Sport Basketball Ceased 2010 Continent FIBA Oceania (Oceania) | Inaugural season 1981 Country New Zealand Level on pyramid 2 | |
The Conference Basketball League (CBL) was a second-tiered men's semi-professional basketball league in New Zealand. Beginning in 1981, it sat under the National Basketball League (NBL) as a development league from 1982 to 2008 until taking a break in 2009 and being replaced by the Conference Basketball League Zone 1 which ran in the Auckland Region. The initial CBL returned in 2010 in a diminished form and later ceased to operate after that. The CBL Zone 1 continued to operate in the years after but was later replaced with new competitions such as the Mexicali Fresh Summer Jam and the National Basketball Championships (NBC).
History
In 1981, a group of club and provincial teams came together to create the Conference Basketball League (CBL). Prior to 1981, games were organised between neighbouring representative teams, or in annual tournaments organised as club or provincial national tournaments. Other competitions were also held during Easter tournaments or in small regional leagues. However, the following year, the National Basketball League (NBL) was established and the CBL became a feeder league to the NBL. Future NBL powerhouse team, the Wellington Saints, started off in the CBL where they won the 1982 league title, which promoted them to the NBL. Other teams like New Plymouth, Hutt Valley, Northland, Southland, Palmerston North and Napier also started in the CBL before joining the NBL. The CBL often acted as a development league in which NBL teams would have young players compete in the CBL with an affiliated junior team.
After Basketball New Zealand decided not to host the CBL in 2009 for the first time in league history, North Harbour Basketball Association took on the responsibility. However, the competition was predominantly run in the North Harbour area and was a Zone 1 competition, meaning the teams were made up from associations within and around the Auckland Region. In 2010, Basketball New Zealand re-launched the initial CBL brand and ran a five-day competition with the assistance of the Porirua Basketball Association. Despite Basketball New Zealand's running of the CBL, the CBL Zone 1 was also held in 2010 under the name of the Supercity Basketball Competition. Basketball New Zealand again disbanded the CBL in 2011, but the Zone 1 competition continued to operate for a further two years under the name of the Senior Intercity Competition until in 2013, the inaugural Mexicali Fresh Summer Jam was held in Auckland during the NBL off-season. The following year, Basketball New Zealand introduced the National Basketball Championship (NBC) as their newest competition.