What happened to basketball in Australia?

In the mid-90's I was a big fan of Australian basketball. Living in Sydney, I used to descend on the 'Kingdome' (then the Sydney Entertainment Centre) at least ten times a season. Rodney Overby would commentate in that deep negro voice. The Harlequins were spectacular in their lycra outfits, and the basketball was entertaining and exciting. For some reason that I still can't make sense of, the season was changed from winter to summer (probably to coincide with the northern hemisphere), and very soon after, the sport's popularity went into rapid decline. Basketball gets all of 60 minutes per week coverage on free-to-air TV. No games are televised, either live or delayed, and internet coverage has been very poor. The nbl.com.au website is atrocious - poorly designed and very slow. Andrew Gaze, the premier player in the NBL for at least the past ten years, is making an attempt to cash in on his fame, and promote the sport at the same time with his site gaze.com.au, but it's far from unbiased coverage.

Steve Carfino, former 'King' and now basketball commentator, wrote in his article "Bums on Seats" today that we should stop complaining, and instead do something to help revive the sport. His suggestions of combined games / dance parties, and BBQs with former players are a little short sighted though. The success of the sport will come from the media. FoxSports actually provided fairly decent coverage as part of the standard Foxtel subscription. Pity they've only penetrated a small proportion of Australian households. Channel 9 and 10 will be devoting so much time to the AFL in the next few years, that all other sports are going to suffer.

Now that Channel 7 have lost the AFL to the Nine/Ten/Foxtel consortium, I suggest they make a investment in air-time and i7 coverage for Australian basketball. Perhaps broadcast a game live on Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, and show a few delayed games in the wee hours of the morning. The sport could also be covered in more detail during prime-time news bulletins. Getting people to the games will happen naturally as the buzz increases through media coverage.

Basketball will rise again. Perhaps they need an MBA to help them out.