Launceston Casino City | |
---|---|
Nickname | Tigers |
Leagues | NBL |
Founded | 1980 |
Dissolved | 1982 |
History | Launceston Casino City 1980–1982 |
Arena | Dowling Street Stadium |
Location | Launceston, Tasmania |
Team colors | Yellow, red, dark green |
Championships | 1 (1981) |
Launceston Casino City is a defunct Australian professional basketball team that competed in the National Basketball League (NBL). Formed in 1980, the club was based in Launceston, Tasmania. It lasted only three seasons before folding, but won the NBL championship in 1981.
Launceston Casino City entered the NBL in the 1980 season with a grant from the Tasmanian Government and the support of the developers of the state's second casino. [1] Their inaugural team included Olympian Ian Davies [1] and club president was Gary Carr. [2] In its first season, the team finished ninth in the 12-team competition with nine wins.
In the 1981 NBL season, the team improved to 14 wins and finished fourth in the regular season. In the first semi-final, which consisted of a single sudden-death game, Launceston defeated the Brisbane Bullets 71–69. They then met the Nunawading Spectres in the grand final at Apollo Stadium in Adelaide, where they won 75–54 to claim the NBL championship. [3]
In its third and final NBL season in 1982, the team won five games and finished 12th. The team was coached by Curtis Coleman. During the season, the club directors decided on a majority vote to replace Coleman with Max Pike, who helped Jim Ericksen coach the team previously. The players however would not agree to the change and would only play under Coleman. [4]
In 2009, a public plea was made by the Northern Tasmanian Basketball Association to help locate Launceston Casino City's lost premiership silverware including the championship cup and banner. [5] The banner was found in a Hobart shed in 2019 [6] and was later unveiled at the Silverdome by the Tasmania JackJumpers in 2023. [7]
NBL Championships: | 1 (1981) |
NBL Finals Appearances: | 1 (1981) |
NBL Grand Final Appearances: | 1 (1981) |
NBL Most Valuable Players: | None |
NBL Grand Final MVPs: | None |
All-NBL First Team: | Ian Davies (1980) |
NBL Coach of the Year: | None |
NBL Rookie of the Year: | None |
NBL Most Improved Player: | None |
NBL Best Defensive Player: | None |
NBL Best Sixth Man: | None |
NBL champions | League champions | Runners-up | Finals berth |
Season | Tier | League | Regular season | Post-season | Head coach | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finish | Played | Wins | Losses | Win % | ||||||
Launceston Casino City | ||||||||||
1980 | 1 | NBL | 8th | 22 | 9 | 13 | .409 | Did not qualify | Rex Johnstone Phil Thomas | |
1981 | 1 | NBL | 2nd | 22 | 14 | 8 | .636 | Won semifinal (Brisbane) 71–69 Won NBL final (Nunawading) 75–54 | Jim Ericksen | |
1982 | 1 | NBL | 13th | 26 | 5 | 21 | .192 | Did not qualify | Curtis Coleman | |
Regular season record | 70 | 28 | 42 | .400 | 0 regular season champions | |||||
Finals record | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1 NBL championships |
As of the end of the 1982 season
The Silverdome, Australia's first indoor velodrome, is an indoor sporting and entertainment venue located in Launceston, Tasmania built in 1984. The capacity of the venue is 5,000.
The Derwent Entertainment Centre (DEC), known commercially as MyState Bank Arena since 2021, is Tasmania's largest indoor arena, serving as Hobart's primary location for large indoor sporting events, functions and live entertainment. Commissioned by the Tasmanian Government and the Glenorchy City Council, the DEC served as the home arena for the Hobart Devils in the NBL from 1989 until 1996, when the team's licence was revoked. Subsequently, between 1997 and 1998, ownership was transferred entirely to the City of Glenorchy, where it became a financial burden and incurred significant maintenance expenses for Glenorchy taxpayers, while seeing limited use. As the largest enclosed multipurpose venue in Tasmania, the DEC has hosted many Australian and international musical acts, including Kylie Minogue, Bob Dylan, Carole King, The Corrs, James Brown, Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Blondie and The Beach Boys.
West Adelaide Bearcats is a NBL1 Central club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club fields both a men's and women's team. The club is a division of the overarching West Adelaide Basketball Club (WABC), the major administrative basketball organisation in Adelaide's western suburbs. The Bearcats play their home games at Port Adelaide Recreation Centre.
Brian Warwick Goorjian is an American-Australian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League (NBL). He is also coach of the Australia men's national basketball team. He is the most successful coach in Australian basketball and his career has been called the most successful in NBL history by Basketball Australia. In an NBL coaching career spanning over 20 years, Goorjian has won six championships: two with the South East Melbourne Magic, three with the Sydney Kings and one with the South Dragons. He previously served as the head coach of the Australia men's team from 2001 to 2008 before returning as coach in 2020.
Anthony Dean Ronaldson is an Australian former professional basketball player who played the majority of his career in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). Known as "The Bear", Ronaldson played for the Eastside Spectres, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Perth Wildcats and New Zealand Breakers in the NBL. He played in seven NBL Grand Final series and won two championships, both with the Magic in 1992 and 1996. He also represented Australia at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and again in 2004 in Athens
The 1980 NBL season was the 2nd season of the National Basketball League (NBL).
Geelong United Supercats is a NBL1 South club based in Geelong, Victoria. Known as the Geelong Supercats for the overwhelming majority for its existence, the club fields teams in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. Previously managed by Basketball Geelong, the club is affiliated with Geelong United Basketball and plays its home games at the Geelong Arena.
Alan Black is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach. He is most notable for coaching both the Perth Wildcats and the Cairns Taipans in the Australian National Basketball League.
Sport in Tasmania is participation in and attendance at organised sports events in the state of Tasmania in Australia.
Michael Wayne Parsons was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL) and North Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).
Brendan Joyce is an Australian professional basketball coach. He has coached all levels of the game. He has been to 3 Olympic Games with both the Australian men's Boomers team 2004, 2008 and women's Opals team 2016 and 2 world championships for Boomers men 2006 in Japan and Opals women in 2014. Joyce was also assistant coach of the Boomers at the Melbourne Commonwealth games Gold medal team. Brendan is a former professional basketball player and head coach of the National Basketball League (Australasia) the Wollongong Hawks and the Gold Coast Blaze. In October 2021, Joyce took up the Head Coach role at new T1 League franchise Kaohsiung Aquas in Kaohsiung City in Taiwan.
Christopher James Goulding is an Australian professional basketball player for Melbourne United of the National Basketball League (NBL). He made his debut in the NBL in 2006 as a development player with the Brisbane Bullets, going on to play for the Perth Wildcats and Gold Coast Blaze, before settling in Melbourne. In the NBL, Goulding is a three-time championship winner and a two-time All-NBL First Team honouree. He also won the league's scoring title in 2014 and claimed Grand Final MVP honours in 2018. Goulding is a regular with the Australian Boomers, but he also holds a British passport thanks to his father, which allowed him to play as a local in Spain and Italy between 2014 and 2016.
Lucas Walker is an Australian basketball player for the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL1 East. He played 10 seasons in the National Basketball League (NBL) between 2010 and 2020. He played college basketball for Montana State University Billings and Saint Mary's College of California before joining the Melbourne Tigers in 2010. After five seasons with Melbourne, he had stints with the Adelaide 36ers, Perth Wildcats, Cairns Taipans and Sydney Kings. He won an NBL championship with the Wildcats in 2017.
The 1981 NBL Finals was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball League's 1981 season, which began in February. The finals began on 27 June. The tournament concluded with the Launceston Casino City defeating the Nunawading Spectres in the NBL Grand Final on 28 June.
Nunawading Spectres is a NBL1 South club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Melbourne East Basketball Association (MEBA), the major administrative basketball organisation in the City of Whitehorse. The Spectres play their home games at Nunawading Basketball Centre.
Hobart Chargers is a NBL1 South club based in Hobart, Tasmania. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The Chargers play their home games at the Hobart Netball and Sports Centre and Pembroke Park's South East Stadium.
The Auckland Tuatara are a New Zealand basketball team based in Auckland. The Tuatara compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Eventfinda Stadium. Founded in Tasmania in 2019 as the Southern Huskies, the team relocated to Auckland in 2020 and for two years were known as the Auckland Huskies. In December 2021, the team was purchased by the owners of the Auckland Tuatara baseball team.
Mike Kelly is an American-Australian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the South East Melbourne Phoenix of the National Basketball League (NBL). He spent the majority of his playing career in the NBL, where he won a championship with the South East Melbourne Magic in 1996 and was a two-time Best Defensive Player selection.
The Tasmania JackJumpers are an Australian professional basketball team based in Hobart, Tasmania, who entered the National Basketball League (NBL) in the 2021–22 season, and play their home games at MyState Bank Arena and the Silverdome. The team is named after the jack jumper ant, a species of venomous ant predominantly found in the island state. The JackJumpers won their maiden NBL championship in 2024.
Ian Stacker is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach. Listed by the NBL in 1983 as 181 cm and a guard, he had an eight-year playing career before becoming a successful coach in the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the NBL Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2003 with the Townsville Crocodiles.