State government steps in to save Adelaide’s WNBL team with a three-year rescue plan
WNBL basketball will remain in Adelaide after the state government stepped in. So what happens next? A new home, a potential coach – all the details of SA’s rescue package here.
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Premier Peter Malinauskas has all but guaranteed the Adelaide Lightning name will survive after announcing a $1.71m rescue package over three years that will ensure a WNBL team remains in South Australia.
After weeks of uncertainty amid the WNBL’s decision to decline Lightning owner Pelligra’s request to continue in the league, the Malinauskas government, as first revealed on Thursday morning by Code Sports, will pour $570,000 per year into an Adelaide club that will initially be owned and operated by the league.
And Code Sports can also reveal one of the WNBL’s greatest coaches, three-time Coach of the Year and Opals assistant Cheryl Chambers, has been sounded out on her interest in leading the Lightning charge in WNBL26 and beyond.
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The club, which trained and played at the Pelligra-owned Adelaide 36ers Arena, will have a new home base at the recently-opened $88 million South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) headquarters at Mile End.
Games will likely be played at the 1000-seat State Basketball Centre and Malinauskas guaranteed the state’s most successful professional franchise — five WNBL championships and a conveyor belt of Opals starlets — would be kept alive.
“It ain’t going anywhere, we wouldn’t have it,” Malinauskas said, amid concern the club would be renamed.
“It has been rather disconcerting to any sports lover in South Australia, the prospect that we’ve been hearing in recent days of the Adelaide Lightning not competing in the WNBL into the future.
“As soon as we heard that news, as a state government, we got to work engaging with WNBL and basketball more broadly in our state to see if we can’t come up with a solution.
“Adelaide Lightning is a critical part of the cultural sporting fabric of our state … which is why we quickly got to work with the WNBL to craft a package.
“It’s a package that’s over three years because we want to provide certainty to a new owner that the government is there to support over the medium term as it transitions to being a profitable enterprise.”
Opals legend and one of the Lightning’s greatest players Rachael Sporn said she’d joined the SA hoops community in breathing a sigh of relief that her beloved club had been saved.
“It was probably the most dire that I’d felt when you consider how free agency was about to happen and how late this development was happening,” Sporn said, when asked how worried she was about the Lightning’s future.
“I’m a country kid, and I landed here when I was 17 and I was very lucky because we had three WNBL teams back then and I can’t even imagine if we didn’t have representation here as an athlete or junior coming to Adelaide now, because playing in the WNBL and Adelaide Lightning was my pathway to representing my country.
“So it’s absolutely crucial that it remains and it’s so wonderful to hear that we have security now. I’m extremely grateful.”
This month, Pelligra released all Lightning players and staff, including Opals Paris bronze medal starlet Steph Talbot to allow them to begin the search for a new home. Sporn appealed to locals to stick with the Lightning.
“I’m so relieved and grateful that it will continue well into the future and I’m just so pleased that we have juniors who now can continue to aspire to be an Adelaide Lightning player,” Sporn said.
“I’d like to say to the current Lightning players, we have a lot of SA representation and they have stayed in this state and been loyal to Adelaide Lightning, and they now can continue to do that.”
It’s understood the WNBL is yet to decide if it wants the new club to remain the Lightning, but Malinauskas’ comments and the sentiment from Sporn and fellow club legends might paint the league into a corner.
For the name and colours to survive, the WNBL will need to negotiate purchase of the Lightning name and logo from Pelligra.
Pelligra’s SA boss Steve Wren said while the developer had handed back its licence last year, amid the league’s dire situation under Basketball Australia’s stewardship, it had a change of heart earlier this year and wanted to continue as owner of the club.
With that option now off the table, Wren said his only concern was ensuring the Adelaide Lightning was kept alive and he wanted to work with the WNBL on sale of the branding.
“We would be very happy to co-operate to get the IP of the brand negotiated across,” Wren has told the league.
“We are keen for the brand to stay alive so will do everything possible to make it happen.
“This is a fantastic result for Adelaide and a fantastic result for the Lightning.”
Malinauskas expected Pelligra to negotiate the IP transfer “in good faith”.
“The Pelligra Group, they have a lot of interest in sports around the world, and they’ve made a significant contribution here in South Australia,” he said.
“Knowing Steve Wren and Ross and Paul Pelligra like I do, these are good people who are committed to seeing young people enjoy sports.
“They’re committed to continuity of basketball in this state, and I’ll be stunned if we don’t see the Adelaide Lightning name continue in perpetuity.”
WNBL chief executive Jennie Sager said the announcement opened a “new chapter” for Australian women’s basketball.
“This is the beginning of a partnership, the first step to rebuilding the Adelaide Lightning here in South Australia, and we’re really excited about what’s to come,” Sager said.
“There is a really rich history here and basketball is absolutely exploding in Australia.
“We need to make sure that we continue those pathways for the young kids that are just starting their journey all the way up to the Opals and a big part of that is the WNBL.
“We want to thank the community for getting behind the Adelaide Lightning and … we’d love to see you all out at the game.”
Sager said the league was working to appoint key pillars at the Lightning, including a coach and general manager, with a goal to open WNBL free agency before the end of this month.
She said the league would work to find new owners for the franchise.
“Our intent is to change that ownership structure within the next three years but, with that said, we’re not putting a hard timeline on it,” Sager said.
“It’s really important we find the right investors and the right people and so we’ll obviously take the time to do that.
“We absolutely have interested parties already and we’ll continue those conversations.
“The government has made it really clear this partnership is long term so if, for some reason, we’re not there in three years, they’re certainly not going to walk away.
We are not going to get kids off screens and grow the number of active female sports participants if we don’t have teams like the Adelaide Lightning promoting basketball and physical activity to young girls. pic.twitter.com/6XuxIA2Lf7
— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) May 8, 2025
Part of the government’s commitment over three years includes a $300,000 investment in community-based programs aimed at encouraging and supporting girls and women on their basketball journeys.
“Basketball is a magnificent sport, and it’s growing amongst every demographic,” he said.
“That is why it is mission critical that a state that has always punched above its weight on the national field in sports has a presence in the WNBL.
“We are dead set serious about getting kids off screens and getting out, doing things actively, and that means we’ve got to cover the field in all the possibilities that are open to young people.
“Given the history of the Adelaide Lightning in South Australia, given that it has been a source of inspiration for so many young girls to participate in sport, It’s got to continue if we want them to have healthy, active upbringings and lifestyles into adulthood.”
The Lightning lifeline came the morning after over 8500 South Australians piled into Adelaide Entertainment Centre to watch the Boomers and Opals defeat the Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns — a timely reminder of basketball’s massive growth in the state.
“Basketball is a magnificent sport, and it’s growing amongst every demographic, across both sectors, and that is why it is mission critical that a state that has always punched above its weight on the national field in sports has a presence in the WNBL,” Malinauskas said.
But there is no guarantee the famous Adelaide Lightning name will survive.
Amid the WNBL’s decision to decline Lightning owner Pelligra’s request to continue with the league, CODE Sports can reveal SA Premier Peter Malinauskas will, on Thursday morning, announce his government has agreed to make a financial contribution to keep a women’s team in the state.
A source said the WNBL requested government assistance and this agreement gave the league enough confidence to take the risk of backing a team.
It’s a massive boost for SA – a proven basketball breeding ground – given there was a very real risk professional women’s basketball could have been lost to the state.
It also means NBL clubs Tasmania and Brisbane will have an extra 12 months to prepare for their entry into the women’s league, given the Adelaide team will become the WNBL’s eighth - a number the new ownership had targeted since it took over last month.
The Lightning has won five WNBL championships and remains the state’s most successful sporting team.
The WNBL is yet to decide if it wants the new team to be called the Lightning but it would need to acquire the club’s intellectual property from Pelligra if it does want to keep the name alive.
Originally published as State government steps in to save Adelaide’s WNBL team with a three-year rescue plan
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