Dribble Podcast: NBL CEO David Stevenson closing in on signing multi-year deal to keep HoopsFest in Perth

The NBL is set to reject offers from other states to lure HoopsFest away from Perth and sign a multi-year deal with the WA government which will see the basketball extravaganza shifted from the opening round of the season to October. The league is deep in discussions with the WA government to make Perth the home of HoopsFest which would see a full round of NBL and WNBL played along with the under 18 Club Championships. The inaugural HoopsFest received widespread acclaim from players and clubs, while international personalities Carmelo Anthony and Kenny Smith gave the event enormous star factor. The league also built a massive Boom Box at one end of the court and had superstar DJ Hayden James performing. NBL CEO David Stevenson told The West Australian’s The Dribble Podcast they had been approached by other states but WA remained their preference. “We know there’s lots of great interest, and we’ve already been approached by by multiple states who saw the first year’s execution and are very keen to to host that in their states. But but our first priority is ideally to try and reach agreement with Western Australia,” Stevenson said. “We’ve put a pretty strong case forward to the WA Government, and they’ve been very receptive to that. So we hope that over the next month or two, we’ll be able to work through that. “Based on the demand that we’ve had from fans travelling (from) interstate, particularly on a pretty short runway - we only had four months between when it was announced and when HoopsFest was delivered - we think that the energy and momentum will only grow for year two and beyond. So where we’re quietly optimistic about that being finalised in the next month or two.” HoopsFest was held as round one of the NBL season during 2024 with the event scheduled September 19-22. But that meant the WNBL had just started its pre-season and the league also risked clashing with AFL finals if either Fremantle or West Coast advanced deep into September. Stevenson said that meant October loomed as their preferred option. HoopsFest extended the fixture to 29 games and Stevenson said he’d like to have even more matches added to the NBL schedule to open the door for an in-season tournament. Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena has put a call out to regional centres to mount a case for hosting NBL regular season games and Stevenson said adding a NBL Cup would allow the league to play games outside of major cities and even overseas. “We’ve seen the NBA cup happen in in the US, and obviously learned a lot from it. But even you look at soccer in Europe, and they have a number of other competitions that run in parallel to their regular season. So there’s lots of benefits for that,” Stevenson said. “There an opportunity to play a really iconic final somewhere around the country or internationally. That’s some of the ideas that we’re tossing around with and and exploring with the clubs.”