The Australian National Basketball League has denied the Breakers' request to change the date for game two of the grand final series.
The Breakers huddle during their first semi-final game. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
They will host the Cairns Taipans at the North Shore Events Centre on Sunday afternoon, with the much larger Vector Arena already booked for another event.
The club's chief executive, Richard Clarke, said they asked if the game could be played on another day, but the league couldn't budge with broadcast agreements with Australian television channels already in place.
"It does hurt financially, obviously Vector is twice as big, but the reason for wanting to play there is as much about wanting to get another five-thousand fans," Clarke said.
"We don't budget for playoffs, any playoffs we have are a bonus effectively, it just limits the number of people that can come to a grand final from four-thousand to close to nine-and-a-half."
The club's financial boost from the playoffs had already been limited by a poor turn-out to the opening game of the semi-final series against the Adelaide 36ers, with only 3,800 in attendance to see the Breakers' crushing win.
They had reduced ticket prices to just $15 to try and lift numbers after low demand initially.
"The first semi-final in a three game series is historically always a slow seller because you can't actually win anything on that night and every club has struggled with that," Clarke said.
"I obviously would have liked more people there, but also understand that right now in Auckland there's an awful lot going on and competing for limited dollars and limited attention is always going to be tough."
Clarke said he expected the majority of tickets for their home grand final game to be snapped up by the club's members tomorrow morning, with any remaining tickets to go up for general sale.
Game one of the series is in Cairns on Friday night and the Taipans will host the decider a week later if it's required.
