’s fixtures are played on Fridays so as to avoid competing with the local football teams, to ensure they have a regular following, and can stay afloat.
Despite arguably being the North-Easts most successful club, at least in the current era, there is one chink in the clubs armour, and the issue is a much bigger than the results at sports central on a Friday. Essentially the Eagles only flaw is out of their hands. In 2010, due to financial issues as a result of low attendances, Eagles had to move from the Metro Radio Arena to Northumbria Sports Central, a venue with over half the capacity of its predecessor. Fortunately for Eagles, a venue was available to them within the same catchment area, unlike Newcastle’s Ice Hockey team ‘The Newcastle Vipers’ who faced a similar move to Whitley Bay Arena in 2009, a move that resulted in the Vipers’ liquidation.

Despite the gulf in financial strength between Eagles and their footballing neighbours, this gulf is not reflected in entertainment and talent. What’s more I managed to get that same intensity, passion and entertainment for a measly 6 pound. Recently I took in a top of the table clash between Newcastle Eagle’s and 2nd place Worcester Wolves. Now consider that the price of a game between Newcastle United and Man United, the current leaders of the Premier League, is £32.00 at the cheapest you start to realise where the value for money is. Worcester were chasing the game until the third quarter where they stole a march on Eagles after 8 consecutive free throws. With three seconds left, Eagles stole it in a Hollywood moment of their own and Sports Central erupted and again, witnessing that kind of moment – only 6 pounds.

I actually think the move to Sports Central helps with the atmosphere. The crowd really get going when the venue is packed and everyone is close to the action, I can only imagine that a half packed Metro Radio Arena, purpose built for concerts by Take That, JLS and the like, wouldn’t cut it for die-hard Eagles Fans. However, I’d love to see Britain’s Number 1 Side basketball team move into a place of their own, and regularly filling an arena with a capacity between 5,000 and 7,000. British Basketball clubs get frustratingly low attendances, and I feel the issue is exposure. Yes, Sky Sports has the odd televised game, but how many of us actually have Sky Sports? Isn’t it far more common that we head down to our local to experience the best televised sport, and with about 6 Sky Sports channels to choose from as well its various competitors like EuroSport and ESPN, what are the chances that the pub of choice has it on?

British Basketball could really benefit from its rights being bought from one of the terrestrial channels, who currently struggle to keep hold of their sporting rights. They mightn’t even have to buy the rights to games; it could be that a show in the same format as Match of the Day or Football Focus, BBC or ITV would not even have to give up a prime time slot. Surely highlights of the week’s Basketball would be preferred to irritatingly regular repeats? A lot people tell me that, the British a simply not into basketball, but the number of people I see ‘shooting hoops’ when I visit Heaton Park or Basketball courts up and down Wear Valley tells me otherwise.

Perhaps I’m wrong? As I said I’m no expert, it’s all very well for an outsider to point the finger, and say the problem is ‘this, this and this’ tell me what you think and tweet me at @Jack11RuddEvea im eager to hear what you think, and I plan to live by my new credos by stepping up my interest in Newcastle Eagles and the BBL, including taking in the playoffs at my current home in Birmingham.

Good article mate, big fan of basketball having played in high school and then university. The eagles are the best team in the country by a fair distance, my local side is Cheshire Jets, not the greatest but like you said the atmosphere is hard to match.

In 2006 I was in the states and took in an NBA game, Orlando vs Chicago I think it was. This was before Orlando had Dwight Howard playing for them and Steve Francis was their centre piece along with Grant Hill, best sports entertainment I've ever seen.

cheers glad you liked it mate !

REally good article - hope it gets some attention from BBL fans

had a wee bit o feedback on twitter from a few BBL nuts :P