Behind the Rise of the Phoenix

South East Melbourne is a club on the rise.

The Phoenix have made the post-season in two of their four NBL campaigns to date, and while they’re looming as almost certainties for top six – if not potentially top two finishers in NBL24, that rapid rise isn’t just happening on the court.

It’s happening throughout the whole organisation.

The Phoenix are currently preparing to take on crosstown rivals Melbourne on Thursday night to open Round 11, after which they will play their annual regional game at the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium.

At the time of writing there are only general admission tickets left for Thursday’s Throwdown, and tickets for the Gippsland game are selling fast – but what’s behind the sudden astronomical increase in interest in a club that has been fighting for a foothold in an already saturated Melbourne summer sporting market?

“I think it’s a lot of things, I think it’s a steady build over time,” South East Melbourne CEO Tommy Greer told NBL Media. “We had our inaugural season and then we were shut down for two seasons, where we couldn’t do anything to build our fanbase or connect with our audience or our community.

“This is really our second year coming out of the back of Covid, so being able to stack two years together, I think, is something that’s been really important for those attendance numbers.

“The work we do in the community is no small feat and we do the best job of that in the NBL. We really do connect with our fanbase, we really do connect and engage with our community in a meaningful way and that’s resulting in great gameday attendance.

“For us it’s about the importance we place on those engagements. It’s not just rock up and babysit, it’s not just rock up and roll some basketballs out. There’s some meaning and some thought behind each of those engagements with the community. We’re really attempting to – and this is part of our mission statement – embed ourselves in the community.

“We want to be a part of it, we don’t just want to be this shiny thing on top who you pay money to come and watch. We want to be a part of that community and environment and that’s what we’re trying to achieve in the South East.”

Having two of the best players in the NBL in Mitch Creek and Alan Williams certainly helps attract the basketball tragic or the neutral fan to John Cain Arena, but there’s a distinct party atmosphere at John Cain Arena whenever the Phoenix come to town – and that atmosphere has been carefully cultivated to be unique to the NBL.

One of the first things you hear at a Phoenix game – whether you’re watching the broadcast or you’re parked in one of over 10,000 seats at John Cain Arena – is the brass band that play their hearts out each and every home game.

It’s a consistent element to the Phoenix gameday experience that is entirely unique to a South East Melbourne game.

Other sports have active fan zones, cheering and chanting, and music played around the stadium that can create its own vibe, but the band at South East Melbourne games is nothing short of an added element of fun.

“There’s a bit of bias involved here – I think our gameday product is the best in the NBL,” Greer continued.

“It’s different to anything else you can experience in the NBL. It’s got an incredible college vibe, we’ve got incredibly passionate fans, and I think it just really resonates with families.

“We really wanted to create a point of different from the mob across the street. We want to be fun and we want to be family, and there’s nothing that’s more family and more engaging than a live band.

“It’s impossible not to tap your feet, clap your hands, or sing along when you’ve got a live band going.

“In the last Throwdown they were playing the theme to ‘Bluey’ which is something our fans seemed to really get around.

“It’s something that as the crowds have got bigger and bigger, it’s become an even more important piece of our gameday production as more people get behind it and involved with it.”

Aside from the bulk of Phoenix home games that are played at John Cain Arena, the Phoenix have a few different homes away from home.

Each season they play three regular season games at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South, approximately 30km from JCA, and they travel regionally for one game each season.

One of the best games of the NBL23 season was played when Sydney travelled to take on the Phoenix in Traralgon. Mitch Creek and Derrick Walton Jr went shot for shot in a double-overtime thriller.

In the end the Phoenix prevailed by a solitary point. Creek finished the game having played over 47 minutes and with 46 points and 10 rebounds. Walton Jr ended the game with 45.

Aside from the genuine spectacle that is shown on court in each of these regional fixtures, Greer believes the continued engagement with the club’s regional community will only further help drive the club forward.

“In terms of the regional games, they’re incredibly important. When we started the club we didn’t just want to be a team for the big city, we wanted to be a team for the city, but also the inner suburbs, outer suburbs and regionally,” Greer said.

“In order to do that you have to do it – you can’t just talk it. That’s why we still play our three games at the State Basketball Centre and that’s why we take a game out regionally every year, because we know it’s not just about talking it, it’s about actually doing it and showing people that you mean what you say.”

South East Melbourne as a club has shown its willingness to live by its values over this past fortnight with the decision to move on from import guard Will Cummings.

The club initially released a three-line statement that was very minimal in detail, but that it had parted ways with the former German and French league MVP “effective immediately”.

Head coach Mike Kelly then expanded on those comments following the Round 10 win over Sydney.

“Whether he knew it or not, when he didn’t buy in and do the things we said we were doing as a group, he was saying ‘I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to be a part of this’,” Kelly said.

“Even though we made the decision as a club and I made the decision as a coach as for what we can stand for and how we operate as a club, it was really Will making that decision.

“As hard as it was – as heart-wrenching as it was – to let a really good person go, it wasn’t difficult at all.”

Greer said Kelly summed up the club’s stance on Cummings’ departure “perfectly”, and once the decision had been made, the club’s front office wasted no time in securing his replacement.

Former NBA forward Abdel Nader has since been confirmed as South East Melbourne’s new import, and he’s set to touch down in Melbourne on Thursday before playing the rest of the campaign with the side.

“It shows we’re a no-nonsense club, we have strong values and we live by those values,” Greer said of Cummings’ departure.

“I’m incredibly proud of how this club operates, and I feel like that move has probably only strengthened the outward perception of the club rather than hurt it in any way.

“I think it reflects really strongly.”

Greer was also determined to dismiss any notion that Nader was approached prior to the departure of Cummings.

“48 hours. That’s how long we were in contact with him before a decision was made,” he continued. “We have a lot of games in this period of time coming up and we knew we had a tight timeframe.

“One of the benefits of our club that doesn’t often get spoken about is our US and international connections. We have a bevvy of incredibly well-connected owners throughout basketball internationally, and an international scout who helps us through these situations.

“Once the decision was made on Will it was a matter of hitting the phones, collecting as much intel and information about what was out there as quickly as we could. We did that over a few very, very long nights and once we had all that information gathered we started working through what the best fit would be and where the opportunities lay.

“It really is a process but we’ve got used to how it runs over the years. It’s a difficult time of year to recruit so there’s not often a perfect fit, but we feel like Abdel with where he is in his recovery from injury is as close to a perfect fit as anyone could find.”

General admission tickets remain for tonight's Throwdown XXIII - CLICK HERE TO SECURE YOUR TICKETS

Limited tickets remain for Gippsland game - CLICK HERE TO SECURE YOURS

>>Original article via NBL.com.au