The UK Basketball Hub

For the majority of fans of sport there is nothing better than watching your team compete at the highest level, going to the ground, arena, hearing the crowd roar as they see that buzzer beating shot, that last minute goal, the home run that wins the game. For one team in British basketball they are looking at a season having gone backwards with little response. It has been 57 days (at time of writing) since the Mersey Tigers departed the British Basketball League with no proper statement from the division. There were however 11 words which will haunt the Mersey Tigers fans, club and players alike which ended their spell in British basketball's top tier: "Follow a Review, the Mersey Tigers have had their franchise withdrawn." Fans of the team have been faced with the now very real prospect of not having a local team in the BBL for the 2013/14 season. The team failed to win a single game in the 2012/13 BBL season but no official reason has yet been given. ...

One of the most exciting things about English football is the fact that teams can gain promotion and teams can be relegated. Whilst most fans of teams struggling to stay in the specific division wish relegation didn't exist, it is only fair that a team which finishes top of a lower division can swop places with the team who finish bottom of the higher division. The BBL currently doesn't have a relegation system in place and with the BBA offering an alternative to the BBL in the coming years, the viewership of the BBL could decline. While teams such as Plymouth Raiders have been promoted to the BBL from the lower divisions (EBL et al), surely teams would rather have played their way into the top tier rather than been voted in by other people. The 2012-13 BBL season has seen the Mersey Tigers lose EVERY SINGLE game in the BBL and yet they will probably be back in the division next season. 0 points from 24 games is simply not good enough if the BBL wants a competitive leagu...