Behind the scenes of running a BBL club - with 5 BBL owners - Ep. 58 - Hoopsfix.com
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Behind the scenes of running a BBL club – with 5 BBL owners – Ep. 58

By on June 11, 2020
In episode 58 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we go into the behind the scenes of running a BBL club with 5 different owners.

Paul Blake (Newcastle Eagles), Russell Levenston (Leicester Riders), Vince Macaulay (London Lions), Yuri Matischen (Sheffield Sharks), and Richard Mollard (Plymouth Raiders) jump on a Skype call to discuss the ins and outs of the league and running a franchise.

In this episode, hear from the owners on:

  • The structure of BBL clubs and why they all have a foundation separate to the professional club
  • The extent of most BBL clubs community programmes
  • How revenues compare between the foundation and professional club
  • Whether a BBL franchise could be successful without a grassroots programme
  • Why the BBL gets a bad rep when it comes to junior development
  • Why more young British players don’t see minutes in the BBL
  • The talent pathway and players going to college in the US
  • The BBL in its ‘heyday’ of the 90s and early 00s being on shaky unsustainable foundations
  • The importance of teams having their own facilities and arenas with basketball at their heart
  • How much more sustainable the league is today compared to previous years
  • Why we haven’t seen BBL teams signing young elite British talent to contracts
  • Why some of the owners believe the majority of kids going to the US for college are wasting their time
  • Fighting the perception of what the US college route is compared to staying in the UK
  • The difference between going to the US for an experience or if it’s because you want a basketball career
  • How important and underrated BUCS could be for the development of British players
  • The relationship between the BBL clubs and the federations
  • The importance of a unified basketball structure in the UK
  • How hard it is to sell tickets to live basketball games
  • Average attendances across the BBL
  • The important and need for good sales people to sell tickets to games
  • How much of team’s revenues are from ticket sales
  • The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the BBL
  • How decision making works with the all the BBL teams being shareholders of the league
  • How teams are held accountable to the terms of the BBL operating license awarded by the BBF
  • Why people who are investing in the BBL aren’t primarily doing it for a profit
  • The importance of media coverage and what teams and the league are doing to engage media
  • The automated Keemotion cameras that are used to film games and the plans moving forward
  • How close the league is to getting a TV deal
  • BBL player salaries
  • Player welfare and what is being done to protect players in the BBL
  • Whether the owners would have any object to the players unionising
  • The London City Royals situation
  • Changes that are being made to the franchise due-diligence process to ensure new high-risk franchises are not being admitted
  • The cost of being a BBL franchise
  • What teams get in return for the £150,000 franchise fee
  • The incentive for a team like Solent Kestrels to join the BBL
  • The average value of a BBL franchise
  • What the 5-year vision is for the future of the BBL
  • And much, much more!
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