This week I watched basketball. A shudder rippled down my spine as I entered the Copper Box Arena in Stratford for the Eurocup game between London Lions and Niners Chemnitz. Seeing the kaleidoscope of yellow, blue, red and green empty seats was enough to send me right back to a tortuous night in the same venue watching Baller League just last month.
The six-a-side tournament reached its conclusion this weekend and its founder and CEO Felix Starck claimed that more people between 16 and 28-years-old watch live games of Baller League than the Premier League. He did not share quite how they measured that statistic and, as someone in that demographic, I find it hard to believe, but maybe the Copper Box is a breeding ground for budding new sports.
Basketball is not really a ‘new sport’ and it remains one of the most popular participation sports across the country, but it is dwarfed by so many when it comes to attendances and viewing figures. The United States-based NBA is obviously the premier package, absorbing much of the viewership, but with tip off times stretching late into deep nights, there is a chance for British and European basketball to start grabbing those eyeballs.
NBA franchises Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic come to London in a few weeks in the 19th occasion the NBA will be showcased in the UK. The current cheapest available ticket for a game between the 10th and 6th best sides currently in the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively, will cost just shy of £200.
The appeal of the NBA far outweighs a mid-week fixture in European basketball’s second-rate competition, but there is still entertainment to be found in watching the Lions at a fraction of the price of the NBA’s appearance at the O2.
Niners, who brought a small but passionate group of travelling fans from eastern Germany to east London, were the superior side and took an early advantage. They only lost the lead once, when the Lions edged ahead briefly at the end of the second quarter, and closed out the game to win 78-70.
Their fanbase chanted, banged a drum and danced with the players after the final buzzer sealed an important win as the Niners try and finish as high up the table as possible. Such passion overwhelmed the scattered and sporadic bursts of energy from a downbeat home crowd.
The frustration of Tautvydas Sabonis, the Lions head coach, as his team slipped away throughout the match seeped into the stands. His tight suit extenuated his long limbs and gave him the appearance of a windmill in a storm when he flapped his arms in response to fouls given against his team.
Kostja Mushidi scoring 22 points, including three three-pointers, and Kevin Yobo netting eight of his nine free throws went a long way to securing a victory on the road for Niners. The final quarter saw the Bundesliga team pull away as they went on a run of 10 points to two and limited the Lions to just 13 points in the final of the ten-minute quarters.
The stands were not entirely packed, with only three blocks open for spectators across the entire top tier of the Copper Box. The courtside seats, which can cost over £100, with seats a few rows back reaching £50, were also not filled to capacity.
It cannot be easy to draw sell-out crowds for a mid-week dead rubber, but throughout the game it felt as if there was a missed opportunity. The Lions are the only professional London-based team and should, in theory, be able to attract the thousands and thousands of basketball fans across the capital – and yet they do not.
The actual product is good and the game against Niners was fun to watch, even if the half-hearted Americanised chants of ‘DE-FENCE’ fell flat. It pales in comparison to the standard set across the Atlantic, but it is still strong enough to resemble a competitive and worthwhile tournament. There just appears to be a disconnect between the club and what should be its wide fanbase in the capital.
There are plans for the Lions to move into a “new, custom-built multi-purpose arena in London” with a 15,000-seat capacity. They claim that this will be a major boost to basketball, sport and culture across the capital, but that impact will be limited if it remains a largely empty bowl for much of the minimum of 40 games a year it will host.
Offering free tickets to local schools, clubs or universities could help draw in a better crowd and could encourage more people to follow the Lions regularly. The atmosphere needs to be lifted and energised as there are not enough regular spectators to sustain a following.
Coupled with this is the fact that drinks and refreshments are incredibly pricey inside the arena. Yes, the off-court entertainment should be secondary to the on-court action, but when Copper Box is charging £8 for a slightly warm pint of Camden Hells, it is highly unlikely to draw in crowds looking for an after-work social or students looking for a distraction from studies.
The Lions will almost certainly not dictate pricing, but maybe they could set up deals or tokens which make the rancid wafts of hotdogs slightly more appetising and an evening at the basketball more appealing.
If prices of refreshments were halved, going to see the basketball on a mid-week evening could prove a brilliant way to catch up with others and get to watch live sport with relative affordability. Football can get away with charging outrageous ticket prices given the number of fans willing to pay extortionate fees.
Basketball does not have that audience yet. In December 2024, the sport received just under £4.5 million in two grants by UK Sport and Sport England for the next four years, yet it does not seem poised to take advantage of the money.
With the British Basketball Federation reportedly at loggerheads with the domestic league, Super League Basketball, and its clubs over who should govern the sport’s professional division in the UK, I do not see how the chaos is conducive to growing and developing the sport.
If Baller League can supposedly capture young people with a tedious and repetitive six-a-side tournament simply through the promotion by celebrities and influencers, what is to stop basketball from doing the same?
The entertainment is there, the arena is there, the interest is there. Someone just needs to take the guardrails down and get people into those ghastly, multi-coloured seats. People will stay and support the Lions if they are encouraged to, and they might even find pleasure in a hot dog and a flat pint.
Similar Posts
- TWIW: Seats, not pockets, need to be filled first if British basketball is to explode
- TWIW: Van Veen grows from boy to man as darts continues to produce special moments and characters
- TWIW: Baller League, where the fun never stops. Even when it should.
- TWIW: Fascinating tension grips the Emirates at London Chess Classic
- TWIW: Kai Trump’s debut sends women’s golf into the rough
- TWIW: Henry Pollock adds necessary youthful verve to England and rugby
Jack McRae writes... 