British Basketball All-Stars Championship returns for third

LT, I've been told by a reliable source that Rocks lost money. They stayed down for at least two nights, playing Lions at UEL on the Friday. The published figures aren't close to what clubs get.
We don't agree on the value of this competition - that's fine - but it's not the pot of gold you think it is.
But it does get the BBL on telly and helps fund the national team programme, so i'm not going to claim it's all bad.

Thanks for the reply, it’s nice to be able to have an adult discussion sometimes – a rarity on most internet forums (although I should say What’sBev is one of the best), even if we don’t entirely agree on the value of the competition.

I know the competition isn’t the cash cow, for the teams at least, that it first appears it is. I’ve learnt that from these forums. But I suppose not knowing exactly what percentage of the prize money the BBL takes makes it difficult to actually put a value on it, again for the teams at least. Maybe they take 20% of each teams winnings. Maybe they take 80% of each teams winnings. As far as I know no one on here actually knows, so any argument is based largely on speculation.

I’m certainly not disputing your claim Rocks lost money by playing in this competition, I’d simply be interested in knowing how – travel and accommodation shouldn’t cost anywhere close to £5K (I say ‘close to’ knowing the BBL will have taken a percentage of that) if done on a sensible budget. Maybe the BBL really do take 80% of their winnings!

My view that the All-Stars Championship is good for British basketball is based on the assumption that most teams do financially profit from taking part (probably generally more so than the official BBL one day competitions), and the general publicity/coverage it receives – both in terms of getting new people actually attending basketball and providing 5 hours of British basketball television coverage both in the UK and in numerous countries around the world. But that’s just me justifying my view. I’m not saying others can’t view it differently.

I can only speak from personal experience but whilst I was at the event last year there were clearly a number of people for whom it was their first experience of live basketball, mostly parents with young(ish) children, but a few adults on their own too. Whether they’ve since attended any BBL games, who knows. But given the event was at the Copper Box it would be interesting to know if there’s been any general increase in attendance at Lions games (can’t say I’ve particularly noticed myself, but crowds are maybe on average a bit bigger than last year?).

In terms of the tv coverage… it was broadcast for 5 hours on a Sunday afternoon simultaneously across 2 channels (one in the sports package, one in the general entertainment package) so it’s undoubtable that some casual viewers tuned in either intentionally or unintentionally. Whether they’ve since watched or attended any BBL game, again who knows.

But these things are one of the main reasons I think the All-Stars Championship is generally good for the sport in this country.

Regarding the 5 point line and golden buzzer… surely even the most casual basketball fan knows these don’t exist in the ‘real’ game? Although I have noticed the NBA experimenting with a 4 point line in a similar sort of way…