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
British Basketball League won the 2014 BBL Playoffs. The Newcastle Eagles, London Lions, Glasgow Rocks , and Bristol Flyers have all signalled their intentions of playing at a European level in the near future. As of the 2016/17 BBL season Italian sportswear manufacturer Kappa was the kit supplier for all the 12 teams. During his time as BBL Chairman, Paul Blake outlined a goal for the League to expand to 16 teams with an overall vision to have between 15 and 18 teams playing out of venues with 2,000-plus spectator capacity by 2019. Primary venues used in the British Basketball League: Bold indicates