United divides basketball family

Melbourne United coach Chris Anstey (centre) with current and former players Mark Worthington and Darryl McDonald at the announcement of the club's new name. Source: Nathan Dyer / News Limited

MELBOURNE'S only elite men's basketball team walked into a fan-based firestorm when it dumped its identity yesterday.

By rebranding the Melbourne Tigers as Melbourne United, chairman Larry Kestleman and partner Michael Slepoy tampered with some crucial ingredients of the passion that underpins any successful sports outfit _ tradition, history, image and perhaps most importantly the sense of belonging to something of their own that most fans crave.

You do that at your extreme peril.

So the overwhelmingly hostile response on radio and social media was predictable _ except, perhaps, for one thing. Who knew there were enough committed hoops fans out there to make so much noise?

When Kestleman and Slepoy took over the NBL licence they say they inherited a membership of just 400, the club was potentially on death row and the game in general was in a "shameful" state.

That all rings true enough. Basketball's struggle for relevance since its halcyon days in the eighties has been well documented, and although the Tigers have survived many ups and downs the reality is every other Melbourne club that has graced the national league has crashed and burned.

If the Tigers were to follow, leaving many thousands of kids with no stairway to the stars, that would be a dreadful indictment on the proudest sporting city.

So while the demise of the Tigers brand is regrettable, especially to the iconic Gaze family and the many superb players who have worn the red and gold singlets over several decades, the current owners are entitled to some applause for their determination to find a way to keep the flame burning rather than walking away and leaving no club at all.

Essentially, that means creating a "one big happy family" concept that will appeal to the fans of all the clubs that have gone before, but who cannot bring themselves to commit to the Tigers _ a bit like asking old Fitzroy footy fans to start barracking for Collingwood.

They seem to have already got a few things wrong.

Melbourne United sounds like a soccer team, and the new colours, the traditional Victorian dark blue, will even make them look like Melbourne Victory.

Although they claim to have done their research and been convinced there is plenty of support for the one-in, all-in, Melbourne against the rest concept, that had a distinct whiff of whistling in the dark.

Certainly, it wasn't hard to find Tigers fans disgruntled because they believed this had been sprung on them without warning or consultation.

Kestleman could not dispute that. Of the negative feedback, he said: "It's not unexpected when it's a surprise to people. Until they understand the full vision, we don't expect them to believe us at first glance. We have to earn their support."

He's not wrong there. As always, the fans will vote with their feet.

Much is at stake but if nothing else the game emerged yesterday from its mainstream media hibernation and some emotion and a pulse have been detected. That's a welcome start.

ron.reed@news.com.au

Twitter: @Reedrw

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