Gold Coast move to play in New Zealand Basketball League move denied by Basketball Australia

NBL legend Chris Anstey has been left ‘disappointed ’ following a push for a Gold Coast team to play in the New Zealand women’s league which was blocked by Basketball Australia.

NBL Basketball. Melbourne United V's Cairns Taipans at Hisense Arena. Melbourne United coach Chris Anstey pleads with the ref. Pic: Michael Klein

NBL legend Chris Anstey has expressed his “disappointment” after a push for the Gold Coast to be awarded a license to play in the New Zealand women’s Tauihi league was denied by Basketball Australia.

Anstey’s collaboration with event management company Media8, which owns the Taranaki Airs in the NZNBL men’s competition and a local women’s team called the Taranaki Thunder, were approved by Basketball New Zealand to be a license holder for an international team based on Queensland’s holiday strip.

The plan was for the team to play home games on Australian soil – but compete in the New Zealand competition.

Anstey – and Media8 – wanted to further expand women’s basketball and provide opportunities while capitalising on the Gold Coast housing the second highest New Zealand population outside of NZ.

NBL and Boomers legend Chris Anstey at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

It’s also understood media company, Sky Sports, was willing to cover the players’ salaries and a travel pool for the team to be based in Australia.

It would have left front office staff, player accommodation and stadium hire on game day as the only expenses.

A Gold Coast team playing in the NZ women’s competition required Basketball Australia approval, but BA refused to endorse the move.

Basketball Australia offered a “no comment” when contacted by this masthead this week.

“It was very disappointing, especially given the fact New Zealand has the Breakers who play in the Australian NBL league and mostly on NZ soil,” Anstey said.

“At the same time we see the positive benefit that the Breakers have for basketball in New Zealand.

“We would see the same positive benefit for both Australian and New Zealand female players playing in any league and having the opportunity to be employed, but that has been squashed.”

This masthead also understands there was a separate push for a Nunawading team to compete in the New Zealand women’s competition, but this bid was also rejected by Basketball Australia.

The setbacks won’t stop Anstey and Media8 from pursuing other opportunities within women’s basketball, both in New Zealand and Australia.

“My background is here in Australia and I really want to see any basketball players being given opportunities,” Anstey said.

“We would have done it immediately through a Gold Coast team, but we were denied the opportunity.”

hah

Championship player says the news of the Melbourne Boomers' WNBL license transfer came as a "shock" to the playing group and is now uncertain of her future playing in the league.

STORY â–¶ https://t.co/uQCwuRhaRvpic.twitter.com/oElYhwgNaX

— CODE Basketball (@codebballau) May 14, 2024

Anstey also revealed he jointly made a pitch alongside Media8 for the now defunct WNBL Melbourne Boomers licence before it was recently relocated to Geelong.

“We put forward the Boomers an offer that wasn’t near where they perceived it to be, but one we thought was very fair with an understanding to keep the team in Melbourne and invest resources,” he said.

“We were aware of the other bidder and we were in conversations with them because we wanted to do the right thing by women’s basketball, but in the end it became apparent that the money being asked extraordinarily higher than what we valued a franchise that annually runs at a deficit.

“So we walked away, but we’ll keep pushing because we want to build sustainable teams and we also understand the need to do better for the girls here in Australia.”

Originally published as Gold Coast move to play in New Zealand Basketball League move denied by Basketball Australia