NBL Club Bosses See Brighter Future After Larry Kestelman Puts $4.5M Into League

Key National Basketball League figures believe that Melbourne businessman Larry Kestelman's move to take a controlling stake in the league "will give it a chance to become a successful product," according to Roy Ward of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Kestelman has put A$6M ($4.5M) into the NBL "to boost the league's marketing and staffing, while also sharing his own LK Group support services with the league." He will become the league's exec director and "will relinquish his role as Melbourne United chairman, but will remain as club owner." Kestelman's plan "includes securing a new broadcast deal and NBL naming rights sponsorship, finding a new chief executive and making further moves into Asian basketball, to allow clubs to boost their coffers by playing in Asia during the NBL off-season." NBL owners "are believed to have agreed to the deal with Kestelman but have yet to formally sign it off, with that step expected to follow soon" (SMH, 5/28).