{"id":185380,"date":"2025-10-02T15:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185380\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:55:08","slug":"new-orleans-australian-officials-hoping-pelicans-games-entices-more-nba-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185380\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Australian officials hoping Pelicans\u2019 games entices more NBA teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pelicans are being \u201cextended every possible luxury in the hope\u201d that the team\u202fwill \u201cspread the word that Australia is a fitting destination for future NBA games, possibly with clubs featuring Australian stars,\u201d according to Roy Ward of the Melbourne AGE. The NBL is hosting the first-ever NBA games in Australia this week<\/a>, with the Pelicans facing Melbourne United on Friday and South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday. Officials from the NBL, Visit Victoria, the state government, Melbourne Park, the Pelicans and the NBA have been \u201cworking together for 18 months to bring the tour to life.\u201d NBL Chief Event and Project Officer Alex Hamilton has \u201cused her experience with tennis\u2019 Australian Open in shaping the offerings to the visiting Pelicans.\u201d Pelicans EVP\/Basketball Operations Joe Dumars \u201cpraised the care shown to his side.\u201d He said, \u201cAustralia has done an excellent job of putting this on for us.\u201d NBL owner Larry Kestelman \u201cadmits Australia can\u2019t afford the price tag to bring two NBA teams out, so he set his sights on one team — and it has worked.\u201d He said it is \u201cpublic knowledge\u201d that places like Abu Dhabi and others pay $50M for the NBA to \u201cshow up with two teams.\u201d Kestelman: \u201cIt\u2019s very commercial and Australia is already such a mature market.\u201d However, Kestelman is \u201chopeful of luring more NBA teams to Australia\u201d (Melbourne AGE, 10\/2<\/a>). <\/p>\n

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Pelicans coach Willie Green said the team\u2019s trip to Australia \u201cgoes to show you the reach of the NBA and how global the game has become.\u201d The AP\u2019s Tim Reynolds noted the Pelicans arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday. Green said that there is a \u201chistorical aspect, in being the first NBA team to go to Australia,\u201d and there is also a \u201cslew of other perks that can bring a team together on such a trip.\u201d This is the first time a franchise has \u201ctraveled there together.\u201d Basketball HOFers Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett \u201cplanned to appear at the games.\u201d There is an \u201copen practice, a fan night, a Junior NBA clinic for 50 Australian kids\u201d and more activities are planned, with the Pelicans \u201cexpected back in New Orleans late Sunday night\u201d (AP, 9\/30<\/a>).<\/p>\n

DOWN UNDER: In Melbourne, Pierik & Ward wrote Kestelman \u201crevelled in bringing an NBA team\u201d to Australia for the first time, with the two games selling out \u201cwithin hours.\u201d Victoria\u2019s sports, tourism and major events minister Steve Dimopoulos \u201cdefended the state\u2019s spending on major events\u201d after bringing the NHL to Melbourne last year, the NBA this year, and the NFL in 2026. Dimopoulos said that the state\u2019s \u201creturn from major events was growing, but he wouldn\u2019t reveal what was spent on individual events as it would give opposing countries the upper hand in bidding for future events.\u201d Dimopoulos was told Abu Dhabi had \u201creportedly spent\u201d $50M on \u201cbringing two NBA teams to their shores.\u201d Asked if Victoria had \u201cspent over or under\u201d $25M for the Pelicans, the minister \u201chinted it was under that amount\u201d (Melbourne AGE, 10\/1<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pelicans are being \u201cextended every possible luxury in the hope\u201d that the team\u202fwill \u201cspread the word that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-185380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}