Joey Wright gives strong indication he will remain at Adelaide 36ers but uncertainty surrounds Nathan Sobey as the club moves to the Entertainment Centre

Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright has given the strongest indication yet that he will remain at the club next season but uncertainty over the future of free agent Nathan Sobey remains.

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Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright has given the strongest indication yet that he will remain at the club next season but uncertainty over the future of free agent Nathan Sobey remains.

As the club on Monday officially announced it would be moving all home games to the Entertainment Centre on Port Road from next season — as first revealed by The Advertiser — Wright said he had met with Sixers management and was already planning what the roster would look like for 2019-20.

There had been speculation Wright may seek an early release from his contract which still has three years to run after a string of frustrations in the past year, but yesterday said he was “happy” in Adelaide.

Anthony Drmic, Jack McVeigh, Joey Wright, Majok Deng, and Brendan Teys at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, where the 36ers will play from next season. Picture Sarah Reed

“We’re working as we would any other year to put together the best playing list we can,” Wright said.

“We just had a great meeting a couple of days ago with all those things in mind so we’re working towards the future now.

“This (Entertainment Centre) is a great opportunity and a positive move. Having a new venue and access to new fans is excellent, this is probably the biggest thing to happen to the sport (in Adelaide) since 2002 when they (36ers) won their last championship.

“There’s going to be a percentage of fans who will be disappointed because it’s inconvenient for them but this is about the biggest move for the most amount of people, and us catering to the majority in Adelaide is more important.

“We’ve got to continue to play the brand of basketball that’s going to be attractive for those fans and I don’t think it (filling the arena) will be a problem at all.”

Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright. Picture Sarah Reed

Vice-captain Sobey, 28, is yet to put pen to paper as the league’s free-agency period is about to heat up but Wright said he wasn’t concerned.

“I’m not worried at all, I’ve never been a slave to talent. We’ve had great players since I’ve been here and we’ve had great players who have left since I’ve been here — and we’ve still been successful,” Wright said.

“To me it’s always been more important to be about the group than the individual.

“Once again I’m not a slave to talent, Sobey is an extremely talented individual but I’d be more disappointed if we lost all 12 of our players than one of them.”

In confirming the club’s move from Adelaide Arena at Findon after 27 years to the Entertainment Centre in Hindmarsh, the Sixers hope to regularly pull 10,000-strong crowds like Melbourne, Sydney and Perth and become more appealing to corporate Adelaide.

Anthony Drmic and Jack McVeigh at the Entertainment Centre in Hindmarsh. Picture: MATT LOXTON

Current members have been offered like-for-like seats at what the club says will be a minimal price increase if any, the court will still be named in honour of Brett Maher and jerseys will hang from the ceiling in a nod to its history.

The 36ers will keep their training and administrative base at Adelaide Arena and club chief executive Ben Kavenagh said the relationship with stadium management was good.

A spokesman for Adelaide Arena, Dan Ryan, said while the stadium owners were “very disappointed” to lose the club he “thoroughly respects” the commercial decision behind their reason to move.

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Originally published as Joey Wright gives strong indication he will remain at Adelaide 36ers but uncertainty surrounds Nathan Sobey as the club moves to the Entertainment Centre