Other states preparing to launch HoopsFest raid as election forces halt in talks between WA government and NBL

Perth’s anticipated stranglehold on HoopsFest has weakened after the government’s failure to sign a deal to bring to basketball extravaganza back to the city before entering election caretaker mode opened the door to a bold raid from another State. Every NBL and WNBL team travelled to Perth for the inaugural event in September and the city received even greater exposure when NBA figures Carmelo Anthony and Kenny Smith also attended. Premier Roger Cook expressed a desire to bring HoopsFest back at the time, and the government spent recent months locked in negotiations with the NBL to sign a multi-year deal. The league was originally hoping to sign a contract by December, but timing then became an issue with discussions about moving it to January shelved, and October becoming the priority. Last month, NBL chief executive David Stevenson told The West Australian other States also wanted to host HoopsFest but the league remained focused on Perth. “We’ve already been approached by multiple States who saw the first year’s execution and are very keen to to host that in their States,” he said. “But our first priority is ideally to try and reach agreement with Western Australia. “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.” But with a deal now unable to be agreed to until after the March 8 election, other States have sensed an opportunity and it is understood they are ready to apply more pressure while knowing WA can’t sign a contract. South Australia is expected to lead the charge after already securing the AFL’s Gather Round and LIV Golf for their sporting calendar. The importance for basketball to lock away a date and location for all games became even more evident this week when the lack of clarity around the ladder and finals forced major changes to the fixture. Perth Wildcats had to move Tuesday’s Play-In tournament game against South East Melbourne Phoenix from RAC Arena to Perth High Performance Centre because Kylie Minogue had already booked out their regular venue as part of her preparations for a concert on Saturday. That will result in more than half of Wildcats members being unable to buy tickets. Adding to the drama, Wildcats players won’t get to train at Perth HPC until game day because the club won’t get access to the venue until Monday afternoon.