{"id":841040,"date":"2026-08-03T03:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T03:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841040\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T03:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T03:22:14","slug":"nbl-news-2026-canberra-lock-in-partnership-to-host-ignite-cup-new-final-four-format-explained-500000-prize-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841040\/","title":{"rendered":"NBL news 2026 | Canberra lock in partnership to host Ignite Cup, new Final Four format explained, $500,000 prize pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four NBL<\/a> teams are set to make the trip to Canberra for the Ignite Cup Finals this season, as the league unveiled a partnership deal with the ACT Government. <\/p>\n

A record prize pool of $550,000 is up for grabs for the four teams that advance from the Ignite Cup Finals – an in-season 20-game tournament held on Wednesday nights that counts towards the regular season ladder – to the Final Four format. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Breakers celebrate winning the inaugural Ignite Cup final\u00a0Albert Perez<\/p>\n

The final four teams will battle it out over two days to win a large share of the prize pool, with games scheduled to be played at the AIS Arena. <\/p>\n

It marks the beginning of a growth period for the tournament, which was only introduced last year and won by the New Zealand Breakers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The league has also looked to a new venue to host its annual Andrew Gaze<\/a> MVP Awards\u00a0night, moving away from Melbourne, the event\u2019s home for the past decade, to the Great Hall in Parliament House.<\/p>\n

The Gazies, as the awards night is commonly known, will be held the week before the Final Four format takes place. <\/p>\n

NBL group chief executive David Stevenson credited the fans in the nation\u2019s capital who sold out the league\u2019s five-day pre-season competition last year in helping pave the way for the new partnership to come into effect. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ignite Cup has quickly become one of the standout innovations in the NBL, bringing knockout intensity into the NBL regular season and creating must-watch basketball every Wednesday,\u201d NBL group chief executive David Stevenson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroducing a final four series and bringing it to Canberra is a fantastic evolution of the competition. Fans will experience a festival of basketball, with the best teams battling it out over one incredible weekend for the biggest prize pool in NBL history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with hosting the Ignite Cup, the ACT government has committed to a $31.1 million deal to progress plans for a national convention and entertainment centre in Canberra. <\/p>\n

The partnership also opens the door for a Canberra-based team to be established.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanberrans love their basketball and it\u2019s great to see the NBL backing that in,\u201d the state\u2019s minister for sport and recreation Chris Steel added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing the Ignite Cup Finals to Canberra will further enhance our city\u2019s reputation as the destination for major sporting events.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents like this inspire the next generation to get involved in the sport and in February, Canberrans can watch their sporting heroes compete in their own city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBL season will start on September 19. The official pre-season schedule gets underway this Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four NBL teams are set to make the trip to Canberra for the Ignite Cup Finals this season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-841040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841040","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=841040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}