WHETHER it was because of Andrew Bogut, the abundance of games, or simply Red Army being the Red Army, the NBL’s fans helped the league make history after Round 1.

The first round of action for the 2018-19 NBL season drew in the highest attendance for an opening round of a season, surpassing the previous record set in 1995.

A total of 48,820 fans watched Round 1 in person, led by the more than 12,000 fans who attended the Perth Wildcats’ home opener in Perth Arena.

The Sydney Kings came in with the second highest attendance of the round — the signing of Bogut obviously playing a key factor there — with 10,761; the franchise’s third highest home crowd on record.

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“On behalf of the NBL I want to thank fans for coming out in such huge numbers for the first seven games of our season.” NBL CEO, Jeremy Loeliger, said.

“It’s a testament to the loyalty and passion of our fans but also the great entertainment provided by our teams and players. Friday’s game between Melbourne United and the Illawarra Hawks which went to four periods of overtime will go down as one of the greatest ever played in the NBL.

“We also saw a record opening round crowd in Sydney of 10,761 to witness Andrew Bogut’s NBL debut, 12,583 fans turn out in Perth to see the Wildcats play Illawarra and 8,329 watch Melbourne play New Zealand.

“Following record attendances last season we believe this will be our biggest season yet and invite everyone to come along and enjoy the world class basketball and entertainment on offer around Australia and New Zealand.”

Attendances for the NBL’s opening round:
New Zealand v Brisbane: 5,157

Adelaide v Perth: 5,836

Illawarra v Melbourne: 2,688

Sydney v Adelaide: 10,761

Brisbane v Cairns: 3,196

Melbourne v NZ: 8,329

Perth v Illawarra: 12,853

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