| [19 MAY 00] EBBA
NEWSNational
Basketball League Restructure
The growing
demand for high quality National League basketball has led the English Basketball
Association to launch a restructuring of its current league system.
A setting
of stringent criteria, which clubs are measured against, has produced a top division,
presently comprising six teams and three other divisions below it.
The Super
Six, as it has been tagged, should not be seen as being incompetition with the Basketball
League competitions, rather a raising of the standard of the National Basketball League.
Indeed, the
Association recognises that its partner, the Basketball League, is responsible for the
administration and promotion of the Men’s premier competition in the country.
The
restructure is an EBBA driven initiative, developed by the NationalLeague Management
Committee (NLMC) of the Association, which will be fully administered and organised by the
EBBA, with the aim of raising the overall standard, promotion and marketability of the
EBBA National League.
The
thinking to form such a competition originated from the National League clubs themselves
who asked the Association last year at their annual meeting, the National League Council,
to raise the standards within the NBL.
As a result
the NLMC drew together a standards document for all divisions of the NBL (including such
items as court facilities, technical equipment, match day promotion etc.) and it is to
those standards that all clubs in the NBL have been attending to.
The six
clubs in membership of the Super Six, Coventry, Plymouth, Solent, Sutton, Teesside and
Worthing, are those who have already demonstrated the qualities, on and off the court, the
Association are looking to promote in its top level competition where the brand name of
the NBL will be developed over the next few years.
The title
‘super’ is at present only a ‘working’ title for the competition to
distinguish it from the existing NBL Division One until such time as a suitable league
title is formulated.
At the same
time the English Basketball Association is anxious to reassure the basketball public that
the NBL Super Six, referred in some sections of the media as a breakaway league, is in no
way at all a breakaway from the Association.
It is
envisaged that more clubs will aspire to join the Super Six and indeed it is possible that
the numbers increase before the start of the 2000/01 season.
The
Association will be doing the same, i.e. creating a top level Women’s division from
the existing structure, for its Women's competitions in season 2001/02.
Further
details from www.basketballengland.org.uk/news or from Mark Hannen at the EBBA.
Dip’s quote for the week,
“A man’s path in life is governed by the course he takes. A man’s distance
is determined by the choices he makes.”
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