Basketball: Supercity Rangers franchise has licence terminated from NBL

Rangers players Nnanna Egwu and Tim Quarterman. Photosport

The local National Basketball League has terminated the licence of the Supercity Rangers.

Following a review into the team and its operations, the Auckland franchise were found to have breached a number of rules under the participation agreement.

The biggest breach was the outstanding debts owed to the league, including the full annual fees for the just-completed 2019 season.

"The review into the Supercity Rangers has been thorough. The review uncovered a number of breaches that has led to this termination, not least of which is a large debt owed to the league," said NBL GM, Justin Nelson.

"Unfortunately the Rangers have missed every deadline issued for payments owed to the league and have made no proactive moves to settle this debt.

"We are aware of other debts, but these are up to the Rangers to deal with and we hope they will."

The franchise was also involved in a high profile dispute over player wages.

The Rangers had one year remaining on the participation agreement before having it terminated.

The NBL will commence planning for a nine-team league in season 2020, which may expand to 10 teams in 2021 if the Franklin Bulls from South Auckland finalise certain criteria to commence.

The Otago Nuggets have been granted provisional entry for 2020 pending some final hurdles, which the league hopes will be finalised this Wednesday. If not, the Nuggets will build towards a 2021 entry.