CEO Note: NBL27 tip off

Dear 36ers Family

This week our players will take to the court to tip off the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 season after a lot of hard work in the pre-season.

From the conclusion of last season, we have worked diligently both on and off the court this off season to prepare and grow the organisation.  

We’ve been fortunate to have retained the bulk of our playing roster, and welcome Bul Kuol and Deonte Williams to the group, along with the return of both Harvey White and Jacob Rigoni.

Our coaching group is relatively consistent with Jakob Dorricott being elevated into an assistant coach role and Ed Niu joining as a development coach alongside our new head coach Trevor Gleeson, who has come in with a clear vision and put his stamp on our basketball program.

When you hear experienced veterans like Bryce Cotton and John Jenkins talking about training being at an intensity they’ve never experienced, it brings it home just how hard the team has been working to give our club the best chance of success.

While the whole playing group didn’t hit the court, the recent Blitz tournament in Bendigo gave us all an insight into the way the side wants to play and we saw some very encouraging performances.

Off the court we’ve also had a busy off-season. NBL26 saw us hit unseen levels across corporate, community engagement, membership and attendance and we are on track to surpass our growth benchmarks this season. Game access memberships are again sold out with a club record of more than 9,300 ticketed members. To put that into perspective, last season we were around 8,600. While we’ve exhausted our membership offering, you can still join our membership waitlist, otherwise getting a ticket through Ticketek is the only way to get to a game this season. And while there are some tickets remaining to most home games, the number is limited.

After three years as a club partner, we’ve seen Revo Fitness elevate its agreement this season to Major Partner status and you’ll see the Revo branding on the front of our new home jerseys. A number of other new partners have come on board including Budget Car Rentals and Amadio Wines, and we remain grateful to our many other long-term partners who continue to support us as a club and our members.

In the community, our not-for-profit Shooting Hoops Foundation continues to positively influence and inspire young people through programs focusing on five key pillars: Social Inclusion and Culture; Health and Wellbeing; Leadership and Resilience; Development and High Performance Pathways; and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We recently introduced our new Adelaide 36ers Chinese Basketball Academy, an exclusive international education and basketball development program for talented young athletes from China. The club has been developing positive connections in China and we’ll have some exciting announcements to come.

One of the more exciting off-season developments was the opening of our new Adelaide 36ers Store. If you haven’t been to 215 Port Road, Hindmarsh, I’d encourage you to get along and check it out. There is plenty of parking at the rear, and a lot of great deals to be had on all kinds of 36ers merchandise including our new jersey range.

Saturday night at John Cain Arena is the start of something new for us as a club and for the entire NBL with the 9 Network coming on board to broadcast two free-to-air games per week on Saturday nights, including our season opener. All games will also be broadcast on ESPN on Kayo or Disney+.  

After Melbourne, we head to Perth where Bryce Cotton will play his 300th NBL game, before our first home game of the season against Cairns on Sunday, 27 September at 3:30pm. A handful of tickets are still available.

We can’t wait to see the Adelaide Entertainment Centre packed out as we host the Taipans.

Thank you as always for your unwavering support.

‍

Nic Barbato

Adelaide 36ers CEO