The National Basketball League admits regional teams have copped a tough deal with match scheduling compared to some big city clubs but insists it's a one-season anomaly.
The league has been drawing positive reviews for its improved star power and exciting brand of basketball, but NBL general manager Jeremy Loeliger concedes the new, compressed schedule has proved challenging, especially for the regional clubs.
High-scoring Melbourne United (7-0) have proved unbeatable so far, though they have played six straight home games.
Conversely, last-placed Townsville have had just two home fixtures in eight games.
Cairns and Illawarra have also done plenty of travelling while Sydney have played the bulk of their games at home.
Many teams have had to play twice in a round on several occasions as the draw was only finalised relatively late to suit the new pay television deal.
That, combined with the unavailability of some major venues at different points of the season, added to the unevenness of the draw.
Among the challenges facing the NBL this season are Sydney's inner-city venue closing down in December and Melbourne's home - Hisense Arena - unavailable through January because it's used for the Australian Open tennis tournament.
"It's probably been an issue for some more than others, but I would say it's a pretty challenging schedule for every team," Loeliger told AAP.
"You'll find that everyone has got a pretty stiff deal this year and the reason for that is we changed the schedule very dramatically very late in order to make the product as appealing to a broadcaster as we could.
"Now that meant moving to (playing) five days a week instead of previously three.
"It meant having shorter turnaround times, it meant having long breaks in their playing calendar from time to time for various clubs.
"It is not ideal and I'm the first one to admit it.
"The fact is the venue availability just wasn't there because we were booking it so late in the piece, so there were a lot of nights that we just couldn't have.
"Unfortunately we've had to ask some of the regional teams to be a little bit more flexible because we basically fit the major cities in where we can, lock away those games where we can, because there's greater demand for those venues."
Loeliger said plans were already in motion to compile a fairer draw for the 2016-17 campaign, though that can't be completed till a home venue is finalised for the returning Brisbane franchise.
The return of several big name Australians from overseas including Chris Goulding, Julian Khazzouh and Nate Jawai and the addition of NBA players Hakim Warrick and AL Harrington have added lustre and quality to the competition.
"The on court performanceS has been staggering, better even than we could have hoped in terms of the closeness and competition of the games, but also the quality of the talent this year," Loeliger said.
"I think that's been borne out in the figures as well. The (television) ratings are trending upwards and continuing to grow week by week."
He said live attendances were a mixed bag with consistent high drawers Perth and Melbourne leading the way, while there was work to do in the Sydney and Townsville markets.
The NBL has signed up 20 commercial partners for this season, though it still has to secure a naming rights sponsor.
Loeliger said while that would be nice, there was a certain appeal to having a clean newly rebranded NBL logo "just loud and proud all by itself" for this season.
We could go out and get a naming rights sponsor at a reasonable price, I would imagine," Loeliger said.
"But I don't think we want to just take anyone on board, and I think the really big companies who we would love to see as naming right partners are probably sitting back and watching just what we are doing in these first few weeks, maybe months."
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