He considers that a tangible goal, more realistic than the former home of the Falcons and Hunter Pirates rushing to rejoin the National Basketball League.

Sengstock and BA high-performance general manager Wayne Carroll were in Newcastle yesterday for the Australian School Championships opening ceremony at Broadmeadow.

They said BA was trying to form an "underpinning league" from state leagues in NSW, Victoria, south-east Queensland, South Australia and possibly Tasmania.

"We want to make sure there's opportunities for every kid to play as high a level as they can, wherever they are, so it's about providing those competitions and restructuring it, so we're looking at what an underpinning league would look like," Sengstock said.

"Whether Newcastle's able to go back into the NBL, or find their niche in that next league down, it's important for us right now to say, that's where it is, not everyone can play in the top league but there's got to be opportunities for everybody all the way through."

Sengstock, a four-time Olympian and five-time NBL championship winner, was a regular visitor to Newcastle during his 456-game career with four clubs from 1979 to 1996 and respects this city's place in NBL lore.

He understood how much the Newcastle basketball community wanted another NBL team to support but it was more important to be "economically sound enough for that to be possible".

"That's one of the advantages of basketball," Sengstock said.

"To run a Newcastle Knights versus a basketball team out of Newcastle, it's chalk and cheese in costs.

"I think everybody aspires to play in the highest league they possibly can and if you can get a group to possibly do that, that's great.

"But what we want to do is make sure that if a team gets together and comes in, they don't get their fingers burnt again. We've got to make sure it makes sense and it's the right business decision and right business model to go forward.