The Newcastle Falcons are a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, the team played in the NBL's inaugural season in 1979 but left the league in the late 1990s after new owners based in

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – t ...

couldn't resolve the club's ongoing financial problems.

History

The Falcons hold a special place in the history of the NBL with the club largely responsible for the formation of the league which also saw them organise the first season in 1979. The other clubs had to pay a fee of around

AU$ The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island ...

300 to the Falcons to participate in that first season and the city of Newcastle is regarded as the birthplace of the NBL. The club's original colours were green and white, being the city's colours, but the club soon changed to black and red, and to red and blue, after the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

' admission to the

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

in 1988. All the national league clubs in Newcastle took on red and blue as their colours at some stage in their existence. The club's downfall began in the mid-1990s when problems with sponsor, clothing and sports equipment company Topper befell them and the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

Newcastle Breakers Newcastle Breakers FC are a defunct Australian football (soccer) club. Formed out of elements of the Newcastle Austral club, they participated in the National Soccer League from season 1991/1992, until their dissolution in 1999/2000. The club fare ...

. Even with the support of new sponsor

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power (CLP Group). EnergyAustralia also ...

and new owners, the club couldn't get itself out of trouble, and left the league following the

1998–99 NBL season The 1998–99 NBL season was the 21st season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of 11 teams contested the league. This season marked the first summer season for the NBL. The Townsville Suns were renamed the Townsville Crocod ...

Home Arenas

After spending its first 13 seasons playing out of the 2,200 capacity

Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium The Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium, also known as the Newcastle Basketball Stadium, is an indoor basketball stadium located in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and was the original home of the Newcastle Falcons of the National Basketball ...

, the Falcons made the move to the new, 4,658 seat

Newcastle Entertainment Centre Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose Australian arena within the Newcastle Showgrounds. It was opened in 1992 at a cost of . The centre's original tenant was the Newcastle Falcons NBL team who moved to the new venue in 1992 from th ...

located on the other side of the Newcastle Showgrounds in 1992 where they would remain until the club folded in 1999. Although the Falcons never appeared in an

NBL Grand Final The NBL Grand Final is the championship series of the National Basketball League (NBL). The entrants are determined by the victors of the two Semi Finals series, who engage in a best-of-five game series to determine the league champion. The winn ...

, the Broadmeadow Stadium hosted the 1982 NBL Grand Final between the

West Adelaide Bearcats West Adelaide Bearcats is a NBL1 Central club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club fields both a men's and women's team. The club is a division of the overarching West Adelaide Basketball Club (WABC), the major administrative basketball o ...

and the

Geelong Supercats Geelong Supercats is a NBL1 South club based in Geelong, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is affiliated with Basketball Geelong and Geelong United Basketball. The Supercats play their home ga ...

. West Adelaide won the Grand Final 80–74 in front of a capacity crowd.

Post 1999

The city of Newcastle had no NBL team until the new owners of the

Canberra Cannons The Canberra Cannons are a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). They went into financial administration in 2003 and were relocated to Newcastle, where they became the Hunter Pirates. After t ...

moved to Newcastle and established the Hunter Pirates in 2003. The Pirates in turn withdrew from the NBL at the end of the 2005–2006 season after their licence was sold to the Singapore Slingers. In 2011, past Falcons players reunited for a charity exhibition game at the

to raise funds for the Cancer Council.

Nathan Tinkler Nathan Tinkler (born 1 February 1976) is an Australian mining industry executive and was previously the principal shareholder of Aston Resources and Whitehaven Coal. He started out as a mining apprentice in the Hunter Valley, in New South Wale ...

's Hunter Sports Group attempted to revive the Falcons NBL team around this time but was ultimately unsuccessful in doing so. The Falcons name was revived in 2021 when the Newcastle Hunters Waratah League basketball team announced that they would be changing their name to the

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

upon their admission to the

NBL1 East The NBL1 East, formerly the Waratah League, is a semi-professional basketball league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Terri ...

competition in 2022.

Honour roll

Season by season

References

External links

{{Newcastle Sports Teams Sport in Newcastle, New South Wales Defunct National Basketball League (Australia) teams Basketball teams established in 1979 Basketball teams disestablished in 1999 Basketball teams in New South Wales 1979 establishments in Australia 1999 disestablishments in Australia