Steve Deane: Vector games test basketball's ability to join big league

Andrej Lemanis. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Basketball evangelists will tell you their sport is one of the biggest and most important on the planet. The game's a religion in the United States, wows the masses in Europe and boasts more international associations even than soccer.

All true. But so is the fact that in this country it is small beer. The domestic league struggles for survival, with teams playing in school gyms or YMCAs, while the national association goes through chief executives like the All Blacks do first fives.

That makes the Breakers' success in recent years all the more remarkable. It may have been obscured by the smoke from the World Cup celebration fireworks, but April's ANBL title run by the Breakers was one of the great sports storylines of the year.

The intensity of the celebrations at the North Shore Events Centre after the clinching game-three victory over the Cairns Taipans was at least on a par with the post-World Cup outpouring of joy that swept the nation.

But the fact is those celebrations took place in what is, quite frankly, a pretty crappy building. The NSEC may be the spiritual home of the Breakers, but it's the kind of facility one would expect to find in Stalinist Russia, perhaps near the Chechen border.

The atmosphere created by relatively few fans (about 4000 stuffed to the gills) may be fantastic, but that's often lost in transmission on television, while the taped overlines from other sports create a ghastly eyesore.

When summer comes, the lack of air conditioning reduces players to laughing stocks as they slip and slide on the treacherous court surface.

The overall impression is, well, smalltime. Which makes the three-match experiment that begins tonight at Vector Arena all the more important. It's time to find out if basketball can hold its own as a big market sport in Auckland.

"I guess test is the word - test this market here," coach Andrej Lemanis said.

"Particularly after our success last year, it gives us some opportunities. North Shore is still definitely our home but to take a couple of games in here and see what the market is like in the city area shows the growth of basketball, and if we do well it gives us some options for the end of year if we are in the playoffs again."

After tonight's match the Breakers will return to Vector to play Townsville on November 24 and again to face the Wildcats on February 2. Attendances at those matches will go a long way to determining whether professional basketball has a future in central Auckland.

With the cost of hosting matches at Vector significantly higher than the NSEC and revenue streams such as catering also affected, the crowds need to be significantly larger than the 3000-odd who typically attend Breakers' matches.

Let's hope they are. Basketball is an accessible game to play and can be enthralling to watch. It would be nice to see the game break through the minor sport barrier. And it would be even nicer to watch it happen in a less embarrassing building.