The Launceston Casino City is a defunct Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team that competed in the National Basketball League (NBL). Formed in 1980, the club was based in Launceston,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. It lasted only three seasons before folding, but won the NBL Championship in 1981. The Launceston Casino City was last coached by Curtis Coleman.

History

The Launceston Casino City entered the NBL competition with a grant from the

Tasmanian Government The Tasmanian Government is the democratic administrative authority of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invit ...

and the support of the developers of the state's second casino.Basketball Australia
'Back in the Day: Tin shed artists'
3 February 2012, retrieved 24 April 2012. Their highest profile player was 24-year-old Ian Davies, who played for the Australian team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and later at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In its first season the team finished ninth in the 12-team NBL competition, winning nine of its 22 games. Davies was named in the 1980 All NBL First Team. In the

1981 NBL season The 1981 NBL season was the third season of the National Basketball League (NBL). Regular season The regular season took place over 18 rounds between 14 February 1981 and 21 June 1981. Each team played 22 games, against every opponent twice. ...

Launceston Casino City improved to 14 wins and finished fourth in the regular season. In the first semi-final, which consisted of a single sudden-death game, the Launceston Casino City defeated the

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to the league in 2016. Brisbane were one of ten NBL fo ...

71 to 69 points. They then met the

Nunawading Spectres Nunawading Spectres is a NBL1 South club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Melbourne East Basketball Association (MEBA), the major administrative basketball o ...

in the Grand Final at

Apollo Stadium Apollo Stadium (officially called the Apollo Entertainment Centre) was a multi-purpose indoor arena located at 41 Kingston Avenue, Richmond, South Australia, just 5 minutes from the Adelaide city centre. The stadium had an original seating capac ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, which they won 75 to 54 points to claim the NBL Championship. In its third and final NBL season in 1982, the Launceston Casino City won 5 games and finished 12th. Michael Parsons, who went on to play in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

with the

North Adelaide Roosters North Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed The Roosters, is an Australian rules football club affiliated with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). The club plays its home games at Prospect Ova ...

and the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

with the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

, played for the team. Cliff Martin also played for the Casino City as an American import player. The Launceston Casino City basketball team folded in 1983. In 2009 it was reported that the championship cup and banner that was won by the team in 1981 was missing.Laura Oldfield,
Hunt for Casino City's lost silverware
, ''The Examiner'', 22 May 2009, viewed 26 April 2012. The banner was found in a Hobart shed ten years later.

Honour roll

Season by season

References

External links

NBL official website
{{NBLdefunct Basketball teams in Tasmania Defunct National Basketball League (Australia) teams Basketball teams established in 1980 Basketball teams disestablished in 1982 Sport in Launceston, Tasmania 1980 establishments in Australia