It’s another Sunday afternoon at the Leeds Metropolitan University and in the sports arena [pictured], located around the back of the main entrance to the sports village, volunteers are setting up the refreshment stands, the speaker system and preparing for another day of basketball action.
The hosts Leeds Carnegie are playing Worthing Thunder in an England Basketball League, Division 1 contest. This is England Basketball’s top division and the tier below the British Basketball League, which is the country’s premier basketball category. Before the Carnegie takes to the court though, the under-18 side are playing Newcastle Eagles’ under-18 team in the early game; a game that the Eagles comfortably win.
The Carnegie program at all levels, from the juniors, the women’s side to the senior side is highly successful and the club have just recently secured £9,990 [€11,800] from Sport England to help develop girls’ basketball in the city. It’s targeting 12 schools with an additional six in Harrogate as they look to give over 1000 girls the opportunity to play basketball.
There’s no doubt that Leeds Carnegie are a team that fit the England Basketball criteria as it is EB who look after the vast majority of national basketball leagues for all age groups in the country, the exception of course is the BBL.
The senior men’s team, who are the EBL’s current National Cup holders are 5-4 and in mid-table ahead of the clash with the Thunder – but the team enters the Christmas break – they can start to think about playing in the British Basketball League next season.
The focus though is on their game with the Worthing Thunder, who themselves spent three seasons in the British Basketball League from Division 1 before they came back to the national leagues due to financial trouble. For Worthing, a small town of roughly 100,000 people in the south coast of England, this is their third season back in the EBL Division 1.
Leeds backed by a small but knowledgeable fan base came away with a 73-63 win against the Thunder to move into fourth place in the table on a 6-4 record. All of a sudden though the focus moved not to the next game; not to the next practice; but instead to their annual team Christmas dinner.
Sooner or later though, coach and director of basketball at Leeds Carnegie Matt Newby and his team will have to start thinking about the BBL and the plans to make the franchise sustainable. Plymouth Raiders, Worcester Wolves and most recently the Durham Wildcats have successfully made the jump to the BBL and with the backing of the University, plus the added bonus that Leeds is the third largest city in the United Kingdom, the Carnegie shouldn’t really have a problem adjusting to life in the BBL next year, off the court.
“I think you always have to look ahead and with it being such a significant step up, we have got to start doing our homework now,” Newby said. “ We want to remain student focused, we want to offer opportunities to domestic guys whether they’re returning from the U.S. whether they’re growing up in the domestic scene and I think we can do that if we continue to do that.”
To be in the BBL and especially if you want to be a contender in the years to come, Newby admits that the club will have to spend, but he will have time to think about that another day. For now, having another city, especially one like Leeds in the BBL next year will be a big step not just for the club but also for the league as a whole.
“I think it’s significant in terms of the broader landscape, obviously Leeds is the third biggest city in the country so that’s a significant marker in itself,” Newby explained.
“It was attractive to the BBL themselves to look at us as a market. For the city, it’s one that’s rich in sport anyway. There’s a huge rugby league culture here, cricket and of course [Leeds] United. But it’s important that we offer something different and I think that’s what we are trying to do is show kids that there is other sports out there.”
The fan base indeed has a long way to go. The Leeds Met Arena, if you can call it an arena holds just 800 seats, something in the short term could work for Carnegie. But Newby knows that the current venue, as nice as it is won’t be sustainable if the club want to move forward.
Maybe a new arena for Leeds Carnegie to call home?
“I think that’s just speculation,” Newby jokes. ”We would like to look at different alternatives within the city. The most obvious one, albeit a long shot for now but it’s worth a try to strike a deal to get the [First Direct] Arena even though it’s one of the rare arenas in the country that isn’t built for sport at all.
“For us, we will have to look getting something very much like what Worcester have built, something similar to Newcastle’s venue or something like what Leicester are currently building. In terms of what we have now, there are different ways we can spin the venue and it has satisfied the BBL for the interim and we can potentially go from there.”
With the teams that have made it from the England Basketball League to the British Basketball League, there have been sides that have had no choice but to drop back down. The 2010/2011 treble winners the Mersey Tigers dropped all the way down to Division 4 this season while PAWS London Capital dropped to Division 1, finished bottom of the league and got relegated to Division 2 where they failed to fulfil their fixture list and have been taken out of all EBL fixtures this season.
“I think Leeds will be fine,” said current Worthing Thunder coach Daniel Hildreth, who spent two out of three seasons playing for the Thunder in the BBL.
“They have the backing of the University which is a good thing. They have a city rich in sports heritage and they have a good set up. Despite the location and the fact that Leeds is a huge city, they will have to take it easy for the first few seasons and get a solid backroom staff and marketing plan in place.
“What some people don’t understand is that a BBL club needs to run as a full-time commitment. Other teams, like us at Worthing have tried running it while taking on our full-time jobs away from basketball but we haven’t been successful, but I think Leeds are different and they have thought long and hard about their future and what they need to do to make it in the BBL and I wish them nothing but the best.”
And indeed Newby has thought ahead, taking Hildreth’s words on board and he has already taken advantage in his side’s final season in the EBL.
“The BBL have given us good advice on what the dangers are in terms of stepping up and I feel employing a commercial manager, a director of operations and overall just looking at the administrative side of things as well as the coaching structure is probably the most important thing as we go forward,” Newby said.
“We want to reflect a professional club in Europe as well as here in the UK. The money isn’t there but we want basketball fans to come to Leeds knowing that they are coming to a BBL venue with a BBL game night and BBL organisation. For me as a coach, it then lets me concentrate on coaching, knowing that the admin side is taken care of and I can then coach the players.”
And as soon as the conversation ends; the speakers, food and drink stands and merchandise stall is taken down, as the University prepares for another day.
For coach Newby and his Leeds Carnegie players: they have taken care of business. It’s now time for their Christmas dinner.
