1996–97 British Basketball League season a bye into Quarter-finals. Birmingham Bullets vs. Leicester Riders Leopards vs. London Towers Thames Valley Tigers vs. Chester Jets Worthing Bears vs. Sheffield Sharks Chester Jets vs. Leicester Riders Sheffield Sharks vs. London Towers 1996–97 British Basketball League season The 1996–1997 BBL season was known as the Budweiser League for sponsorship reasons. The league retained a total of 13 teams, playing 36 games each. The main change featured the long-awaited return of Crystal Palace after several seasons of rejected applications. Palace replaced Doncaster Panthers following the liquidation of the South Yorkshire club. The League's two London-based teams dominated throughout the
Team Northumbria (basketball) Team Northumbria (basketball) Team Northumbria are a basketball club based in the north-east of England, which plays their home games at Northumbria University's £30million Sport Central complex. The club is operated by Northumbria University in partnership with the nearby professional Newcastle Eagles team, and currently enters Men's and Women's teams in the respective top flights of the English Basketball League, as well as multiple teams in the BUSA Basketball League. Team Northumbria entered competition in the English Basketball League in 2000, with the Men's team entering Division Three (North) and the Women's team entering Division Two (North), the respective bottom