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A contingent from the Northern Territory government has travelled to Melbourne to meet with NBL executives, as conversations toward a Darwin expansion team pick up steam, sources told ESPN.
The group of government representatives was hosted at Saturday night’s South East Melbourne Phoenix game against the Cairns Taipans and will also be in attendance for Sunday afternoon’s Melbourne United matchup with the Sydney Kings, sources said, with the intention of bringing forward an extensive pitch to the NBL for Darwin to join the league as its 11th franchise.
The NBL recently held its preseason tournament, the NBL Blitz, in Darwin, largely with a desire to gauge the city for a potential expansion team.
Meetings were held between the NBL’s brass and the Northern Territory government during the Blitz, and were largely positive, sources said.
There’s a sense that the NBL’s preference is to introduce an expansion team in Canberra first but the necessary stakeholders in Darwin have been unyielding in their intent to meet every requirement the league has asked of them, sources said, keeping them firmly in the conversation.
One non-negotiable requirement from the NBL is that games must be played at the Darwin Convention Centre on the city’s waterfront, and not the Darwin Basketball Stadium in Marrara, sources said.
“We didn’t take the preseason there by accident,” NBL commissioner, Jeremy Loeliger, told ESPN’s Kane Pitman.
“That was a litmus test to see if fans were interested, if corporate were interested, if government were interested. I think it’s safe to say there has certainly been a lot of interest post the Blitz to suggest there are more conversations to be had. The government is certainly one of the parties at the table expressing their interest.
“Infrastructure is important whether it’s aircraft, stadiums or hotel accommodation, everything is a bit of a challenge in Darwin at present, but they’re growing very quickly. It’s interesting that it’s a stopover point into Asia which means there might be an opportunity for airlines to look at Darwin as a hub or launching point.”
The issue of travel in and out of Darwin, the city’s broadcast capabilities, and player retention have all been brought up in conversations between the two parties, sources said.
Asked for comment, an NBL spokesperson confirmed to ESPN that a Northern Territory government contingent was being hosted by league executives this weekend.
The NBL is also gauging the Asia market; not with the intent of introducing an expansion team, but with the desire to play games in the region, sources said.
Those talks remain in its infancy — there’s still no determination on whether those games would be in the preseason, regular season, or in the form of a tournament — but the Philippines, China, and Indonesia have all been discussed as potential locations for games to be played, sources said. The potential of a Darwin expansion team increases the likelihood of Indonesia remaining in those conversations, because of their proximity.
All of these conversations of expansion and global outreach have been happening in the backdrop of the NBL’s recent introduction of a an esports team in the NBA 2K League, which was announced on Friday.
