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The British Basketball League, often abbreviated to '''BBL''', is the top men's professional Basketball league in the United Kingdom . The BBL runs two knockout competitions alongside the league championship; the BBL Cup and the BBL Trophy. The BBL is not to be confused with the English Basketball League or the Scottish Basketball League , which effectively form the second tier of British basketball. There is currently no Promotion Or Relegation between the EBL, SBL and BBL because of the Franchise system in use in the BBL, although Plymouth Raiders , Worcester Wolves and London Capital have all been elected from the EBL in recent years. The league currently consists of 12 teams ( Brighton Cougars will be the 13th), with representation from both England and Scotland . In its two decade history the league has been won by 12 different franchises. The 2006-07 league champions were Guildford Heat , who will be the league's sole representatives in Europe for the 2007-08 Season , when they compete in the ULEB Cup . The member franchises of the BBL jointly own the league, and a chairman is elected by the teams to oversee BBL operations. The current Chairman is Paul Blake , the Managing Director of Newcastle Eagles. The head offices are located in Leicester , where the country's oldest team, the Leicester Riders is also based. HISTORY The 1980s: Elite establishment The British Basketball League burst onto the British Hoops scene in 1987 as the game's foremost clubs opted for a Franchise-based competition without Promotion Or Relegation . Seeking to improve the sport's image through greater professionalism, the BBL fast became the benchmark for quality competition in the UK . And with the development and evolution of the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy , there is now ample opportunity for Britain's 10 elite Basketball clubs to match ambition with silverware. In recent years, Newcastle Eagles have been the biggest winner of the game's major prizes after clinching six consecutive major trophies. In 1988 Portsmouth emerged from the pack to clinch the inaugural BBL Championship title but the following year saw the famous Kingston Kings side of the late 80's and early 90's win the first of three back-to-back league crowns. The 1990s: Television, sponsors and crowds flood in The 1990s also saw an exciting growth in popularity and commercialism of the league. Television crews and exciting sponsors such as Peugeot , Lego , Playboy and Budweiser came flooding in, as did the crowds. The Manchester Giants opened the 1995-96 season in front of a record 14,251 fans at the NYNEX Arena against the London Leopards - still the largest crowd to ever watch a basketball match in Britain. London Towers , Crystal Palace and the Greater London Leopards ushered in an era of capital success in the mid-1990s and in 1999 a Conference format was introduced, which was mirrored by the NBL the following season. For three seasons the cream of the north and the south followed an American-style system with London Towers invincible in the South. The 2000s: The millennium slump A single-league BBL returned in 2002 and four different franchises have won the Championship title in the four years since. However the new millennium also saw a series of downfalls for the BBL. The collapse of ITV Digital cost the league dear, with many franchises struggling to recover from the lost revenue that the £21 million contract was providing. Long established franchises such as the Giants , the Leopards , Derby Storm , Thames Valley Tigers and Birmingham Bullets have all dropped out in the years since, never to be seen again. The membership crisis brought about the addition of new franchises such as Guildford Heat and elected teams from the lower-tier English Basketball League , like the Plymouth Raiders , both making a refreshing impact on the old boys, with the Heat qualifying for the post season playoffs in 2005-06 , their rookie season. During the same season Newcastle won 30 of their 40 regular season league fixtures to clinch the Championship crown - the previous season saw the Eagles win 31 matches but lose out to Chester Jets in the final week, by just two points. The future With 13 elite clubs for the 2007-08 - including expansion franchises Birmingham Panthers , Everton Tigers and London Capital - the BBL is deeper and more competitive than ever. League chairman and Newcastle Managing Director Paul Blake is determined to market the best that British Basketball has to offer at home and abroad and after successfully gaining a place in the ULEB Cup , and expanding membership to a 13-team league 1 , with Brighton Cougars and others set to join in 2008 , the league is defenitely on the up. A new sponsorship deal with television company MKTV promises an injection of £2,500,000 and individual clubs are striking individual tie-ups with local firms keen to jump on the basketball bandwagon. Attendances are soaring 2 and there is a strong emphasis on recruiting and developing homegrown talent with a view to supporting Team GB 's London 2012 medal bid. With British NBA star Luol Deng committing to the team 3 and various other stars eligible to also play for Britain, including Ben Gordon , Pops Mensah-Bonsu , Kelenna Azubuike and Joel Freeland 4 . However in April 2007, MKTV closed down. With British basketball seemingly on the upside at this given time, interest has grown and although not yet a mainstream sport in the country, a group of American investors, including NBA legend A.C. Green , obviously believes in the potential basketball holds in Britain. Simply known as The Basketball Organisation, the group, based in London and New York are in the process of establishing a professional league to rival that of the BBL. Though this has been greeted with some discomfort amongst the basketball community the new professional league, called the British Basketball Association looks set to tip-off in November 2007. TEAMS Current teams Inactive teams
Defunct teams BBL CHAMPIONSHIP playing at Raiders .]] Regular season The regular season, which runs from September to April, operates as a league format, with clubs playing each other on three occasions throughout the season, resulting in a thirty-six game campaign for each team. They will meet each of their counterparts once at home, once away, and once home or away in the thirteen-team league structure. The league is played according to FIBA rules and matches consist of four quarters of 10 minutes each. Two points are awarded for a win, with the game going into Overtime if the score is tied at the final buzzer - unlimited numbers of 5 minute overtime periods are played until one team is ahead when a period ends. In the league season, team schedules are not identical and neither are matchdays, with games scheduled mainly around Arena availability. Because of this teams may find themselves playing a series of four or five home games consecutively followed by a straight set of away games. As the regular season is also particularly short, many games are played over weekends as 'doubleheaders', whereby a team will play games (possible a home and away game) on consecutive days, something that is not commonplace in British sports, although often seen in the National Basketball Association and other American sports. Following the completion of the Championship regular season, the top eight placed teams will advance into the post-season Championship Playoffs, which take place during April, concluding with the Finals Weekend , which is hosted at one of the country's biggest venues. For the 2006-07 Season , the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle played host to the prestigious event. Playoffs The post-season Playoffs sees the top eight teams from the regular season advance into a one-game knockout series. The team finishing in first place will play the lowest seeded eighth team (match 1), as will second place against seventh (match 2), third against sixth (match 3)and finally the fourth and fifth placed teams facing each other in match 4. The top seeded team in each game will have home court advantage, with the four winners then going onto to compete in the semi-finals. Both semi-finals matches are played on the Saturday of the Finals Weekend , usually held during the last week of April at a predesignated 'neutral' venue. The two winners of the semi-finals will then face each other in the Playoff final on the Sunday of Finals Weekend, with the winners being crowned Playoff champions. As well as the league Championship and Playoffs, the BBL also has under its jurisdiction the BBL Cup and the BBL Trophy, which are played alongside the regular season. In the 2005-06 season, Newcastle Eagles became only the third team ever to complete a "clean-sweep" of domestic Honours, when they won the League Championship and Playoffs, the BBL Cup, and the BBL Trophy all in one season. BBL CUP See Also: BBL Cup The BBL Cup is one of two peripheral competitions operated by the BBL during the regular season, the other being the BBL Trophy (Not including the pre-season event, the BBL Cup Winners' Cup ). The tournament emerged from the National Cup and was contested for the first time in 2003-04 , when the Sheffield Sharks were the inaugural winners. Presently it is a pure knockout competition comprising of all ten BBL clubs, with the final hosted by the prestigious National Indoor Arena in Birmingham , usually within the first weeks of January. The current holders are the Guildford Heat . BBL CUP WINNERS' CUP See Also: BBL Cup Winners' Cup The BBL Cup Winners' Cup is a pre-season tournament competed over two legs, one home and one away, between the winners of BBL Cup and BBL Trophy from the previous season. Each leg is staged prior to the beginning of the regular season and is considered the curtain-raiser for the new BBL campaign. The competition was first announced on July 13 , 2007 with the inaugural final taking place between Guildford Heat (BBL Cup winners 2006-07 ) and Plymouth Raiders (BBL Trophy winners 2006-07 ). The first leg will take place in Plymouth on September 9 , 2007, with the second leg played in Guildford the following weekend, on September 15 . BBL TROPHY See Also: BBL Trophy The BBL Trophy , founded along with the league in 1987, begins with a regional group format and comprises the ten BBL clubs plus six invitees from Division 1 of the English Basketball League and the top division of the Scottish Basketball League . The venue for the Final often changes from season to season, with various arenas such as SkyDome Arena in Coventry , Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield and The Brighton Centre hosting the event over the past few years. The 2007 Trophy Final was held at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena on March 4 and despite Newcastle Eagles enjoying home court advantage, the contest was won by underdogs Plymouth Raiders , who ran out 74-65 victors. PLAYERS Foreign imports League rules currently allow for each team to have a maximum of three import players, from outside of the EU , while the rest of the roster must have British Citizenship , either by birth or by naturalisation. The current ruling was integrated at the beginning of the 2006-07 Season , reverting from the previous law which allowed four imports along with naturalised players. Because of this previous rule, it was possible for a team to field an entirely American starting five, which was often the case. With the 2012 Olympics in mind, an attempt to develop home grown talent has taken incredible steps forward in British hoops in development of more British players. Contributing to this cause, the BBL has implemented a new ruling which will be in effect from the start of the 2007-08 Season onwards, whereby only two imported players are permitted in each roster. However, with an expansion of three more franchises for the 2007-08 season, the decision to permit only two non-EU players was revoked because of the lack of available home-grown talent currently available. Notable former players
MEDIA COVERAGE Newspapers Basketball receives little national media coverage in the United Kingdom. Some national newspapers list results and occasionally provide short summaries of the league's news but more extensive coverage remains minimal. There was a small surge in interest during the 2005-06 season when many national newspapers such as '' The Sun '' reported that former NBA player Dennis Rodman had signed for Brighton Bears 5 only weeks after being evicted from Celebrity Big Brother . The press attention quickly faded after 'Rodmania' had died down following his three game appearance for the Southcoast franchise. Coverage in the towns and cities where BBL clubs are based is more extensive. Newspapers such as the Plymouth Evening Herald , Sheffield Star , Glasgow Herald , Daily Record , Leicester Mercury , Newcastle Chronicle and Worcester Standard have dedicated basketball reporters who cover the local team. Television Television coverage of the BBL is minimal, but certainly expanding. In 2006, league officials signed a £2.5 million broadcasting rights agreement with MKTV to provide coverage of 40 live games per season. 6 . The deal was signed prior to MKTV airing, and so unsurprisingly was greeted with a mixed reaction from followers of the league, not helped by MKTV's failure to launch in Autumn 2006 7 . However both parties stuck by the agreement and on March 4 , 2007 , a week after MKTV first aired, the BBL Trophy final between Plymouth Raiders and Newcastle Eagles was broadcast live nationwide on satellite television and worldwide on broadband. Though the BBL Cup final had also been broadcast live over the internet, two months previosuly, this was the first time in five years that the BBL was screened live on television, since the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002. Before then, the league also enjoyed coverage from Channel 4 in the 1980s and Sky Sports in the late 1990s. Radio Radio coverage of the league is a little more sparse but coverage is available via the successful Eagles Web Radio and Heat Web Radio which, run by fans of Newcastle Eagles and Guildford Heat respectively, broadcast live game commentary over the Internet where the said teams are involved in. SEE ALSO
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