In the midst of the toughest times in the history of the National Basketball League, Gold Coast Blaze coach Brendan Joyce has expressed concern at plans to cull teams.
The NBL and Basketball Australia have agreed to a complete overhaul of the competition after the current season, which will likely result in a reduction of teams.
Joyce – with a combined 27 seasons experience as a player and coach in the NBL – feels that with the current landscape of Australian sport it would be smarter to add teams than to reduce.
"Expansion is the way to go," he said.
"With expansion the fan base builds, with a reduction in teams your fan base is reduced."
Recent suggestions that the Blaze could merge with the Brisbane Bullets to form a South East Queensland team were scoffed at by Joyce who led Wollongong to their maiden championship in 2001.
"To talk about Brisbane and Gold Coast merging, that's like Wollongong and Sydney Kings merging."
"When I was at Wollongong we built that thing up – David versus Goliath – for a reason, so we could pack houses and have a rivalry."
"That's what we want here, we want a team in Brisbane, we want the David versus Goliath, we are a small town and they are the big city."
Plans to merge or re-brand teams have proved perilous in recent times with the Sydney Spirit a prime example.
After success as the West Sydney Razorbacks, the team was rebranded Sydney Spirit in an effort to bring Sydney Basketball fans together following the demise of the Sydney Kings.
Instead the plan backfired; fans were left alienated with no familiar squad or colours to follow.
Joyce who is a two-time NBL coach of the year, and has seen teams come and go in Geelong, Newcastle, North Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and Singapore, believes there is a need to reach out to new audiences.
"We should have a team out of Hobart, a team in Canberra and this thing should be 12 to 14 teams."
Joyce also pointed out that while it does cost 'a few million' to own a basketball team, it should be a sustainable investment.
"Maybe we should be looking at the control of spending rather than just reducing teams."
Among his appraisal, a passionate Joyce also commended the effort of and support for the fledgling Spirit in their time of need.
"I think it is fantastic that the owners are helping the Spirit stay in the league."
"We need to do what we can to keep these teams in the league and keep building the league."