Birmingham Knights join British league
The British Basketball League has today announced a new franchise in the form of the Birmingham Knights. The team will represent England’s and the United Kingdom’s second biggest city in the BBL starting in the 2013-2014 season.
The new franchise will be the first time that Birmingham has had a team in the British Basketball league since 2008. The Birmingham Bullets folded in 2006 and went into administration leaving the Midlands city with no representative in the league. The newly formed Birmingham Knights address that and are promising to bring exciting Basketball to Saturday nights in the city.
In 2007 the Birmingham Panthers formed and competed in the British Basketball League for one season. The campaign was one of the most unorganized in memory and the franchise folded after a disastrous season where the team won just six games. The Birmingham Knights will obviously be hoping to fare better than the Panthers both on and off the court and the franchise is already promising to involve the community in its growth.
Indeed, even the name, the Birmingham Knights has come around due to fan participation, as team director Jo Aldridge explains.
“We decided to run a competition to let the fans name the team and this was a standout winner with the panel. We plan to take the team live in September and are very excited about working with a number of partners to help to bring the brand to life.”
On course to do things properly this time, the Birmingham Knights has set up some key partnerships including junior teams and coaching systems. Head coach Paul Douglas has lauded the new partnerships, especially the development of youth.
“Ensuring an effective player pathway in the city is really important to us. We want to create a team that local young players aspire to and a simple route by which they work their way up to playing professionally. We’re confident that these important relationships will help us to achieve this and we’re pleased to see the sport of basketball uniting in the city.”