Changing venues is
fair game for clubs
Basketball League clubs have never been
renowned for their loyalty to one venue or another and in recent years,
that trend has developed still further with team swapping cities or splitting
their matches between two or even three separate sites.
Witness the Bears' move to Brighton this
summer, exchanging a grotty hall which was unsuitable for TV coverage for
a modern camera-friendly arena. However the Sussex side may only be the
first of many future re-locations.
Chester have long been linked with a move
down the motorway to Liverpool, where a large 3000 seater arena is under
preparation with Liverpool University. With Northgate Arena already a liability
to the small-market Jets, a transfer to the Mersey would increase the catchment
area of the club. However would the fans approve ? Jets' bosses argue that
financial reality might leave them without a choice.
Many other franchises are casting an envious
eye over the arena facilities available to teams like Manchester, Newcastle
and Sheffield. But big is not always beautiful as Greater London Leopards
have discovered. Playing to relatively small crowds in the newly enlarged
London Arena has meant a heavy financial burden on the club's owners. More
and more games have moved to the more intimate surroundings of the Brentwood
Leisure Centre and even to Southend. It is a trend which will increase
still further for the millennium season although future hopes of the club
building its own medium-sized facility in Thurrock appear yet to be at
an early stage.
Cross-town rivals Towers will also concentrate
their games against next time at Crystal Palace, Wembley's cost and lack
of availability proving unduly restrictive. And although kudos must go
to Sheffield for actually increasing the amount of fixtures held at the
Arena rather than Ponds Forge, only time will tell whether their pockets
will lose out.
For Derby though, the future is bright
and is not to far away with the opening of the purpose built Storm Centre
on the horizon. Designed to allow the club to host TV and showpiece games,
the franchise is now a model for many of its contemporaries. Clubs like
Milton Keynes and Thames Valley have declared similar intentions.
In the end, money will talk and only more
fans, more sponsorship and more revenue will allow an improvement in facilities
which supporters and financiers alike will surely welcome. But only as
long as a nationwide jumping fro one city to another NBA-style is not unleashed.
That really would alienate the long-suffering punter.