NBL registers Harbour City Stars and Sydney Stars

• NBL has registered two potential team names for second Sydney franchise
• Code Sports Basketball reports NSW Premier needs to approve funding
• Expansion can't happen until 2026

The NBL has registered trademarks for Harbour City Stars and Sydney Stars for its potential expansion into Sydney no earlier than 2026, Code Sports Basketball is reporting.

basketball.com.au columnist and part owner of the Sydney Kings Andrew Bogut said on NBL Now: “If it is a genuine team, we welcome it.

"We want another team in Sydney, we want a rivalry and we want to bring it back to the Sydney versus West Sydney days.

“Those interstate rivalries. The closest thing we get is the rivalry with Illawarra, which is a big one, but if we could get another one of those across town that would be sensational."

But Michael Randall and Matt Logue are reporting a second Sydney NBL team is being held back by the NSW government as "the NBL maintains a hard-line stance on the minimum conditions" to green light an expansion franchise in New South Wales.

In laying the groundwork for a second team in Sydney, the NBL and International Convention Centre venue operator AEG Ogden have been in discussions about hosting games and have formulated a plan to reconfigure the Darling Harbour-based arena for basketball.

"But, in order to make the ICC move a reality, a basketball insider believes NSW premier Chris Minns is the man with the power to approve extra funding," Code Sports Basketball reports.

The prospect of the expansion club being an NBL Next Stars side, complemented by veterans and imports, has also been proposed.

Read the full story at Code Sports Basketball

Sydney has a rich, merged and stalled history of establishing and fielding NBL teams. "The Stars" could be the EIGHTH team the Harbour City has had in the league's more than 40-year history.

1. Sydney Kings
2. Sydney Supersonics
3. City of Sydney Astronauts
4. West Sydney Razorbacks
5. Sydney Spirit
6. Bankstown Bruins
7. West Sydney Westars

A second Sydney team can’t be introduced until 2026 under an expansion lockout rule implemented under previous Sydney Kings management.