They were worried no one would show up. It became the most-watched game of the year

When Sydney Kings bosses began kicking around the idea of a Christmas Day game a few years ago, one of the first fears to confront was no-one turning up.

But even that outcome, according to the Kings’ majority owner Paul Smith, was fine. Not ideal, but fine.

“We didn’t know if anyone would come, we really didn’t,” Smith says.

“But we rationalised it on the basis it is a TV event. We have always viewed this by the lens of television. This was an opportunity to put ourselves on a stage, on broadcast, at a time when nothing is happening. We had this rare air.

“So the fallback position was we are going to pull off a TV stunt, and whether five people, 500 people or 5000 people turned up … I wouldn’t say it wasn’t relevant … but it was only part of the equation.”

With the NBL’s approval, the Sydney Kings ended up pulling the trigger last year and staged the first game of Australian professional sport on Christmas Day, with a regular-season clash at Qudos Bank Arena against Melbourne United.

Young fans embrace the festive spirit during the NBL’s foray into Christmas Day scheduling.Credit: Getty

Despite the fears, the groundbreaking game was a raging success, and so much so this year the Kings taking on the Illawarra Hawks on Monday is only one of two NBL games on Christmas Day; with the Tasmania JackJumpers also hosting South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The success of the Kings’ punt on Christmas Day experiment, and the NBL adding a second game, feels like vindication for Smith, who for years had wondered why no Australian sports had followed in the footsteps of US sports and laid claim to the last vacant day on the sporting calendar.

“When I was a young kid, Good Friday was sacrosanct, Easter Sunday was sacrosanct, Anzac Day was sacrosanct,” Smith said.

“But as time went by, those dates got populated and it was always curious to me why no-one had ever attacked Christmas day, or Christmas night, as an opportunity and established something.”

The Kings took on Melbourne United on Christmas Day in 2022.Credit: Getty

The NBA has played games on Christmas Day since 1948, and now has five hugely popular games every year on December 25. The NFL also plays on Christmas Day if it falls on a weekend.

After many conversations with former NBA star and Kings part-owner Andrew Bogut, Smith and his colleagues began looking in 2020 at how a Christmas Day game could work.

“We probably spent 12 months assessing the risk. And there were certainly risks associated with the first game. We didn’t know how many people would come, we anticipated some backlash in the community – which we got – but we always felt there was a balance to be found there somewhere,” Smith said.

The NBA have a long tradition of playing on Christmas DayCredit: AP

“The questions were around why wouldn’t we do it? And there were a lot of answers to why we wouldn’t do it. But the balance of what is the size of the prize.”

The prize, in Smith’s mind, was an absolutely empty sporting landscape on a night when many people are at home, keen to crash on the couch and relax after a big day. As seen in the States, too, many communities don’t celebrate Christmas Day and are happy to get out of the house, and so do many people who are lonely and looking for the energy of a crowd.

The logistics of staging a game on Christmas Day was a complex task to organise, however. In short, a whole host of people had to agree to work on Christmas Day – including two teams of players, Kings staff, referees, hundreds of arena staff and a whole broadcast crew.

“What started off as a great idea then became a very great – but complex – idea, and needed the whole industry to come together to make it happen,” NBL chief executive David Stevenson said.

Smith said: “Everyone was going somewhere we hadn’t gone before, we were asking questions of staff and ourselves that we’d never encountered before. And the players as well. It’s a pretty big exercise to get something like this off the launchpad.”

In the end, the Kings won an entertaining game and Smith was stoked to see 7012 fans attend. It was a surreal and joyful atmosphere.

“Most you spend Christmas Day with only a handful of people,” Smith said. “It was just a happy crowd, and it was very diverse. It was a more ethnically diverse crowd that would normally come to a game.”

Sydney Kings fans enjoy the Christmas Day game in 2022.Credit: Getty

Smith was even more stoked to hear later that the combined broadcast audience on ESPN, Kayo and Channel 10 was 300,000, and that would end up the NBL’s biggest for the whole season. Ticket sales for the Kings’ next home games started going off as early as post-game on December 25.

“It gained steam and just didn’t stop for the whole month of January,” he said.

“For us, now, we view this game as our State of Origin. It is our tent pole, mid-season, and the one time of the year we can stand up and be noticed and do something really positive.”

The NBL added a second game in 2023, and says it will consider adding a third but two is probably “the sweet spot”.

“We are, proudly, the only league who plays on Christmas Day in Australia and it gives us a unique window to talk to people who don’t usually engage with our sport,” Stevenson said.

“As we have seen with the NBA and their success on Christmas Day, we think it can build into something significant.”

The Hawks, who can bus up to Sydney on Monday afternoon, may end up being a regular Christmas Day rival. One thing in the future is for sure, according to Smith: Christmas Day will always be game day for the Kings.

“There is no doubt it is going to be a permanent fixture for our club, and for the league as whole,” Smith said. “I think we own the space now. Christmas night is about basketball.”

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