Dribble Podcast: New Basketball WA CEO Nathan Cave outlines his plan to retain WNBL licence for Perth Lynx

New Basketball WA CEO Nathan Cave has stressed retaining the WNBL licence for the Perth Lynx is a high priority after he started in the position on Monday. BWA went public in May to reveal they were looking to either sell the Lynx licence or form a significant partnership with another company after it became clear the financial challenges of running the club were too much for them to handle. But Cave believes the Lynx have an opportunity to capture the imagination of the public by transforming from a talented team to a genuine club. “That team is an incredible team and a team I am certainly now very privileged and proud to be a part of. We want to make sure this season is very successful. We really want to make sure we raise the profile of the Perth Lynx,” Cave told The Dribble Podcast. “We’re at the point with the Perth Lynx where we deliver a really high performance program, but we want to take it a step further and deliver an amazing club. That’s probably the next evolution for the Perth Lynx. “BWA has a responsibility to enable the Perth Lynx. We’ve seen that recently where BWA has taken it on its shoulders to make sure that happens. If there was a point in time where there was a better choice and that was for the betterment of Perth Lynx then of course we would look at that. But we would love to secure some sponsorship to further enable the club and take the next step.” Cave has placed a high focus on increasing attendances. The lack of public transport near the Bendat Basketball Centre poses challenges for fans, but those issues also exist at other venues. Matching budgets with powerful clubs is also a challenge. The Lynx lost the 2021-22 grand final with a star studded team, reduced their budget last season and finished fourth, but re-stocked this year with exciting WNBA guard Aari McDonald, WNBL MVP Anneli Maley and Canadian representative Emily Potter. Cave said solidifying the club’s future off the court would to make it easier to sign players on longer deals and reward the coaches for their ability to develop stars. The Lynx enjoyed their best start to a season since 1995 but lost their last two matches and now sit in fourth place. “The Perth Lynx have an uncanny knack of identifying talent and bringing talent to our club. Retaining talent is always a challenge,” Cave said. “But if you look at the team that we’ve got this year, we’ve got an incredibly talented team. We have a WNBA player that has come into our team, we’ve got a Canadian, we have Australian (Opals) players and we have got home grown talent. “I don’t think talent this year is keeping us from having that success. The season is far from over and our expectations are pretty high. “Funding is always great. More funding will enable us to have more certainty and sign players to longer contracts.”