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Post by spacejammer on May 2, 2022 18:09:03 GMT
I remember in a tv interview with Vince Maculey he mentioned that he could see 3 or 4 teams from the BBL playing in Europe in the next few years.
This got me thinking whilst both Leicester and London have tried Europe in the last few years only 1 team from the BBL has played in Europe at time.
I wonder what would happen if one season 2 teams were invited and got the chance to play Euro ball?
Vince said part of competing in Europe was to get British Basketball on the map.
If more teams played at the same time I wonder what impact that would have on the league and the UK game in general?
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Post by dexter on May 2, 2022 18:58:22 GMT
I remember in a tv interview with Vince Maculey he mentioned that he could see 3 or 4 teams from the BBL playing in Europe in the next few years. This got me thinking whilst both Leicester and London have tried Europe in the last few years only 1 team from the BBL has played in Europe at time. I wonder what would happen if one season 2 teams were invited and got the chance to play Euro ball? Vince said part of competing in Europe was to get British Basketball on the map. If more teams played at the same time I wonder what impact that would have on the league and the UK game in general? In my opinion there should be two British teams playing in Europe. I think it would be allowed probably with one team in the Champions League qualifiers and one in the Europe Cup qualifiers. It would be really positive for promoting the BBL but I can see a couple of problems. 1. If London Lions don't win anything this year it is difficult to make the case for why it should be them who represent Britain in Europe when there is no evidence that they are one of the two best teams. 2. London Lions's European campaign team is really a different team to their BBL team. Is the Leicester Riders BBL team really going to be able to compete in Europe or will they do what London Lions did? Either way you're burdening players with more games, or you're having to pay the salaries of 5 more players (good players). Despite these problems I think it's important that the BBL has a couple of teams play in FIBA Europe competitions every year, to grow the status of the league. |
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Post by spacejammer on May 2, 2022 21:14:31 GMT
I remember in a tv interview with Vince Maculey he mentioned that he could see 3 or 4 teams from the BBL playing in Europe in the next few years. This got me thinking whilst both Leicester and London have tried Europe in the last few years only 1 team from the BBL has played in Europe at time. I wonder what would happen if one season 2 teams were invited and got the chance to play Euro ball? Vince said part of competing in Europe was to get British Basketball on the map. If more teams played at the same time I wonder what impact that would have on the league and the UK game in general? In my opinion there should be two British teams playing in Europe. I think it would be allowed probably with one team in the Champions League qualifiers and one in the Europe Cup qualifiers. It would be really positive for promoting the BBL but I can see a couple of problems. 1. If London Lions don't win anything this year it is difficult to make the case for why it should be them who represent Britain in Europe when there is no evidence that they are one of the two best teams. 2. London Lions's European campaign team is really a different team to their BBL team. Is the Leicester Riders BBL team really going to be able to compete in Europe or will they do what London Lions did? Either way you're burdening players with more games, or you're having to pay the salaries of 5 more players (good players). Despite these problems I think it's important that the BBL has a couple of teams play in FIBA Europe competitions every year, to grow the status of the league. I think despite its difficulties every time would still aspire to do Europe. And for London if they can enter I imagine they would keep doing it in the hope they eventually crack it so long as they can still afford it. I would have thought if Leicester said no and so they can get another country into the Euro mix the Euro leagues would let London enter anyway so long as they have the finances. If you had 2 British teams playing in Europe and we were able to maintain this for a couple of year along with more wins for our national team. Maybe the rest of the Europe might finally start looking at the BBL as a more serious league? Maybe even more tv coverage although I would imagine for BBL they would be best in the Euro Cup or Fiba Champions League ball. Rather then the Turkish Airlines Euroleague to begin with as that competition be might be to difficult for a BBL club to be competitive in. |
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Post by dexter on May 2, 2022 23:41:29 GMT
At this stage I wouldn't be thinking beyond FIBA Europe Champions League. So far the finalists have only been from the big European basketball leagues/nations.
FIBA Europe Cup is designed to include teams from developing leagues like the BBL. There have been semi finalists from Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Romania. This is the league that the best BBL team should be competing in.
I don't know how the TV broadcast rights work with FIBA Europe competitions. At the moment we have BBL on Sky Sports, and some Euroleague games on Premier Sports and Free Sports. It would be really good if there was a separate MOTD type program for FIBA Europe club competitions. This could be feasible with two British teams competing. All games involving those British teams plus any games involving British players (e.g. Gabriel Olaseni playing for Darussafaka) should be broadcasted with an emphasis on the British players. The finals could then be broadcasted whether there is any British interest or not. By the time any British teams or players are involved in the finals some more awareness of European basketball would have been built up, so there would be a lot more media interest surrounding it.
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Post by LTfan on May 3, 2022 11:27:14 GMT
I have it on good authority Leicester and London are planning on playing in the FIBA Europe Cup next season, just a few things need to (hopefully be sorted) before announcements are made in the next couple of months.
As for television coverage, I suspect the games will just be streamed for free on the FIBA YouTube channel again, which is no bad thing. Having watched some of it this season a lot of the coverage isn't of the quality required by most professional broadcasters. Regardless of the level of play, it has to look good on television. That's why although the Sky coverage features all teams it doesn't feature all venues - i.e. it's always Leicester, Newcastle, London, Glasgow, Sheffield and Plymouth on a continuous cycle.
Euroleague and FIBA Champions League coverage is continuously shopped to UK broadcasters at very little cost, but there's usually just no interest. Although FreeSports have picked up a Euroleague package of games this season, as did Sky Sports about 5+ years ago.
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Post by dexter on May 3, 2022 11:50:10 GMT
That's fantastic news. I really hope it happens. Europe Cup is a really good level for BBL teams. I wish there was more investment in it from a production point of view because that is the competition that includes the most countries, especially where basketball is a developing sport.
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jumbo
Bench Warmer
Posts: 58
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Post by jumbo on May 3, 2022 13:22:35 GMT
Really hope we do give it a go next season. The team that we put in to Europe was built around Pierre who then went down injured right before the first game. You could make a decent argument that the team we put out that season was our weakest of the last 5/6 years. And even then, with the injuries, they were unlucky to go 0-6. Think if this years Riders team played in Lions group they'd have had a fighting chance of getting out of the first group too. Had heard a few rumours about next year and then that interview with Rob the other week suggested that's what they were looking at. Hope we can make it work for next year.
In terms of coverage. My dream scenario would be a sky sports basketball channel. They already have a bunch of nba content. And as you say a lot of the basketball content is shipped in with minimal costs compared to other sports. If you took all the basketball that's out there on different channels in the UK and put it together there would be enough stuff for a full channel. Nba, college, euroleague, bbl and then chuck in some games from eurocup/champs league/europe cup. I'd watch it 24/7. I know it's not likely to happen but would be great.
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Post by milehigh on May 3, 2022 14:39:52 GMT
I'd say it was 100% certain they Bskyb will never have a channel exclusively dedicated to basketball, the interest and advertising revenue does not exist.
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Post by LTfan on May 3, 2022 14:53:10 GMT
I'd say it was 100% certain they Bskyb will never have a channel exclusively dedicated to basketball, the interest and advertising revenue does not exist. It’s just ‘Sky’ now, BskyB no longer exist. But yeah, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see a dedicated basketball channel on Sky. Even though such channel’s schedule could be populated relatively easily and at little cost, there’s simply not enough demand for it. I’d never entirely rule it out though, a channel like Sky Sports NBA could be created to maximise their current basketball content (much like Sky Sports NFL). Right now, in such a competitive market, Sky need to make it look as if they’ve got as much content as possible to appear to be offering the most value as possible. So creating additional channels with no actual additional content is a good way of doing that. I still think it’s unlikely though. |
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Post by dexter on May 3, 2022 15:07:58 GMT
As much as I would like a dedicated basketball channel, and agree that it is incredibly unlikely, I am encouraged by Free Sports broadcasting Euroleague, because it helps to increase interest in basketball, and it reflects a perceived existing interest in basketball. Hopefully BT Sport and Eurosport will think they're missing out and broadcast some basketball of their own.
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Post by LTfan on May 3, 2022 15:37:59 GMT
As much as I would like a dedicated basketball channel, and agree that it is incredibly unlikely, I am encouraged by Free Sports broadcasting Euroleague, because it helps to increase interest in basketball, and it reflects a perceived existing interest in basketball. Hopefully BT Sport and Eurosport will think they're missing out and broadcast some basketball of their own. BT Sport won't exist for too much longer, what with BT looking to exit the market. Last I heard Discovery, now Warner Bros Discovery, were frontrunners for taking over the business and incorporating it (and the rights they hold) into their operations. Which include Eurosport, which itself could well get rebranded in the not too distant future. Anyway... The lack of basketball on Eurosport (in the UK) has always surprised me. Last season they did hold the rights to Euroleague and FIBA Champions League, but in the UK it's only available via their subscription Eurosport Player streaming service, which will likely fully merge into Discovery+ at some point. And Discovery+ itself will likely merge into HBO Max at some point. It's often forgotten but Eurosport broadcast the BBL about 10 years ago too. |
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Post by spacejammer on May 3, 2022 18:30:11 GMT
Well what makes the NBA work as well as most American league sports such as NFL, NHL and MLB etc... is in the UK they are televised at like 12am-3am when no live Football or Rugby is on at those times.
So it's a win win for broadcaster as they get some live sport and if they have some people viewing even better.
Plus the NBA is high profile and like the premier league of basketball in many senses with the best players both American and international being well known whether your a fan or not.
And with the leagues rich history alot of people may have heard of MJ and Bulls or the Los Angles Lakes/Boston Celetics Dynasties as they are a big part of the US culture.
As a Brit I went to America and watch the
NY Knicks play last year as part of a holiday and tick it off as a bucket list experience.
A mad American soccer might come over to the UK to watch Manchester United vs West Ham in order to see a top level Premier league match or watch Ronaldo play.
To a lot of non basketball fan if you say Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have a Basketball team they would say "Wait what?" and then have to Google it thinking I was joking.
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Post by dexter on May 3, 2022 19:30:06 GMT
I think a lot of sports fans are aware that a lot of big European sports clubs have several departments, i.e. they are multi-sport clubs. As far as I know only six of the current Euroleague clubs are not part of multi-sport clubs, including the suspended Russian teams.
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Post by spacejammer on May 3, 2022 19:52:08 GMT
As much as I would like a dedicated basketball channel, and agree that it is incredibly unlikely, I am encouraged by Free Sports broadcasting Euroleague, because it helps to increase interest in basketball, and it reflects a perceived existing interest in basketball. Hopefully BT Sport and Eurosport will think they're missing out and broadcast some basketball of their own. Tbh last year Euro Sport was a god send during the Tokyo Olympics. Much better then the BBC coverage as I was able to watch a few Basketball matches as well as other sports even for a gander. Although alot of the sports they show on their are quite random sometimes. I can imagine them sat in TV scheduling room saying "theirs a table tennis game in Romania right now" shall we stick it on? But on a serious note if London and Leicester were to play Europe and get their Euro Games on TV it would be great if any channel picked it up. |
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Post by LTfan on May 4, 2022 10:48:58 GMT
As much as I would like a dedicated basketball channel, and agree that it is incredibly unlikely, I am encouraged by Free Sports broadcasting Euroleague, because it helps to increase interest in basketball, and it reflects a perceived existing interest in basketball. Hopefully BT Sport and Eurosport will think they're missing out and broadcast some basketball of their own. Tbh last year Euro Sport was a god send during the Tokyo Olympics. Much better then the BBC coverage as I was able to watch a few Basketball matches as well as other sports even for a gander. Although alot of the sports they show on their are quite random sometimes. I can imagine them sat in TV scheduling room saying "theirs a table tennis game in Romania right now" shall we stick it on? But on a serious note if London and Leicester were to play Europe and get their Euro Games on TV it would be great if any channel picked it up. The BBC's somewhat lacklustre recent coverage of the Olympics (at least compared to their London 2012 coverage) can't really be blamed on them, it's due to the IOC awarding the European broadcast rights to Discovery (who own Eurosport). The BBC were limited to what the secondary rights allowed them. I agree, Eurosport do have some niche sports... mainly to keep their rights costs down. But in a way that would just strengthen the argument for them having some European basketball on their schedules in the UK. It should also be noted that outside the UK they do have some more premium sports rights. And now that they're owned by Discovery it's likely we might see a few more higher profile sports on their schedules, especially if they do purchase the BT Sport operations and acquire their rights in doing so. If Leicester and London are in the FIBA Europe Cup next season I suspect we'll be limited to online streaming coverage again. But at least we can watch it! If either ever play in the Euroleague or FIBA Champions League it's then I suspect a broadcaster might be interested in putting it on their schedules. |
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Post by dexter on May 4, 2022 12:16:03 GMT
Tbh last year Euro Sport was a god send during the Tokyo Olympics. Much better then the BBC coverage as I was able to watch a few Basketball matches as well as other sports even for a gander. Although alot of the sports they show on their are quite random sometimes. I can imagine them sat in TV scheduling room saying "theirs a table tennis game in Romania right now" shall we stick it on? But on a serious note if London and Leicester were to play Europe and get their Euro Games on TV it would be great if any channel picked it up. The BBC's somewhat lacklustre recent coverage of the Olympics (at least compared to their London 2012 coverage) can't really be blamed on them, it's due to the IOC awarding the European broadcast rights to Discovery (who own Eurosport). The BBC were limited to what the secondary rights allowed them. I agree, Eurosport do have some niche sports... mainly to keep their rights costs down. But in a way that would just strengthen the argument for them having some European basketball on their schedules in the UK. It should also be noted that outside the UK they do have some more premium sports rights. And now that they're owned by Discovery it's likely we might see a few more higher profile sports on their schedules, especially if they do purchase the BT Sport operations and acquire their rights in doing so. If Leicester and London are in the FIBA Europe Cup next season I suspect we'll be limited to online streaming coverage again. But at least we can watch it! If either ever play in the Euroleague or FIBA Champions League it's then I suspect a broadcaster might be interested in putting it on their schedules. You are right. I would like FIBA Europe Cup to have more coverage but I am just delighted that there are British teams in it, and that it even exists. It is credit to FIBA Europe that we even have a fourth level of European club basketball. I don't think that even exists in any other sports. UEFA has only recently added a third level. FIBA Champions League is the level that British teams need to reach before they can realistically expect to get mainstream media coverage, but FIBA Europe Cup is where they need to start. |
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Post by LTfan on May 4, 2022 13:44:49 GMT
The BBC's somewhat lacklustre recent coverage of the Olympics (at least compared to their London 2012 coverage) can't really be blamed on them, it's due to the IOC awarding the European broadcast rights to Discovery (who own Eurosport). The BBC were limited to what the secondary rights allowed them. I agree, Eurosport do have some niche sports... mainly to keep their rights costs down. But in a way that would just strengthen the argument for them having some European basketball on their schedules in the UK. It should also be noted that outside the UK they do have some more premium sports rights. And now that they're owned by Discovery it's likely we might see a few more higher profile sports on their schedules, especially if they do purchase the BT Sport operations and acquire their rights in doing so. If Leicester and London are in the FIBA Europe Cup next season I suspect we'll be limited to online streaming coverage again. But at least we can watch it! If either ever play in the Euroleague or FIBA Champions League it's then I suspect a broadcaster might be interested in putting it on their schedules. You are right. I would like FIBA Europe Cup to have more coverage but I am just delighted that there are British teams in it, and that it even exists. It is credit to FIBA Europe that we even have a fourth level of European club basketball. I don't think that even exists in any other sports. UEFA has only recently added a third level. FIBA Champions League is the level that British teams need to reach before they can realistically expect to get mainstream media coverage, but FIBA Europe Cup is where they need to start. I agree with all of that, but I'm not sure FIBA deserves the credit for 4 tiers of pan-European competition. They're only directly responsible for 2 of those 4 tiers. |
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