Newcastle Falcons (basketball)

Newcastle Falcons (basketball)

Newcastle Falcons is a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in Newcastle, New South Wales, the team played in the NBL's inaugural season in 1979 but left the league in the late 1990s after new owners based in Albury couldn't resolve the club's ongoing financial problems.

The Falcons hold a special place in the history of league. The club was responsible for the formation of the league, and were the organisers. The other clubs had to pay a fee of around $300 to the Falcons to participate in that first season. The city is regarded as the birthplace of the NBL.

The club's original colours were green and white, being the city's colours, but the club soon changed to black and red, and to red and blue, after the Newcastle Knights' admission to the New South Wales Rugby League. All the national league clubs in Newcastle took on red and blue as their colours at some stage in their existence.

In 1992, the club moved from its original home stadium at the Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium to the new Newcastle Entertainment Centre. The club's downfall began in the mid-1990s when problems with sponsor Topper befell them and the Newcastle Breakers. Even with the support of new sponsor Energy Australia and new owners, the club couldn't get itself out of trouble, and left the league in the late 1990s.

The city had no NBL team until the new owners of the Canberra Cannons moved to Newcastle and established the Hunter Pirates in 2003.

There is a chance that the falcons will return to the National Basketball League under the ownership of Nathan Tinkler in the future, maybe in the 2012 and 2013 season.