Lions linked to new point guard

[dexter]

Euroleague CEO Marshall Glickman said this week that Euroleague’s expansion and the creation of conferences is inevitable. I don’t have any details of what that would mean or what timescale he’s thinking, but I think they would want a London team to be part of a Western conference. However, as things are London Lions probably wouldn’t get into an expanded Euroleague. Paris probably would. If Lions don’t continue to invest in their squad it could cost them dearly in the long term.

[tallerman]

The thing stopping London getting euroleague will be the lack of british euroleague standard players

[Deleted]

Dec 24, 2022 8:27:30 GMT tallerman said:

The thing stopping London getting euroleague will be the lack of british euroleague standard players

Euroleague Champions Anadolu Efes played just one Turkish player (off the bench) in their last Euroleague game

Barcelona had just 2 Spaniards in their squad

Why is a lack of British players a problem?

[Deleted]

Seems to me the much, much bigger problem is how they fund an 8 figure budget with almost no income

[tallerman]

Because you need to have a max of 5 non brits dont you?

[Deleted]

Dec 24, 2022 13:03:30 GMT tallerman said:

Because you need to have a max of 5 non brits dont you?

nope, look at the box scores from either Milan vs Monaco or Barca vs Valencia

By my quick count 32 of the 47 players used in the 2 games were overseas players

I can’t actually find anything online saying what the actual rules are, but almost every team has well over 5 overseas players in every game day squad

EDIT: I have just realised you probably mean to comply with BBL rules, rather than Euroleague.

I think considering the other BBL teams agreed to get rid of the salary cap to let London compete in the euro cup, if Euro league was a real possibility I am sure they would all agree to let London have as many foreign players as they want, as long as they rotate them to keep under the import limit in any given game day squad

[baldeagle]

Why on earth would they agree to that?

[Deleted]

Dec 24, 2022 14:16:35 GMT baldeagle said:

Why on earth would they agree to that?

Same reason they agreed to get rid of the salary cap, which out of the two is far more damaging to the other clubs ability to compete

[dexter]

This could lead to a very weird scenario. A London Lions team in Euroleague with no British players, or maybe Ovie in the squad playing 5 or 10 minutes just to have some British representation.
Also London Lions winning by 20+ points every game in the BBL and winning every BBL trophy. Faced with that I much prefer what we have at the moment. Hopefully I’m wrong and the owners are content to continue to be a EuroCup team.

[milehigh]

There is a very obvious conflict of interest between what is best for the BBL as a League and what is best for the London Lions. History, from many different sports, shows that one team haing a, virtually, unlimited budget is harmful to the competitive balance and sustainability of a sports league.
The best thing for the BBL to have sustainable growth would be a strict salary cap and limites on import players, but that is unlikely to happen when the 777 group also own one of the participating clubs.

[Deleted]

I’m sure no one cares but this place is to negative for me regarding 777/Lions for me, hope for all of your happiness it all goes bust and you can enjoy watching it in half full sports halls forever

[dexter]

Dec 25, 2022 6:30:37 GMT Deleted said:

I’m sure no one cares but this place is to negative for me regarding 777/Lions for me, hope for all of your happiness it all goes bust and you can enjoy watching it in half full sports halls forever

The person has left, but the concerns people have expressed are reasonable not negative. The gap between London Lions and the rest of the BBL is growing, and the gap between the rest of the BBL and Euroleague is insurmountable. There are no British players in Euroleague or in the NBA, and the only British players in EuroCup play for London Lions, which indicates that they are already in the highest league they can realistically play in. And that’s just based the standard of British players. Consider that Euroleague player budgets are x10 that of EuroCup, and the idea of London Lions playing in Euroleague seems out of the question for the foreseeable future.

[spacejammer]

Dec 25, 2022 6:30:37 GMT Deleted said:

I’m sure no one cares but this place is to negative for me regarding 777/Lions for me, hope for all of your happiness it all goes bust and you can enjoy watching it in half full sports halls forever

To be honest I understand and see it from this person's point of view.
And I do agree I think people are very skeptical and critical of the Lions and 777.
And I would say alot of people probably do want the Lions to fail as well.

From my point of view I do agree and understand why people maybe skeptical of 777 and are scared of London baseing their success Money.
And I do agree if 777 walked away from the Lions and the BBL cause their bored then yes this could be car crash waiting to happen.

However at the same time in terms of progression and developing the Lions and the League I don't see how you can improve anything.
If you don't atleast take a risk or bank a chance even on the unbelievable then nothing changes and the BBL will forever always be a minor league.

Yes I know in some people's eyes maybe that will never change and I know the sport will always play second fiddle to football.
But so far despite the critism of 777 and some of the mistakes they have made 3 years later and their still here.

And for the commenter who sadly deleted himself.
I hope you are able to pop back to this board read what I have said on this matter.
And I hope you agree with what I considered to be a balanced view.

[SamH]

Hopefully 777 have a bit more resilience than the person who couldn't handle a bit of criticism against his team. Shame, but no one has posted anything untoward here.

[irf]

BBL basketball is unlike most sports I've followed

In that I'm pretty sure the vast majority of fans in an arena at any time have no idea where their team are in the league table

It's hard to find a league table tbh

Only a small percentage of annual home fans ever go to finals their teams reach to seek them lift a trophy

There's no press coverage to show league tables or comment about how well or how badly your team is doing

So having one team better than they rest is not going to do untold damage to the sport as nobody's going to care that much

It's just 1 or 2 games a season at home the team might lose worse than normal. Most of the random BBL fans might not even see those games

Just look at how Eagles still sellout despite getting awful results compared to the past with or without playing London

Results don't really matter and don't seem to impact attendances

Am I wrong?

(Its somewhat similar to ice hockey in UK. You have to go looking to find out whether your team is doing well in the league or not)

[spacejammer]

Dec 26, 2022 8:22:32 GMT irf said:

BBL basketball is unlike most sports I've followed

In that I'm pretty sure the vast majority of fans in an arena at any time have no idea where their team are in the league table

It's hard to find a league table tbh

Only a small percentage of annual home fans ever go to finals their teams reach to seek them lift a trophy

There's no press coverage to show league tables or comment about how well or how badly your team is doing

So having one team better than they rest is not going to do untold damage to the sport as nobody's going to care that much

It's just 1 or 2 games a season at home the team might lose worse than normal. Most of the random BBL fans might not even see those games

Just look at how Eagles still sellout despite getting awful results compared to the past with or without playing London

Results don't really matter and don't seem to impact attendances

Am I wrong?

(Its somewhat similar to ice hockey in UK. You have to go looking to find out whether your team is doing well in the league or not)

There's probably a lot more minor sports such as British NFL for instance that probably gets less following.
However again amongst the reasons for less following can be down to lack of franchises and it not being the NBA.

I know people who like basketball and the NBA but hate the BBL because it's not the same.
Whilst I understand it not being yhe same I always look at it as why not support both?
But if your not from a BBL town or city then I can see why you would not be a fan.

That being said I like some of the work I'm seeing with "Know our name" and when I searched the league the other day their wiki page said Reading, Birmingham and Edinburgh have all applied to join the league for 2023/24.
For the league to have 13 teams would certainly spice things up and get it out there to more areas of the UK.

As I have said before whilst the sky coverage is great it mostly only benefits the cities and towns with BBL clubs.
Whereas if your from Aberdeen for example and catch a sky game then you see your nearest team is Caledonia in Glasgow.
Yes you may enjoy the game but your probably not going to travel 2 and half hours every week to watch a game at the Emirates.

And if I did not live in Newcastle or you Leicester then in all likelihood we would not be fans right now of our respective teams as well or be aware of the BBL's existence.

[tallerman]

Ceo said no new teams next year in his hoopsfix interview yet in his mvp one he struggled to answer how small market teams like plymouth and cheshire would survive

[ianj]

Dec 15, 2022 23:56:32 GMT mansfieldmike said:

I guess it depends on the definition of "season", I'm not sure the season starts with the first scheduled BBL game.

Also, all players that have been signed by the club would need to be licensed before the first scheduled BBL game, and may even need to be licensed before some, if not all, pre-season games.

If this is the case, both Travon Broadway Jr and Brandon McKissic would/could be included in this count.

Players don’t need to be registered to play in preseason games. Plenty of clubs wait on new Americans. Clearly Eagles have done that.

If Lions were to get into EuroLeague I imagine they’d scrap the nine import limit and they’d rotate. It’s hard to imagine a £2mill per year genuine EuroLeague player being willing to Bristol, they’d effectively run one and a half squads and save big guns for the key guns.
Personally I suspect they’ll run out of money before we find out

[dexter]

Dec 26, 2022 8:22:32 GMT irf said:

BBL basketball is unlike most sports I've followed

In that I'm pretty sure the vast majority of fans in an arena at any time have no idea where their team are in the league table

It's hard to find a league table tbh

Only a small percentage of annual home fans ever go to finals their teams reach to seek them lift a trophy

There's no press coverage to show league tables or comment about how well or how badly your team is doing

So having one team better than they rest is not going to do untold damage to the sport as nobody's going to care that much

It's just 1 or 2 games a season at home the team might lose worse than normal. Most of the random BBL fans might not even see those games

Just look at how Eagles still sellout despite getting awful results compared to the past with or without playing London

Results don't really matter and don't seem to impact attendances

Am I wrong?

(Its somewhat similar to ice hockey in UK. You have to go looking to find out whether your team is doing well in the league or not)

I would actually go one step further. Not only would the fans not be phased by their team being thrashed by London Lions at home once or twice a season, as London Lions become more famous, those are the home games they should be able to sell out to basketball fans who are not necessarily BBL fans. If London Lions were playing at a venue within 2 hours drive to where I live I would go just to see the likes of Decker, Soko and Sharma. Regardless of the score it’s going to be entertaining.

[spacejammer]

Dec 26, 2022 13:34:25 GMT dexter said:

Dec 26, 2022 8:22:32 GMT irf said:

BBL basketball is unlike most sports I've followed

In that I'm pretty sure the vast majority of fans in an arena at any time have no idea where their team are in the league table

It's hard to find a league table tbh

Only a small percentage of annual home fans ever go to finals their teams reach to seek them lift a trophy

There's no press coverage to show league tables or comment about how well or how badly your team is doing

So having one team better than they rest is not going to do untold damage to the sport as nobody's going to care that much

It's just 1 or 2 games a season at home the team might lose worse than normal. Most of the random BBL fans might not even see those games

Just look at how Eagles still sellout despite getting awful results compared to the past with or without playing London

Results don't really matter and don't seem to impact attendances

Am I wrong?

(Its somewhat similar to ice hockey in UK. You have to go looking to find out whether your team is doing well in the league or not)

I would actually go one step further. Not only would the fans not be phased by their team being thrashed by London Lions at home once or twice a season, as London Lions become more famous, those are the home games they should be able to sell out to basketball fans who are not necessarily BBL fans. If London Lions were playing at a venue within 2 hours drive to where I live I would go just to see the likes of Decker, Soko and Sharma. Regardless of the score it’s going to be entertaining.

One of the critisms London had last season was their marketing being poor and at times a little silly.
I remember Drew Lasker saying he wondered if the marketing executive was actually living in the Maldives as it didn't seem like he knew what was going on.

Whether that has improved Lions fans would have have to tell me.
With the Eagles though we usually have a good connection with the fans and the team has done alot for the Newcastle Community over the years.
Due to that we have built a loyal fan base that stands even now during our tough times.

With regards to people travelling far and wide just to watch certain BBL players in action.
That sounds a little far fetched and seems like it would only happen if the NBA was to return to the UK.
Or like when Kristaps Portzingas played for his native Lativia against GB in the summer and an absolute army of Lativian fans came Newcastle which I felt was alot to do with a well known famous player being there.

Whilst BBL players can excite and are celebrities in there own way they are mostly unknown outside the BBL community even the ex NBA players who are or have been playing for London I have had to Google them to see who they are.

The only way I could see a non basketball fan being genuinely intrested in going to a BBL game to watch a specific player.
Would be if a superstar like LeBron James or Steph Curry we're to decide to sign for Bristol or Sheffield once they are both in their mid 50's.