Basketball Australia say the next ANBL season will be a springboard to a brand new national league in 2010 when all the majority cities will be involved.
On Thursday it was announced that the Melbourne Tigers would become the 8th team in this year's competition after organisers originally decided on a 7-team competition with no representatives from Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane.
Basketball Australia Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock says the new league in 2010 will include teams in Sydney and Brisbane to complete their geographic footprint.
Sengstock also unveiled the finals format for this year with the top four teams to advance to the post-season, with the number one ranked team playing the fourth seed and number three playing number two in the best-of-three Semi-Finals. The winner of each series will then face off in the best-of-three Grand Final series.
There will be an Australian $1 million salary cap this season and clubs will play 14 home and 14 away matches.
