Time for BBL Cup and Trophy draws to be screened live?

Monday sees the semi-final draw made for this season’s BBL Trophy, however, it again brings about a debate surrounding the two competitions outside of the Championship and playoffs.

The draws for the Cup and Trophy are never broadcast live, and only announced via media sites. There have been calls for this to change as there are plenty of sceptics and conspiracy theorists who in the past have pointed a finger at how draws have come to be.

This particular group could be out in force again come Monday morning dependant upon the Trophy draw.

The reason being is the potential for a well suited draw that could be perceived as playing in to the hands of venue availability, rather than a random selection of the four teams in at the semi-final stage.

Before we go any further, not for one single moment would one believe that the draws are made for convenience sake or anything of a related nature – we’ll leave that conjecture completely for the non-believers out there – but we’re looking at this from the basis of the following facts.

As in recent years, the semi-finals are a two-legged affair, home and away.

Sheffield Sharks and Cheshire Phoenix are already in the hat, who regularly play their home fixtures on Fridays and Sundays respectively (Sharks have played just one home game on a night other than a Friday).

This weekend has seen already Worcester Wolves progress (whose home games take place on a Friday – the same would have been true had Newcastle Eagles been victorious), whilst Manchester Giants will battle it out against Glasgow Rocks tomorrow (both sides’ home games take place on Sundays – although Glasgow have played on a Friday last month vs. Knights and will face Giants at home also this Friday in the Championship ahead of Sunday’s clash in Manchester).

It would therefore make matters a lot easier for the Friday nighters to face the Sunday boys across two legs, so as not to cause major disruption to the overall season schedule and not sides playing each other on their preferred home game night because of availability issues.

However, with having the BBL TV platform and also a YouTube channel, all of that mythology regarding a draw could be put to an end in one fell swoop by setting up a live broadcast for 10-15 minutes.

The set-up would be relatively cheap, it adds to the excitement, and could even be a great opportunity for sponsorships of said competitions.

Football draws, in particular, attract big audiences when screened, to see who faces who followed by the initial and the resulting analysis picking apart the ties.

The Euro 2016 qualifying draw takes place tomorrow morning – Sky Sports News will probably dedicate more than an hour to the event, watching it unfold and breaking down every team’s chances.

It could also be argued that audiences for it are larger than the attendance at actual games (the League Cup and FA Cup are huge examples at earlier rounds of the competition) – but regardless, draws are an integral part of competitions, more so now in this modern era.

That all said as to whether or not to make a live draw, the byproduct of venue availability with teams having ownership of their own venues, still needs to be addressed.

However, that’s another discussion for a completely different day…one step at a time perhaps? Slowly slowly catchy basketball.