Tasmania lands new NBL1 South club in 2026

• The WNBL has confirmed Tasmania will enter the league for the 2026-27 season
• EOI's have also been opened for the 10th franchise with Brisbane expected to be the location for another expansion club
• 2025-26 WNBL Team Lists and Roster Tracker
• Launceston gamble that paid off for Tasmanian city

Hobart joining the WNBL isn't the only Tasmania basketball expansion after the newly-formed Northern Tasmania Basketball Club was awarded an NBL1 license for the 2026 season.

Northern Tasmania Basketball Club will join the NBL1 South Conference with both men's and women's teams next year.

"This is only the beginning," vice chair Madi Shepherd said in an announcement.

"The hard work lies ahead, and we are determined to move quickly and purposefully to ensure that the Northern Tasmania Basketball Club is ready to succeed in 2026 and beyond.

"Our goal is to create a club that is financially sustainable, professionally run, and deeply connected to the communities it represents."

As part of the announcement, the Launceston Tornadoes website reported: "While efforts were made to pursue a united pathway with the North West Thunder organisation, that possibility did not come to fruition.

The focus now is firmly on building the strongest possible future for basketball in Northern Tasmania, and all who share this vision are welcomed to join us in shaping this exciting new era."

The Northern Tasmania Basketball Club will operate with a single governance structure. Members of the new board, team branding and coaching appointments finalised in the coming months as the team prepares for its first season.

The Tornadoes outlined key initiatives as part of its launch including "expanding player pathways, growing commercial strength, supporting officials and strengthening alignment with NBL1 objectives."

"With the licence now secured, the task shifts from planning to delivery," the statement said,

"The Northern Tasmania Basketball Club is ready to begin work on building a sustainable and successful organisation. One that represents the whole region proudly and ensures that Northern Tasmania remains a thriving part of the NBL1 South competition."

It's not the first time Launceston has had an elite basketball team. Many NBL clubs were short-lived, their legacies fading into obscurity. But few are as strange, surprising, or beloved as Launceston City Casino, a team from regional Tasmania, backed by gambling money, and thrown into a rapidly evolving national competition.

They only existed for three years and yet, in their brief time, they pulled off one of the most unexpected feats in NBL history. Not because they dominated, but because they did the opposite: they disrupted, surprised, and then disappeared. And yet, even to this day they inspire and reinforce the legacy of basketball for Tasmania and the rest of the country.