Another new dawn for British Basketball

In 2016 the British Basketball Federation (BBF) was formed to take control of the overall development of British basketball for the home countries of England, Wales and Scotland. As part of this the BBF also took over control of the licence granted to the British Basketball League (BBL), the nation’s top pro league. Yesterday the BBF announced that a new 10 year licence had been granted to the BBL. They claim it will pave the way for the long-term development of pro basketball in the UK.

From the details that have been released about the agreement there seems to be a few good things that should definitely help move the league forward. All clubs in the BBL will now be given a performance grade and targets for future development that will be regularly reviewed during the period of the licence. The targets cover such areas as:

• A minimum salary will be introduced for all players and an average for the squad.
• Each club must have access to specialist physio support for all training sessions and games. This seems a basic thing, but 3x3ballers has witnessed a number of situations over the years where there was an absence of suitable medical provision for an injured player.
• An obligation on all clubs to run 4 junior teams in local and national leagues. This was one of the glaring omissions from previous licences. If you look at comparable team sports like football, rugby and cricket, they all have club junior development programmes usually in the form of academies.
• Every club to establish a partnership with a university and a college academy.
• At least £75,000 must be invested by each club in a player pathway. 3x3ballers doesn’t know how much development that amount of money gets but it is way more than the big fat zero most of the clubs were previously spending.
• Clubs must become the long-term anchor tenant at their home venue
• Each venue must have a wooden ‘clean’ floor – amazing that all teams don’t have that already!
• Various commercial commitments regarding turnover, season tickets and corporate hospitality.

All the above standards are all well and good but they don’t mean anything if there is nothing enforcing them. To that aim, the BBF has also announced a Franchise Committee which will review all performance standards and targets. The BBF will have the power to fine, sanction or even ban a club that fails to comply.

The BBF will also receive a fee from the BBL, but doesn’t give any figures.

Interestingly, the BBF announcement mentions increasing the league from its current 12 clubs to between 20 and 24 with at least 2 from outside England. Doubling the number of clubs sounds like a tall order to us. And there is no point adding a team if they are not financially stable as it will lead to it potentially folding mid-season.

The elephant in the lounge with all of this is money. We can’t see any mention of a league sponsor or lucrative TV deal. So it will all depend on enough fans buying tickets and willing owners with deep pockets. And then there is individual club sponsorship; but basketball continues to suffer from a low profile with scant mainstream media coverage. Therefore it struggles to attract large sponsors. A chicken and an egg conundrum that the sport has, so far, failed to solve.

3x3ballers would love to see a vibrant, well organised pro league in the UK; a league that can produce teams that can compete in the European competitions. This country is crying out for a pro league that British kids who attend college in the USA can come back and play in. There might even come a time where they won’t need to go overseas at all but let’s not get carried away.

We have been promised a lot by the BBL in the past and it has never delivered. Let’s see what happens this time.