Operating the British Basketball League – With Andy Webb – Ep. 36

For Episode 36 of the Hoopsfix Podcast we got the chance to sit down with the Chief Operating Officer of the BBL, Andy Webb.

Webb has been working for the BBL for over 23 years, having been involved in what many consider its ‘heyday’ in the 90’s, before the low point in the early 2000’s, through to the present day, so has a wealth of experience to share from his time with the pro-league.

In this hour long episode hear from Andy Webb on:

• His background as a fan of the game and how he ended up as the Chief Operating Officer for the BBL
• What exactly his roles and responsibilities are as Chief Operating Officer
• A rundown of the league’s timeline over the past two decades
• The sponsorship and commercial deals the league has
• Why he feels the league is closing in on being in its strongest ever positon
• Whether or not he feels the BBL gets a bad rap
• The need for there to be more money funnelled into the sport
• What he thinks are the league’s biggest weaknesses
• The importance of the sport owning their assets and facilities
• The ownership and governance structure of the BBL
• The disparity between the top and bottom of the BBL and how to address it
• The impact the new licensing agreement under the BBF has had
• How ideally they would want the BBL to have around 18 franchises
• How franchise applicants think it’s going to be easier than it is to run a BBL club
• Correcting inaccuracies regularly shared about the BBL
• How the league has been able to have success with selling tickets for their Finals events
• Dealing with the instability of the federations over the years
• Where he sees the BBL going in the future
• The likelihood of seeing a BBL club in Europe in the near future
• The profitability of the BBL
• And much, much more!

As always, I’d love to get your feedback, come back after you’ve listened and lets get some discussion going in the comments.

The show has been approved on iTunes – find it here and please subscribe to automatically receive new episodes straight to your phone/computer/tablet – if you could give us a review/rating it would be much appreciated to help the podcast spread far and wide!

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix