Expansion Coming to NBL

The NBL will expand in the coming years according to league owner, Larry Kestelman.

The success of the Tasmania JackJumpers has triggered a wave of interest and Kestelman says he’s fielding calls from multiple cities about a licence.

“There’s without a doubt room for at least a couple more local teams. We have had approaches from all sorts of different locations,” Kestelman told Newscorp’s The Basketball Show.

“There’s been conversations from Gold Coast, conversations from Sydney, from Melbourne, from Perth and certainly Canberra.

“We are not going to rush into it. We are happy with where we are, but we will keep on looking for opportunities to expand.”

Canberra has made headlines as a prime location, with Kestelman saying the city and AIS Arena is like “Tasmania 2.0”.

“I see no reason why Canberra should not have a team. We need to go through the process and make sure both the government gets behind it and the fans get behind it,” he said.

Kestelman also expressed confidence Sydney will have a second team, but a third team in Melbourne remains a while away, as the South East Melbourne Phoenix continue to establish a base.

“There will definitely be another team in Sydney at some stage that we will start looking at in the next year or two,” Kestelman said.