By Les Tan/Red Sports in Kuala Lumpur
Tony Fernandes, the chairman of the new ASEAN Basketball League, speaking at the launch of the new league this afternoon in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Kuala Lumpur, Monday, January 19, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers, the island’s first professional basketball team, will play in an ASEAN Basketball League slated to tip off in September 2009.
“We’ve never had in ASEAN regular sports that we all can go to,” said Tony Fernandes, the chairman of the proposed ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).
Apart from the Slingers, the ABL will look to have at least seven other teams for the home-and-away league.
From tomorrow, prospective owners will be invited to send in their applications to the league. There will be no more than two teams per country. Each team roster will tentatively have eight locals, two imports and two ASEAN players.
“The aim is to build local talent, local stars. The aim is to see our countries perform at the highest levels,” said Fernandes.
The ABL will look to sponsorships, merchandising and hospitality to sustain its operations and hopes to break even in two years.
He also added that the league will need about US$5 million to fund promotional activities and operations.
The ABL will be the first professional sports league in ASEAN and should provide a filip to the local sports industries of the respective countries. © Red Sports
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[…] sports league in ASEAN will be for the sport of basketball. Led by chairman Tony Fernandes, the ASEAN Basketball League has brazenly set themselves a target of September 2009 to tip off. It is a league that, on paper at […]
Good to see people talking about the slingers.
I too think they would try to sign Sandrin again and if the salary cap is really a million dollars they should be able to offer him enough to make him sign again. Any idea if Darren will be available for the next season, or will he be continuing his studies at that time?
Sandrin and Darren are definitely crowd pullers, need them to be signed again.
From what I gather speaking with the Slingers management team, Darren is keen to return. He enjoyed his time in Singapore and the management want him back. Michael Johnson of the Slingers says he is a 20-point player.
Darren finished his studies and is undergoing his housemanship in Australia.
Great to see everyone air their view. I doubt the Slingers will ever be able to get a player like Eric Sandrin again ever. He is a few leagues able the ABL, having been signed by an NBA team before. I hope that the Slingers will increase the number of imports from 4 to at least 6, so that we could get one Asian from Japan or Korea or Taiwan. That would really be nice. I bet the girls will go crazy over the Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese player. That means more fans. 1 suggestion: sign Yan Xing Shu.
The Slingers will try to sign Sandrin again and I believe Sandrin enjoys living and playing in Singapore. We provide an environment in Singapore few countries in Asia can match.
I agree to some of the people of allowing Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan to join in the league. They can play and exchange the playing style to a more entertaining style. I saw the Japan BJ league, the setup, players etc were great and entertaining. Should learn some from them(Suggestion).
I think either 2 imports, 1 asian, 2 asean and 7 locals or,
2 imports, 1 asian, 1 asean and 8 locals will be better.
It can’t be 3 imports, because it will ended up all 3 imports were playing then the locals can’t improve their skills. Remember Malaysia All-Stars vs Singapore Slingers? All 3 imports were playing the whole time.
As for 1 asian can be from countries like China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan etc. I guess these suggestions may increase of crowds, playing style and entertaining.
Les, its a noble ambition to try to develop the sport in ASEAN, but how in the world are they going to even get 8 teams in ASEAN?
When the Slingers go and play an IBL team in Indonesia 500 fans show up to watch. In Malaysia agaisnt the all-stars with a couple of imports, the srowd was still less than a 1000.
There is only one thing that counts towards the success of a pro-league – can the clubs make profits.
The salary cap is being set 1 million? Thats even more than the Australian NBL. They will need average crowds of 5000 just to break even.
As for levels of competition in Asia, I am sure if the format is changed to 3 imports + 3 asian + rest local, it will be enough to compete with Korea, Japan, China. It won’t at all be as lopsided as you think.
Taking the slingers as an example
3 imports – Darren, Sandrin, Harris
3 asian – Vergera, 2 more good players from phillipines/china
locals – Pathman, Steven Khoo, Koh Meng, Wei Jian, etc
This is a pretty competitive team depending on the quality of the non-local asian players they are able to secure.
Also, how are they going to get major TV broadcasters like ESPN interested playing in ASEAN? They absolutely need to get China on board to secure sponsorship. I just feel it would have been so much better to get Korea, Japan, China, Australia on board cause then players could be signed to any team from these countries under the non-local players quota.
I doubt grown men with serious businesses would announce a league that will start in September 2009 without having done their homework about what teams are available to play come September 09.
Having said that, there is something about drawing a line in the sand and saying, “Ok, we start this in September 09, anybody interested?” Don’t discount the salutary effect that will have on some team owners in Asia.
As for China, Korea and Japan. I think the reality is this – they won’t want to play with ASEAN teams.
As for ESPN, I had a chat with the executive vice president head of sales for South East Asia of ESPN. If they weren’t interested, they wouldn’t have been there.
The difference in the level of play of the slingers and the singaporeans are very ig. The ABL wont be competitive at all
The Slingers will probably have a starting five that doesn’t have any Singaporeans.
Considering that the league hasn’t even announced a single team, it’s rather presumptuous to say that the ABL won’t be competitive at all.
I agree that the more sustainable and fan friendly model is to have 3 imports + 3 ASEAN players + 6 locals. We saw in the first two years that a team where locals don’t get many fans is not attractive to locals. But on the other hand, if the team was full of locals, the quality of play might not be very good. 3+3+6 is a good balance.
Does anybody know what Eric Sandrin’s plans are? I read that he is going for the Korean Basketball League’s draft soon.
Eric Sandrin is scheduled to train with the Korean national basketball team.
Hi juice.
I believe the PBA teams as they exist aren’t expected to participate in the ABL.
The organisers are looking for interested teams outside the current PBA structure in the Philippines.
As for the Slingers, they will have to reconstitute themselves.
When the ABL starts, the starting five will probably not include a local-born Singaporean because of standards.
So based on the players they have, you might see a starting Slingers team that consists of Al Vergarra plus one more Filipino, Sam Harris, Darren Ng, Eric Sandrin.
Is that a competitive starting five? I think most bball fans think so.
Pathman and another up and coming Singaporean like Wei Jian will be the sixth and seventh man.
I am assuming that the 2 imports + 2 ASEAN players + 8 local players formula will change to level the playing field in the league. Or else every year, the Filipino teams will win and nobody will end up watching the ABL.
It might go to 3 imports + 3 ASEAN players + 6 local players.
Don’t understand why they didn’t try to go for an asian league instead of an asean league. The countries in asean have a much lower quality of play, people want to see good quality basketball.
Hi Moh.
I think that’s precisely the point. If it’s an Asian League that includes ASEAN teams, the ASEAN teams will get beat 20, 30 or even 50 points.
The Hong Kong national team recently beat the Singapore national team something like 100 plus to 40 plus.
Even the Philippines can’t compete on an Asian level, if I’m not wrong.
Everything is relative. It’s not about absolute standards but relative standards. If all the teams are structured such that they are of similar standards in the ABL, then the games are competitive and there won’t be too many blowouts.
The Singapore Slingers will have to reconstituted. Their squad quality will drop for the ABL. But it doesn’t matter as long as they are playing teams of similar standards in the league.
If the current Slingers roster plays in an ABL league, I think they will be too strong.
The Slingers lost only one game in their Challenge Series against mostly Asian competition. Their sole loss came against Sydney Kings of the Australian NBL.
PBA teams won’t be participating.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=433490&publicationSubCategoryId=69
I think there are quite a lot of questions that need to be answered:
How many indoor venues can host a professional game?
How will fans (especially expat fans) respond when the Slingers shift to incorporating more locals instead of imports?
Will the quality of play decline?