{"id":68928,"date":"2025-08-15T00:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T00:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68928\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T00:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T00:28:15","slug":"hong-kong-bulls-race-against-time-to-find-venue-for-chinese-basketball-play-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68928\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Bulls race against time to find venue for Chinese basketball play-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Reigning champions Hong Kong Bulls have been left without a venue for China\u2019s National Basketball League play-offs this month, after the governing body ruled Southorn Stadium in Wan Chai was not up to standard.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Hong Kong outfit are one of eight teams in the Chinese second-tier league this season. They have confirmed receipt of a warning letter from the Chinese Basketball Association, stating there is insufficient space between the stands \u2013 the goalposts \u2013 and the walls.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The NBL\u2019s standards are on par with the requirements of the sport\u2019s world governing body, Fiba, whose Level 1 matches require a minimum of two metres of unobstructed space.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The post-season, which features four teams, will run between August 30 and September 25, with the final a best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Post understands that the Bulls are still actively looking for other venue options in the city to stage their play-off matches. Sources said that Hong Kong Coliseum was already found to be \u201coff limits\u201d and had to be booked a full year in advance.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Southorn Stadium has been deemed not up to standard by the NBL. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2a4ffa22-1e4e-4146-8147-1d815a49d528_7e3676dc.jpg\" title=\"Southorn Stadium has been deemed not up to standard by the NBL. Photo: Handout\"\/>Southorn Stadium has been deemed not up to standard by the NBL. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cKai Tak Arena could be available for some of the best-of-five semi-final series matches, but it is unlikely it could accommodate all three home matches,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning champions Hong Kong Bulls have been left without a venue for China\u2019s National Basketball League play-offs this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,21419,54587,512,21421,40755,54588,54594,10340,54592,54597,54596,31158,54590,54593,590,15057,54595,54591,54589,85,54598],"class_list":["post-68928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-changsha","tag-changsha-yongsheng","tag-china","tag-chinese-basketball-association","tag-fiba","tag-guangxi","tag-guangxi-weizhuang","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-bulls","tag-hong-kong-coliseum","tag-hubei-wenlv","tag-jiangsu","tag-kai-tak-arena","tag-kai-tak-sports-park","tag-nba","tag-nbl","tag-shenzhen-gymnasium","tag-shijiazhuang-xianglan","tag-southorn-stadium","tag-sports","tag-wan-chai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68928","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=68928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}