The big, bold promise of the Tauihi Women’s Basketball League – and the man behind it

Sitting in the sparsely populated stands of the Pullman Arena in Papakura, South Auckland, during the 2020 Women’s National Basketball League final, Justin Nelson felt a sense of disappointment wracking through him.

The defending champions, the Auckland Dream, faced the Canterbury Wildcats in the final series, the culmination of a shortened season lasting just 18 days.

The Australian sports executive, who arrived in New Zealand 18 months ago to take up the position of general manager of the men’s national basketball league, was frustrated by the low turnout and bleak atmosphere.

To Nelson, the atmosphere at the stadium, a public sports venue, felt more like a weekday club game rather than a showcase event for women’s basketball in this country.

By half-time he had seen enough. Nelson called then New Zealand Basketball chief executive Ian Potter to report his findings.

“I said, ‘Look, this isn’t good enough, it’s not good enough for women’s basketball, it’s not good enough for sports,’” Nelson recalled.

“I thought we could and should do better, and I told him I had an idea that would change the landscape of women’s basketball in this country forever.”

As a result of this conversation, the seeds of the Tauihi Basketball League were sown.

In October, the third season of the revamped women’s competition began amid positive headlines.

Stories of the league doubling player pay, making women more rewarded than their male counterparts, recruiting top international talent including WNBA star Jordan Horston, North Kahu’s new all-female ownership group and sold-out seasons – all of which position Tauihi as New Zealand’s most innovative and progressive sports league.

In other big news this week, it was announced that international team Indian Panthers will join the league from 2025 as part of the tournament’s bold plans to expand overseas.

The Indian team, which will also field a team in the men’s National Basketball League, will be based in South Auckland.

His home court will be Pullman Arena, the same place where Nelson had his epiphany four years ago.

Baker from the “destroyed house”

According to Nelson, the key to the Towihi League’s rapid growth is simple: an unapologetic focus on entertainment.

“I think what we saw in Tauihi was that it was built on a foundation of innovation. This is a young competition, it does not position itself in terms of history or how things have always been done. It doesn’t have gatekeepers or people sitting at the table trying to protect positions around this sport that existed 30, 40, 50 years ago, and it’s allowed us to speed up the process, allowed us to embrace what the fans want, and in particular for this games like basketball that young fans want,” says Nelson, who is now an executive at Sky New Zealand.

“And that’s what allowed him to move so quickly. It’s a very, very smart competition with people who embrace the innovations that I bring to the table.”

The above is typical of most of Nelson’s answers: a bombardment of sports management buzzwords, delivered with trademark Australian confidence. By the end of the hour-long coffee conversation, the word “innovation” had lost all meaning.

For the fast-talking Melbourne resident, every conversation is a sales pitch; the opportunity to convert a new student to your “income, fans, brand” doctrine.

Nelson’s path to sports management took a circuitous route.

The product of a “broken home”, Nelson dropped out of school and left home at 14 to train as a baker. “I don’t think it’s possible now to drop out of school in ninth grade and go crazy at 14. But that’s exactly what I did. In the 80s, damn it, it was a different world then,” he says. by way of explanation.

At the age of 17 he became a father. By the age of 37, he became a grandfather (he now has seven grandchildren).

A fun fact he likes to tell people as an icebreaker at corporate meetings is that if his eldest grandson had a child at the age Nelson became a father, that would make him a great-grandfather by age 54.

“They’re always hard to beat,” he laughs.

The one thing he doesn’t talk about very often is that his eldest child, Ace, is trans.

“Being able to have a transgender child, I think it opened up a whole new world for me. It has been a fantastic journey as a parent to learn, listen and understand.”

But back then, when he was a teenage father and still overcoming his rambling upbringing, Nelson didn’t really see the world as one of limitless possibility.

“When I was 17 years old, I never imagined I would end up where I am now,” he says.

It was a friend who helped him get into the sport. One Saturday he was asked to join a friend in the radio commentary booth as a “colored man” at a local AFL game. He soon became a regular contributor at the age of 20, allowing him to hang up his apron and begin a career in sports media.

He commentated on over 600 AFL games and over 300 National Football League games before moving into sports administration, first with the V8 Supercars and then as general manager of the women’s basketball league franchise Melbourne Boomers.

“Another thing that is very, very important in terms of how I ended up here is that for 10 years I went to the United States three times a year. It was about learning from the best. I visited some of the biggest teams. there in the biggest leagues because Americans are the best when it comes to revenue, fans and brand, and I’ve stuck with that model ever since.”

Blue sky thinks

When Nelson landed in New Zealand in 2019 to take up the position of general manager of the men’s NBL, he was planning for just a three-year stint. He decided he would soak up the experience and use it as a launching pad for bigger roles in Australia.

His time was coming to an end just as Tawhiha’s vision was being realized through a deal struck between Sky and BBNZ in which the broadcaster holds the commercial and management rights to both the men’s and women’s league.

“It’s completely unique, but I think from what everyone can see so far, it’s successfully different,” Nelson says.

“This is a concerted focus on creating entertainment products through change and innovation that attract new, diverse and larger commercial investment.

“There is a very clear vision of where we want to use these products, and fortunately commercial partners want to come on board.”

Having helped set up the partnership between Sky and BBNZ, Nelson then joined the broadcaster himself. His job? Head of Advertising and Fandom with a curious title.

It’s a broad-sounding role, but it has some very specific goals, including how to get young audiences involved in the sport.

Nelson sees Tawihi as an example of how sport can expand its audience if leaders are willing to try new things and focus on the needs of young fans.

To emphasize his point, he cites some statistics.

“Attendance this season is up 268 percent over last year, so we’ve had a huge jump in attendance. And we’ve seen that the league has actually achieved its TV viewership goal, so that continues to be a real achievement.” strength,” he says.

“A lot of it has to do with the class of players. You generate more commercial income, which means you can attract the best international talent. We have 25 internationals this season along with 35 of our own contracted Kiwis. It’s just the level of everything you handle. There won’t be a domestic competition in New Zealand that has this depth of international talent.”

But questions are being raised in the wider sporting community about whether Sky’s bold marketing claims are actually true.

Sky did not disclose the league’s original attendance and viewership figures (and typically does not do so for other sports), so RNZ was unable to independently compare them with Nelson’s statistics.

However, North Kahu’s first win over South Khoikhoi last month was attended by about 1,200 fans, a sellout for the franchise.

In fact, the Auckland team sold out all of their home games – but that was thanks to a partnership with BNZ, who bought up all general admission tickets and offered them to fans for free.

There is also some cynicism when it comes to the league’s headline-grabbing move to double player payouts, apparently putting their remuneration higher than men’s and “on par” with the money on offer in other women’s professional leagues such as netball, rugby and cricket.

If you take a closer look at this statement, detractors say, this is not entirely true. While women are paid more on a pro-rata basis, the NBL regular season lasts 16 weeks and Tawihi lasts just 10 weeks, meaning men still take home higher salaries.

Nelson won’t reveal salary caps for each league, but says the top players in the Towhihi league earn about $3000 a week.

Much of the discontent appears to stem from discomfort with Sky’s cozy relationship with basketball while the company plays hardball with other codes. The lack of genuine competition in the sports broadcast market since Spark’s departure has left sports with little bargaining power when it comes to negotiating broadcast deals.

“Why,” asked one sports executive, “does this league get all this investment and exhaustive coverage while other sports have to beg or even pay to get coverage?”

“I think it raises some really interesting questions about what subscription television models are required to provide to subscribers.”

Nelson counters that his role at Sky is to drive commercial activity and attract fans across all sports in the company’s stable.

“I am an open book and am very excited to share different perspectives and innovative ideas with other sports. Some sports figure this out very quickly, basketball is the best example,” he says.

He cites the league’s decision to move Tauihi’s season from the traditional mid-year to the less congested October to December window as an example.

Nelson says the move means Towihi will no longer be battling some of the larger codes such as Super Rugby and the NRL to gain attention.

“It’s about identifying that in the last quarter of the year there is an opportunity to grow the fan base, increase the viewership, increase the commercial assets and in this case Tawihi was bold and courageous enough to take that step. Perhaps some other sports have already done this. missed an opportunity there and (Tauhihi) stepped into it.”

Has this window been offered to other sports?

“I can’t answer that question,” Nelson says.

“But what I can say is that basketball, true to its nature as an innovator and a leader in this country at the moment, saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

“I think that’s my number one message to other sports. You can’t sit idly by, you need to act.”