NBL Looks To Former AFL Chief For Advice

Posted: Wed Oct 7, 1998 at 10:24 AM ET

The struggling NBL will turn to former AFL boss Ross Oakley on how best to promote the basketball league, increase revenue and complete its transition to a board of commission, according to NBL chief executive John Rymarz. Midway through this year, Rymarz sought out AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson, but he now wants to meet with his predecessor Oakley after being impressed with the AFL's switch to a national competition, its marketing strategy and the success of interstate clubs. He also pointed out that only one Melbourne-based team (Fitzroy) had become a casualty of the expanded competition, despite several clubs fighting for financial survival in the past decade. "The AFL went through this with all their clubs, they restructured, they reorganised, they marketed themselves better," Rymarz said. "I spoke to Wayne in May and I was going to chase up Ross Oakley, but I haven't got around to it. "I'll ask him how he did it. "The AFL took it from the clubs and formed a commission, and we've gone some of the way to doing that, also more of the key things like playing games out of the MCG, the interstate clubs and how you promote those. "It was successful and there was a lot of good work and we can learn from that."

The NBL has already made a significant change by switching to to a summer competition, starting this weekend, in a bid to increase its waning popularity and to improve its income. Canberra dropped a bombshell a few days ago by announcing it was in financial trouble and needed $500,000 in donations to survive. It continues an embarrassing run of NBL clubs in strife. Newcastle was in turmoil a few months ago, and North Melbourne and South East Melbourne merged to form the Victoria Titans because of financial difficulties. Prior to the 1997 season, Geelong, Gold Coast and Hobart had their licences bought back and that was after North Melbourne almost folded at the end of 1995. "It's business as usual and we're hopeful a solution will come out of this," Rymarz said. "We'd like to have a team in Canberra, it's the capital, but the the market will decide if they survive. "What we are doing now is consolidating. "We're bringing to a head now all the situations that we've known for a long time and they have to stand up and be financially viable. "We have contingency plans if they don't survive, but we really don't want to put them in place."

*This article taken directly from the AAP