title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Before the establishment of the NBL, there were two national basketball competitions: the National Titles and the Australian Club Championships.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In August 1979, the inaugural season of the NBL commenced, playing in the winter season (April–September) which it did so until the completion of the 1998 season, the league's twentieth season. The 1998–99 season, which began only months later, was the first to be played during the summer season (October–April). The shift, which is currently used by the league, was an attempt to avoid competing directly against Australia's various winter season football codes. Officially the NBL is Australia's second oldest continuing national sporting competition after the domestic cricket competition as football competitions were predominantly state based until the 1980s.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The NBL experienced its "golden age" in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but its popularity, media attention, attendance and corporate support deteriorated and plateaued in the decade afterward with the growth of the country's four football codes.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: A second Melbourne club, the South Dragons, entered the league in the 2006–07 season, but was short lived, soon folding 3 years later after the 2008–09 season in which they were premiers. In the 2006–07 season, the NBL became the first Australasian sporting league to field a team from Asia with the Singapore Slingers playing. The Gold Coast Blaze also joined the competition in the 2007–08 season. In 2007, Australian NBA player Andrew Bogut suggested the NBL try to adopt a model similar to the Australian Football League (AFL) whereby there are the same 10 or 15 teams over a 10-year period.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: A turbulent period during 2008 and 2009 saw the league lose teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Singapore.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The 2009–10 season earmarked as the season in which the NBL would begin its revamping, much like the old National Soccer League which became the eight team A-League. The NBL returned to free-to-air television in Australia for the first time in three years with One broadcasting 2–3 games a week.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The 2010–11 season saw the return of the Sydney Kings after the club was purchased for 20,000 on 31 July 2008.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Crowds improved for the 2013–14 NBL season, recording the highest cumulative crowd attendance figures for the past five years.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: After numerous teams folding and a plummeting public profile property developer Larry Kestelman purchased a 51% portion of the league. Since then game attendance, TV viewership, website visitors and app downloads have been consistently on the increase.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In April 2016, the Townsville Crocodiles folded as they had become too financially unsustainable to continue.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Larry Kestelman has stated on the Aussie Hoopla podcast that no NBL club will ever fold again as long as he is in control of the league.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Allowing for clubs to recruit the best Australian players not in the NBA became easier with the marquee rule which saw the return from Europe and the US of players such as Brad Newley, David Andersen and Andrew Bogut. In addition the Special Restricted Player rule, introduced for the 2016–17 season, allows for clubs to recruit players born in countries such China, Philippines, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan who would not count as imports under NBL rules.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The growth of Basketball in Asia over recent years and the overall strength and standard of Australian Basketball should ensure the sustainability of the league for many years provided Asian players continue to strive to compete in the NBL and Asian basketball fans are able to follow the league. Current trends should see the NBL as the third highest attended basketball league in the world, after the NBA and EuroLeague.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: From 2016 to 2018, there was a renewed interest in the sport, with it being described as being the National Basketball League's greatest ever period. 2016–17 set a new attendance record for the league, with the figure being matched the following year, as well as the Grand Final series for the 2017–18 season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In 2018, the South East Melbourne Phoenix were announced as the latest club to join the league, and started competing in the 2019–20 season; a season which was widely regarded as a major season for the league. After an active off-season, including the signings of LaMelo Ball and R. J. Hampton, two highly rated NBA 2020 draft picks, the league started by continuing to topple attendance records from the first round.<ref name="2019/20 attendance"></ref> The season's opening night had 10,300 fans in attendance to watch Melbourne United and the South East Melbourne Phoenix compete in the first "Throwdown", with a further 20,550 fans attending games across the first round. After signing a broadcasting deal with Facebook Watch, over one million American fans watched Ball's first game in the NBL against the Brisbane Bullets.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Since the 2009–10 season, each team has played 28 games during the regular season, 14 home and 14 away. The regular season starts in early October and ends in mid February.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In the 2020–21 season, each team played an extra 8 games (36 games) due to the newly formatted NBL Cup tournament. The following season the NBL returned to their normal format of 28 games with no midseason tournament.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In the 2020–21 season, the NBL introduced the NBL Cup which is a 36-game mid-season competition. Each game would contribute to each team's regular season record.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The top four teams at the end of the regular season advances to the Finals. The team finishing in the first and second position at the completion of the regular season receives home advantages in their best-of-three first round matchup against the team finishing in third and fourth position. The winner of each of the three matches advances to the Grand Final. The winner of Series 1 plays the winner of Series 2 in the best-of-five Grand Final series, with home advantage being awarded to the highest remaining seed. The winner of this series is crowned as NBL champion.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In the 2022–23 season, the league will introduce Play-In games. The top two seeds in the regular season will automatically qualify to the semi-finals. Teams ranked three to six will compete in the play-in tournament. The third seed will play the fourth seed for third spot and the loser will play the winner of fifth or sixth for the fourth seed.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The National Basketball League (NBL) was founded in 1979 with nine teams. Due to club expansions, reductions and relocations, many of the teams either changed or ceased to exist. There are currently ten teams; nine teams in Australia and one team in New Zealand. The teams are located in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Cairns, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong. The Illawarra Hawks are the oldest club in the competition, having participated in every season since 1979.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The salary cap for each team is $AU1.1 million as a 'soft cap' with marquee players able to be paid amounts that will exceed that amount for the team.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: After weeks of reports of a return of a Tasmanian team, in June 2019, Larry Kestelman flagged Tasmania as a potential 10th team. However he stressed that if a Tasmanian team did enter the NBL, they would be eased in, and that there was no timeline. On 28 February 2020, the NBL and the Tasmanian Government announced that they had reached an agreement for Tasmania to host the 10th team in the league, known as the Tasmania JackJumpers, which would join for the 2021–22 season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In April 2022, Larry Kestelman flagged Canberra as a potential 11th team. Kestelman says “Canberra could be next in line for a league license, following the same model as the Tasmania JackJumpers.” The last Canberra team to play in the NBL was the Cannons from 1979–2003. They won three NBL championships and played their home games at the AIS Arena.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Arguably the NBL's oldest rivalry started in 1985 when the Brian Kerle coached Bullets defeated the Ken Cole coached 36ers 121–95 in the 1985 NBL Grand Final, the last single game Grand Final in NBL history. From 1985 to 1987, the Bullets and 36ers were the two dominant teams in the league and the two clubs met in the 1986 NBL Grand Final, the first NBL GF to be played over a 3-game series. An Australian indoor sports attendance record of around 11,000 saw the first game of the 1986 series played at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with Adelaide, who had a 24–2 record for the season, winning 122–119 in overtime. Brisbane then handed Adelaide its only home loss of 1986 (the 36ers had gone 13–0 at the Apollo Stadium) when they won Game 2 104–83 before Adelaide won its first NBL title with a 113–91 win at Apollo in Game 3. The teams were evenly matched at the time with players such as Al Green, Mark Davis, Bill Jones, Peter Ali, Darryl Pearce, Mike McKay and Dwayne Nelson (Adelaide) against Brisbane's star import Leroy Loggins, captain Larry Sengstock, guard Ron Radliff, forwards Danny Morseu, Robert Sibley and Chris McGraw, centre John Dorge and (in 1985 and 1986) Cal Bruton. Loggins was the NBL MVP in 1986 and 1987 (and player of the match in the 1985 GF) while Mark Davis was the Grand Final MVP in 1986 and shared the league MVP award with Loggins in 1987.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The Rivalry between the two clubs again reached fever pitch in the mid-1990s when Bullets guard Shane Heal earned the ire of the Adelaide crowd during Game 3 of the 1994 Elimination final series when he gave the crowd at the Clipsal Powerhouse a 'double bird'. Heal, who had scored 61 points in the last regular season game before scoring 42 points in Game 1 to lead Brisbane to a 116–105 home win over the 36ers, had not actually managed to score a point before half time in Game 2 which the 36ers had won 99–91 before also winning Game 3 101–84. Heal, along with former 36er Mark Bradtke who had left under acrimonious circumstances at the end of 1992 to join the Melbourne Tigers, became public enemy #1 to the 36ers crowd following the incident.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: With the Bullets returning to the NBL in 2016, the rivalry has continued with Adelaide defeating the Bullets in their first encounter at home, the Bullets returning the favour with an away win in Adelaide, while a week later Adelaide spoiled the Bullets regular season return to the Entertainment Centre for the first time since 1997 with a resounding 101–83 win.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Apart from the normal South Australian and Victorian rivalry, the 36ers vs United (formerly Tigers) rivalry started at the end of the 1992 season when 36ers centre Mark Bradtke joined Spanish club Juver Murcia following the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain for a short stint. Before he left he signed an agreement with the 36ers stating that he would finish his one-year contract with the club should he return within a certain time. Upon his return to Australia, Bradtke stated his intention not to return to the 36ers with the Tigers rumoured to be actively chasing him. After protracted negotiations with 36ers management that led to the club being prepared to buy out his remaining contract, the NBL stepped in and vetoed the buy out, effectively letting Bradtke leave for Melbourne without the 36ers receiving any compensation for the remainder of his contract with the club. When Bradtke returned to Adelaide with the Tigers on 4 July 1993 he was soundly booed whenever he touched the ball by the 8,000 strong crowd at the Clipsal Powerhouse. The booing of Bradtke and the Andrew Gaze led Tigers continued for a number of seasons.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: A new rivalry has emerged with Julius Hodge, a former 36er, returning to the NBL in November 2009, signing with the Melbourne Tigers. Hodge was a star in Adelaide when he joined the 36ers mid-season the previous two years, however issues relating to alleged missed payments caused him to walk out on the club in early January 2009 on bad terms.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Hodge returned to his old home court for the first time on 5 December 2009 in a Tigers overtime victory. After being heckled and taunted all night in a quiet game by his standards, Hodge caused more controversy when he stamped and spat on the Brett Maher signature on the centre of the Brett Maher Court following his new club's win. He was booed off aggressively and loudly by the Adelaide fans and needed security to escort him out of the stadium.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Both teams were perennial championship contenders in the late 1980s and early 90s and had several marquee players with excellent match-ups, the three most notable all involving American imports: Al Green (Adelaide) vs Cal Bruton (Perth), Mark Davis (Adelaide) vs James Crawford (Perth) and Bill Jones (Adelaide) vs Tiny Pinder (Perth). Games during this era were rarely blowouts and helped to fuel the rivalry. Adelaide won the 1986 NBL Championship over the Brisbane Bullets and Bruton, who moved from Brisbane to be player-coach of Perth in 1987, built a team specifically to beat the reigning champions. Despite the long time rivalry between the two clubs, and the two teams having played numerous semi-final series against each other with the first being in that 1987 season, they did not face each other in a grand final series until the 2013–14 season, which was won by the Perth Wildcats. the Wildcats have won each semi-finals series played between the two (1987, 1989 and 1995).


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The 1995 series proved to be one of the most volatile and controversial due to an incident between 36ers forward Chris Blakemore and Perth's Martin Cattalini in Game 1 in Adelaide. Under instructions from coach Mike Dunlap to basically belt the next Perth player to go through the key, Blakemore back handed Cattalini, giving the Wildcats forward a large cut on his mouth that required 15 stitches. Blakemore was suspended for Game 2 in Perth as the Wildcats swept the 36ers 2–0 before going on to defeat the defending champion North Melbourne Giants (who had swept Adelaide in 1994) 2–1 in the Grand Final. In an ironic twist, Cattalini would join the 36ers in 1996 and later went on to win two championships with the club (plus another with Perth), while Blakemore, the NBL's Rookie of the year in 1993 and its Most Improved Player award winner in 1994, as well as playing for the Australian Boomers in 1995, joined the Canberra Cannons in 1996 and his career went downhill from there with his NBL career ending at the end of 1997 after just two seasons with the Cannons.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: As the mainstay players began to slow with age and retire, the intensity of this rivalry has declined. The two clubs remain some of the most successful in the NBL with four championships for Adelaide and ten for Perth, and are first and second on the all-time wins list (748 wins for Perth, 692 wins for Adelaide as of 20 May 2021) and have also matched up on more occasions (134 times total; Perth leading all time between the two 73 – 61) than any other two teams in the NBL (as of 15 November 2019). The rivalry continues into the 2012–13 season with the 36ers beating the Wildcats in back to back games in rounds 6 and 7, including the opening game at Perth's new home, the Perth Arena, in front of a then record Wildcats crowd of 11,562.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The Wildcats and the 36ers dominated the 2013–14 NBL season, finishing first and second respectively during the regular round. After the three previous semi-final meetings, they then faced off in their first ever Grand Final series which saw the Wildcats emerge with their record 6th NBL championship with a 2–1 series win. This was one of the most anticipated series in NBL history, not only given the two clubs' long-standing rivalry, but also due to the post-game on court 'brawl' which took place following their Round 18 clash in Perth earlier in the season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Adelaide and Perth play for the Cattalini Cup named for Perth born Martin Cattalini who won two championships with each club. In each game, the game MVP is awarded with the Paul Rogers Medal named for Adelaide born centre Paul Rogers who made his NBL debut for the 36ers in 1992 and later joined Perth, winning 2 championships and the NBL MVP award in 2000 while with the Wildcats.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: A local derby-style rivalry nicknamed "Reptile Rumble" has developed to determine which is the dominant North Queensland team. The Cairns-Townsville basketball rivalry would have to be one of the longest and most passionate in the NBL. Both teams generally attract a close to capacity crowd anywhere from 4000+ at their home games. Each team and their supporters and mascots generally boo and taunt their visiting rivals. The rivalry has been in existent for over 10 years and almost came to a near end when the Cairns Taipans were on the verge of extinction due to financial issues.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The rivalry between the two North Queensland based clubs is currently extinct due to the Crocodiles folding at the end of the 2015–16 NBL season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Illawarra Hawks fans consider the Sydney Kings to be their most fierce rival. Many Hawks players have moved to the Kings including two former Rookie of the Year winners and a two-time Olympian. In the absence of the Kings, the Sydney Spirit took the role of rival, but this felt fake to some Hawks faithful. The Hawks took bragging rights after the 2000–01 season when they became the first team from New South Wales to qualify for the NBL finals, which they won against Townsville. Sydney then took the ascendency when they won three championships in a row, including a clean sweep of the Hawks.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The next time they met in the post-season, Sydney swept the Hawks 2–0 in the 2022 Semi-Finals enroute to their fourth championship.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The Breakers and the Wildcats have arguably been the league's current strongest teams, and have been fairly evenly matched. Between them, they have won every year's league from 2009–10 to 2016–17, and met in the final in 2011–12 and 2012–13 (both won by the Breakers) and 2015–16 (won by the Wildcats). Both teams have similarities in that they have to travel great distances to play any other NBL team. These two factors have combined to make a "derby of distance" between the NBL's farthest-flung members. The rivalry may have its origins in a scrap between players from each side after a game in 2004. Games between the two sides have been intense ones for several years and often marked with incident.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Known as the "Throwdown", these two teams formed a rivalry as they are both based in Melbourne and play their games at John Cain Arena. The first Throwdown was the Phoenix's first game in the league, as well as the first game of the 2019–20 NBL season, with the Phoenix winning 91–88.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: At the start of the 2004–05 season, the league struck a new television deal with Fox Sports in Australia and a multi-year naming-rights sponsorship deal with electronics manufacturer Philips. Though in 2007, Philips announced they would not continuing their naming rights sponsorship in response to the NBL wishing to increase the sponsorship deal. On 18 September 2007, the NBL announced Hummer as their naming rights sponsor for the 2007–08 season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: On 13 September 2010, iiNet was announced as the league naming rights sponsor and Centrebet as the official sports betting partner. Spalding provided equipment including the official game ball, with AND1 supplying team apparel. The iiNet sponsorship lasted for 3 seasons, and the Centrebet sponsorship lasted for two seasons.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: On 5 October 2017, Hungry Jack's became the naming rights sponsor for the National Basketball League. The Hungry Jack's logo features on player jerseys, in and around venues and the company is closely associated with Heritage Month in January.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: National television broadcasting rights are as follows: While the ABC had exclusive national broadcasting rights from 1979 to 1987, other television stations around the country (usually those affiliated with either the Seven Network or Network Ten) would broadcast their local teams to their state markets once the sport gained popularity. For example, in the mid-1980s the Adelaide 36ers and Brisbane Bullets home games were shown in Adelaide and Brisbane by Network Ten stations SAS and TV0 respectively.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In 2015, Fox Sports secured a 5-year deal for the Australian broadcasting rights of all games, starting with the 2015–16 season. In addition, for the 2015–16 season Nine Network secured one weekly match (every Sunday afternoon) for FTA. In 2016, SBS secured the exclusive free-to-air rights for the 2016–17 season, broadcasting and streaming online one Sunday match live each week. In the 2017–18 Season, SBS broadcast 2 games live, one on Saturday and another on Sunday, while ABC broadcast a Friday night game on delay at 11pm. In 2021, the NBL signed a three-year deal with ESPN, Foxtel, Kayo Sports and News Corp, with every game broadcast on ESPN and Kayo Sports, and selected games broadcast with the league's free-to-air partner 10 Peach.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In August 2022, FanDuel TV announced they had acquired the rights to the league in the United States.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Most teams have historically featured at least one and usually two American imports. Currently, teams are limited to having three imports (i.e., non-Australasians) on the roster at any one time; league initiatives in recent years have added two roster slots that may be filled by imports without counting against the three-import limit. Some of these players have moved to Australia permanently and become Australian citizens; a few including Cal Bruton, Mark Davis, Leroy Loggins and Ricky Grace have even played for the Australian national team (under a FIBA rule that allows one naturalised player to compete for a national team).


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The NBL's salary cap for the 2006–07 season was 776,000, and increased to 810,000 for the 2007–08 season; the cap rose for two consecutive years due to the continued growth of the league. The salary cap rose 1,000,000 for the 2009–10 season. The cap remains at 1,000,000 for the 2012–13 season.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: For the 2016–17 season, the salary cap was changed from a 1,000,000 ‘hard cap’ to a 1,100,000 ‘soft cap’. Teams may exceed the soft cap provided that they pay a salary equalisation subsidy based on the extent to which they have exceeded the cap. In addition, player values for purposes of the salary cap are not based on the salary submitted to the league, but are determined by a special NBL panel. The cap regulations also mandate that teams distribute their salaries so that at least one group of five players has a collective cap value of no more than 400,000. Both cap numbers (the soft cap and the 5-player aggregate cap) have increased since then, based on average league salaries.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: On 9 May 2014, to help attract high-calibre imports or offer financial incentive for local stars considering overseas opportunities, the NBL introduced a marquee player rule, in which a team can nominate one player whose salary is paid outside the cap, with a 25% Marquee Player levy applied to any payment made above the salary cap. For the 2016–17 season, the value was modified so that if the marquee player is a "non-restricted" player (explained below), only the first $150,000 of that player's salary will be counted toward that team's salary cap.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: NBL legend Andrew Gaze has pointed to these changes being instrumental to the improvement of NBL and its Australian players.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Also effective in 2016–17, the number of import roster slots was increased from two to three, and each team was allowed (but not required) to have one player from a FIBA Asia or FIBA Oceania country other than Australia or New Zealand on its roster who would not be counted against the import limit. Since then, the NBL has used the term "non-restricted" to describe all players signed as locals, including Asian/Oceanian players signed under the regional initiative. With this change, many of the best Asian-born players were expected to seek NBL contracts, as teams can now recruit them and play them as locals.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The maximum length of NBL player contracts is three years. The 2020–21 NBL salary cap has been set at $US 1,227,930, with one marquee 'local' player (including players with Asian or Oceania passports) and traditional imports exempt from the salary cap. Next Stars may also be exempt.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: On 2 March 2018, the NBL announced the "Next Stars" initiative which would launch with the league's 2018–19 season. The scheme is designed to provide young elite overseas players, mainly Americans (who are currently barred from the NBA draft until one year out of secondary school), as well as Australians and New Zealanders considering U.S. college basketball, with a professional option immediately out of secondary school. Each team will receive one additional import roster slot intended to provide a "Next Star" slot. Players who will be part of the scheme will be selected by a special NBL panel and, should they accept the league's offer, be contracted directly by the NBL and placed into an allocation pool to be distributed among the league's teams. The chosen players will receive a salary of at least 100,000, as well as a car, apartment, and flights home during league breaks. The scheme will be funded for the first season by the NBL, meaning that "Next Star" players will not count against the salary cap. Finally, under current rules, the NBA allows its teams to spend up to 700,000 to buy players out of professional contracts in non-North American leagues; should a "Next Star" be bought out by an NBA team (or by a team in another overseas league), the buyout amount will be split between the team and the NBL. The first player signed to a Next Star contract was American Brian Bowen, signed on 7 August 2018 and assigned to the Sydney Kings.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: With the introduction of First Ever as uniform supplier in 2018, the NBL announced the "City" round. During this annual round, all teams wear limited edition jerseys which are specific to the city of their team.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: In December 2018, the Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings wore Indigenous based jerseys to celebrate "the rich Indigenous culture within basketball as a whole."


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: After this successful launch, the league announced that in the 2019–20 season all teams would be competing in an Indigenous round.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The NBL Hall of Fame was instituted by the league in 1998 as part of their 20th season celebrations, to recognise the outstanding players, coaches, referees and contributors to the league. In 2010, the NBL Hall of Fame united with the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame to create the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: To be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame, NBL candidates must have fulfilled the following criteria:


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The Doomsday Double, involving a road trip to play the Adelaide 36ers and Perth Wildcats during the same round, has occurred 141 times as at the end of the 2010–11 season. Only four teams have won both legs of the trip, played either on consecutive nights or on a Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Due to the long time success rate of both the 36ers and Wildcats, the Double has long been considered the toughest two games in one weekend road trip in the NBL. The Doomsday Double was given its name by Hall of Famer Cal Bruton during its early days when the trip was a game in Perth on the Friday night followed by Adelaide the following night or vice versa.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: Similar to the Doomsday Double, the Sunshine Swing pits teams against an away double or even triple game schedule against opponents from the state of Queensland, in the same round. The most frequent combinations have featured the Brisbane Bullets/Gold Coast Rollers or Cairns Taipans/Townsville Crocodiles double. Other variants include Brisbane Bullets/Cairns Taipans (current version), Brisbane Bullets/Townsville Crocodiles and the gruelling Brisbane Bullets/Cairns Taipans/Townsville Crocodiles triple.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: NBLxNBA is a series involving clubs from the NBL and the National Basketball Association (NBA) of Northern America. The series started in 2017 for each league's 2017–18 season, and each season includes between two and seven games. The games have previously always been held in the U.S. and Canada, and typically are held during September and early October.


title: National Basketball League (Australia)

text: The NBL All-Star Game is an event that was first contested in 1982 by East and West teams. It was revived in 1988 when North and South teams competed. This match was played annually until 1997. In 2003–04 season the concept was revived with an east–west match being held in Melbourne. The following season saw a change of format, with a local team (Aussie All-Stars) playing an imports team (World All-Stars). This was discontinued after the 2007–08 season. The concept was revived in 2012 with an All-Star game between North and South that was scheduled for December 2012.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing Club de Avellaneda, officially known as Racing Club or shortened to just Racing, is an Argentine professional sports club based in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1903, Racing has been historically considered one of the "big five" clubs of Argentine football, and is also known as "El Primer Grande" (The first big club), for becoming the first club in the world to win seven league titles in a row, first Argentine club to win a national cup, and the first world champion (Intercontinental Cup) Argentine club. Racing currently plays in the Primera División, the top division of the Argentine league system, and plays its home games at Estadio Presidente Perón, nicknamed "El Cilindro de Avellaneda" (in English: "The Cylinder of Avellaneda").


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing has won the Primera División 18 times, with a record of seven consecutive championships between 1913 and 1919, five of which were won undefeated. Not only does Racing hold the record for the most consecutive titles in Argentine football history, but it is also the only team in South America to achieve such a feat, along with being one of only four clubs (the others are Olympique de Lyon, Bayern Munich and Juventus) to be a seven-time champion of world-cup winning nations.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The club also has 14 National cups to its name, which include five Copa Ibarguren, four Copa de Honor Municipalidad de Buenos Aires and one Copa Beccar Varela. Due to those achievements the team was nicknamed "La Academia" ("The Academy of Football") which still identifies the club and its supporters.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: On the international stage, the club has won 6 titles, with 3 of them organised by CONMEBOL and other international bodies. Those achievements include one Copa Libertadores, one Intercontinental Cup and the first edition of the Supercopa Libertadores.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The team's home colors are , similar to the national team. The shorts and socks have shifted between black, navy blue or white. Apart from football, other sports practised at Racing are artistic gymnastics, basketball, beach soccer, boxing, chess, field hockey, futsal, handball, martial arts, roller skating, tennis and volleyball.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The origins of the club can be traced to the end of the 19th century, when a group of Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway employees asked for permission to play football in a field belonging to the company. As the request was approved, they started to play their first matches there, mostly against teams formed by British immigrants.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1898, they founded a club, "Argentinos Excelsior Club", which lasted three years until in 1901, three new clubs were established "Sud América Fútbol Club de Barracas al Sur", "American Club" and "Argentinos Unidos", with Barracas al Sur the most notable of them. Nevertheless, the club was soon disbanded, establishing "Colorados Unidos" on 16 March 1902. On 25 March 1903, both clubs met at Mercado de Hacienda with the purpose of merging again.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The club took its name from a French auto racing magazine owned by Germán Vidaillac (a founding partner of French ancestry). The suggestion was well received and the name "Racing Club" was immediately approved. Racing was the first football team integrally formed by criollo people.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The first jersey worn by the emerging club was white, until 25 July 1904, when it was decided a yellow and black vertical striped jersey would be used. Nevertheless, the recently adopted uniform only lasted a week due to its similarity to Uruguayan club CURCC, being replaced by a design proposed by president Luis Carbone. The jersey had four squares, two light blue and two pink. This light blue and pink design would be worn until 1908, once again replaced by a design with three horizontal bars (two blue and one white). Finally, Racing adopted the light blue and white colors in 1910, in commemoration of the May Revolution's 100th anniversary that same year.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing affiliated to the Argentine Football Association in 1905, and began playing in the lower divisions of Argentine football league system. In 1906 the club registered to play in Segunda División.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1909, Racing competed in a playoff to promote to Primera División, but lost to Gimnasia y Esgrima de Buenos Aires. Racing finally promoted to the first division in 1910, winning the playoff final against Boca Juniors with an attendance of 4,000. The starting line-up that won the promotion was: Fernández; Seminario, Allan; Winne, Juan Ohaco, Angel Betular; Oyarzábal, A. Ohaco, Firpo, Frers and Juan Perinetti. Frers and Ohaco were the scorers for Racing. The popularity of the club raised after that promotion, increasing its number of supporters.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: One year later, Racing won its first domestic cup, the Copa de Honor Municipalidad de Buenos Aires after beating Newell's Old Boys 3–0. Racing also played its first international match, versus Uruguayan team River Plate.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The first league title came in 1913 when Racing defeated San Isidro and River Plate in a playoff. Racing first eliminated River Plate (3–0), and then played the final against San Isidro, winning 2–0.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1914, Racing won its second league title, having scored 42 goals and only 7 received in 12 games. The runner-up was Estudiantes (BA). That same year Racing won its second consecutive Copa Ibarguren, defeating another "Rosarino" team, Rosario Central, by 1–0 in Buenos Aires. The line-up for the match: Arduino; Reyes, S. Ochoa; Pepe, Olazar, Betular; Canavery, Ohaco, Marcovecchio, Juan Hospital, Juan Perinetti.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing became Primera División champion in 1915 when they defeated San Isidro 1–0 in a playoff at Independiente's stadium. Their line-up was: Arduino; Presta, Reyes; Betular, Olazar, Pepe; Canavery, Ohaco, Marcovecchio (who scored the only goal), Juan Hospital, Juan Perinetti. Racing finished unbeaten, with 22 games won and 2 drawn, with and 95 goals scored with only 5 conceded.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing won the following title, the 1916 championship, totalizing 34 points in 21 games with 39 goals converted and 10 received at the end of the tournament. Platense was the runner-up with 30 points. The 5th consecutive title was in 1917 after totalizing 35 points, being River Plate the runner-up with 30 points. The team also scored the mark of 58 goals with only 4 received in 20 fixtures. In addition, the squad achieved its third Copa Ibarguren with a smashing victory over Rosario Central by 6–0 in Avellaneda. The line-up was: Arduino; Ohaco, Reyes, Viazzi Olazar, Ricardo Pepe; Canavery, Vivaldi, Marcovecchio, Juan Hospital, Juan Perinetti.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: That same year Racing won another edition of Copa Ibarguren, defeating by 2nd. consecutive time Rosario Central by 3–2 at GEBA stadium. The line-up was: Crocce; Castagnola, Reyes; Vivaldi, Olazar, Pepe; Natalio Perinetti, Ohaco, Marcovecchio, Minondo, Juan Perinetti.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: One year later, Racing won its 6th. league title, remaining unbeaten after 19 games played, with 49 goals scored and 9 received. Racing also won another edition of Copa Ibarguren (5 in total) with a large victory over Newell's Old Boys by 4–0 at GEBA. The line-up: Crocce; Castagnola, Reyes; Ohaco, Marcovecchio, Macchiavello; Natalio Perinetti, Zabaleta, Vivaldo, Juan Hospital, Juan Perinetti.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1919 Racing moved to the dissident league "Asociación Amateurs de Football", winning the tournament whilst remaining unbeaten again. Racing played 23 fixtures, winning its 7th. consecutive title with 26 points and 43 goals scored. They won further titles in 1921 and 1925.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing was one of the founding members as the first professional league in Argentina, Liga Argentina de Football, that split from the AFA to organise its own championships. During those years Racing won the Copa Beccar Varela in 1932 (defeating Boca Juniors 3–0 in the final) and the Copa de Competencia (LAF) one year later, thrashing San Lorenzo de Almagro 4–0 in the final match. Despite the national cups won, Racing could not win any domestic championship during that period; its best performances were third places in 1932, 1933 and 1936. Evaristo Barrera was the top scorer with 34 goals in 1934 and 32 in 1936.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1945 Racing won the first edition of Copa de Competencia Británica defeating Boca Juniors by 4–1 in the final. Despite its domestic cup achievements, Racing didn't win any league title until 1949, starting with another brilliant era of three consecutive championships.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing won the championship three years running between 1949 and 1951. In 1949 Racing finished with 49 points. Besides, two players of the club, Juan José Pizzuti and Llamil Simes, were the topscorers of the tournament with 26 goals each. In 1950, Simes was the topscorer of the time again. That same year, Racing inaugurated its new venue, Estadio Presidente Perón, the second largest stadium of Argentina. Racing won its third consecutive league title in 1951 after beating Banfield 1–0 in a two-leg series. The starting line-up was Héctor Grisetti; Higinio García, José M. Pérez; Juán Gimenez, Alberto Rastelli, Jorge Gutiérrez; Mario Boyé, Manuel Ameal, Rubén Bravo, Llamil Simes, Ezra Sued, with Guillermo Stábile as coach.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing could not achieve a four-consecutive title after in 1952 the team finished 2nd to River Plate. The next league title came in 1958, and they were runners-up to San Lorenzo de Almagro the following year.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: During those years Racing Club had many notable players that made their contribution to the successful campaigns. Some of them were Norberto Mendez, Rubén Bravo, Llamil Simes, Mario Boyé, Alberto Rastelli, Pedro Dellacha, Ezra Sued, Roberto Blanco, Ernesto Gutiérrez, Pedro Manfredini, Arnaldo Balay, Juan José Pizzuti, Rubén Héctor Sosa and Omar Oreste Corbatta.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing finished 4th in 1960 with a top scoring 72 goals. During this tournament Racing also achieved its largest victory in Primera División, an 11–3 against Rosario Central.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1961 Racing won another league championship with manager Saúl Ongaro, while also being the highest scoring team in the league with 68 goals. The next year, Racing finished 9th and was also eliminated from the Copa Libertadores in the first stage. Racing won the Primera Division title again in 1966, scoring 70 goals.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In the 1967 Torneo Metropolitano Racing reached the final where the team lost to Estudiantes de La Plata 3–0. That same year Racing won the 1967 Copa Libertadores after beating Uruguayan team Nacional 2–1 in the final. Norberto Raffo was the top scorer with 13 goals.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: At the end of the year Racing won the Intercontinental Cup by defeating Celtic in a playoff game. The first match had been played at Glasgow where Racing was beaten 1–0 while they won the second game 2–1 in Avellaneda. The playoff was played in Montevideo where Racing achieved its second continental championship winning 1–0 with a goal scored by Juan Carlos Cárdenas. The starting line-up for the playoff match on 4 November was: Agustín Cejas; Oscar Martín, Roberto Perfumo, Alfio Basile, Nelson Chabay; João Cardoso, Juan Carlos Rulli, Juan J. Rodríguez, Humberto Maschio; Norberto Raffo, Juan Carlos Cárdenas. Juan José Pizzuti was the coach.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: During the 1970s Racing did not win any title, although the team finished 2nd to San Lorenzo in the 1972 Metropolitano, with 43 points in 34 matches. That year was the debut of Ubaldo Fillol, who some regard as the best Argentine goalkeeper ever. Fillol set a record of 6 penalty shots stopped in the same season. From 1974 and 1978 Racing made poor campaigns and was near relegation in 1976 when the team finished next to last (San Telmo was finally relegated).


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1983, Racing was relegated to the Primera B by finishing last in the aggregate table, which was determined by a points average of the previous two seasons. However, the relegation system was changed, and if it had not been changed, Racing probably wouldn't have been relegated. The old system had the two last-placed teams go down, and Racing finished 17th out of 19 that year. The first year in the second division, Racing finished second behind Deportivo Español and so had to play a promotion playoff, where Racing eliminated Deportivo Morón and Lanús but lost to Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP) in the finals (1–3 and 2–4).


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: One year later, after two seasons in the second division, Racing returned to the top division for the 1986–87 season after winning a playoff for the second promotion place against Atlanta in December 1985. Racing won the first game 4–0 and the second match finished 1–1, with Racing winning the series 5–1 on aggregate.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing won its third international competition in 1988, when the team won the first edition of the 1988 Supercopa Libertadores, defeating Brazilian team Cruzeiro in the finals, with Alfio Basile still as coach. That same year Racing won the non-official Supercopa Interamericana beating Herediano from Costa Rica 3–0. The following year, Racing played the inaugural edition of the Recopa Sudamericana in 1989 against the winners of the 1988 Copa Libertadores, Club Nacional. Nacional won the first leg in Montevideo 1–0; Racing wasn't able to turn the score around in the second leg in Buenos Aires, and the Uruguayan club won the title.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 1992, Racing played the Supercopa Libertadores finals against Cruzeiro again. In the first match, Cruzeiro defeated them 4–0 in Belo Horizonte. Racing won the second match 1–0 but the cup was awarded to the Brazilian team with a 4–1 aggregate score.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing came very close to winning the league title in the 90s; in the 1993 Apertura they finished third, tied with Velez and just one point from the champion, River Plate. In the 1995 Apertura they finished runner-ups.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In July 1998, club president Daniel Lalín declared bankruptcy, leaving many supporters outraged. Lalin had been accused as the main reason for the club's debt because he spent large amounts of money on players, instead of bringing them up from the youth academy. In March 1999, a top member of the club said Racing "had officially ceased to exist". However, with the massive support of the fans, they convinced the club to implement the Trust law, saving it from liquidation. In December 2000, the club was taken over by "Blanquiceleste SA" and was managed by the company until 2008.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: They won the league title in December 2001 for the first time in 35 years, and the title was celebrated at Estadio Jose Amalfitani, Vélez Sarsfield's home stadium, after the last fixture with them finished in a draw.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In 2008, the club was almost relegated and had to play a promotion play-off against Belgrano. This was due to poor performances in the last 3 seasons, including a last-place finish in the 2008 Clausura. The first leg was played in Córdoba on 25 June and ended 1–1. In the second leg, Racing won 1–0 at home, and with a 2–1 aggregate score, was able to maintain its permanence in the top tier.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: In June 2014, Diego Cocca was hired as head coach. Two days after Cocca signed his contract, former player and fan favorite Diego Milito left Inter Milan and returned to the club to play the 2014 Torneo de Transición. In December 2014, Racing won its 17th Primera División title in the last fixture of the tournament. If Racing drew but River Plate won their match against Quilmes, then the title would've gone to River. However, the team defeated Godoy Cruz 1–0 to secure the 1st place and be crowned champions for the first time in 13 years.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: They won the league in 2018–19. Lisandro López was the top scorer of the tournament with 17 goals, and at the age of 36 he was the oldest player to be league top scorer. In December 2019, Racing became champion of the Trofeo de Campeones de la Superliga Argentina by beating the defending champion of the Copa de la Superliga, Tigre, 2–0, with both goals from Matías Rojas.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: Racing Club plays its home games at "Estadio Presidente Perón" (named in honor of former President of Argentina Juan Domingo Perón), popularly known as "El Cilindro de Avellaneda" (due to its cylindrical shape) and "the Coliseum". It was opened in 1950 and restructured in 1997.


title: Racing Club de Avellaneda

text: The field measures 105 x 70 m. Racing's stadium is the second largest in Argentina after the River Plate stadium. In the beginning, the venue could host a capacity of 120,000 but subsequent restructurings reduced its capacity to 64,161.


title: Kung Fury

text: Kung Fury is a 2015 English-language Swedish martial arts comedy featurette film written and directed by David Sandberg. It pays homage to 1980s martial arts and police action films. The film stars Sandberg in the title role, Jorma Taccone, Leopold Nilsson, and a cameo appearance by David Hasselhoff.


title: Kung Fury

text: The film was crowdfunded through Kickstarter in the beginning of 2014, with pledges reaching US$630,019, exceeding the original target goal of $200,000, but short of the feature film goal of $1 million. It was selected to screen in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, losing to "Rate Me" from the United Kingdom.


title: Kung Fury

text: Sometime in the early 1980s, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Kung Fury and his partner Dragon apprehend a red ninja in a back alley, but Dragon is sliced in half by the ninja while Kung Fury is suddenly struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, giving him extraordinary kung fu powers that enable him to defeat his foe. Years later in 1985, after defeating a rogue arcade machine robot, Kung Fury quits the force when he is assigned to partner with Triceracop, fearing that he would lose another partner in the line of duty. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", enters the timeline and remotely guns down the police chief and attacks the precinct through a mobile phone. Intent on avenging the chief, Kung Fury has computer whiz Hackerman send him back in time to kill Hitler in Nazi Germany. A glitch in the system, however, sends him back into the Viking Age. After Kung Fury meets the Viking valkyries Barbarianna and Katana, the Norse god Thor sends him to Nazi Germany for him to finish his job.


title: Kung Fury

text: Upon his arrival, Kung Fury singlehandedly mows down dozens of Nazi soldiers with his kung fu skills, but is gunned down by Hitler using a Gatling-type gun from inside his podium. Suddenly, Thor, Hackerman, Triceracop, the Viking valkyries, and a tyrannosaurus hack into the timeline and kill the rest of the Nazi army while the tyrannosaurus squares off against Hitler's robotic "Reichsadler". After being revived by Hackerman, Kung Fury gives Hitler an uppercut to the testicle before Thor drops his hammer on the Nazi leader and his robotic eagle. Seeing his mission as accomplished, Kung Fury returns to his timeline.


title: Kung Fury

text: Back in 1985 Miami, Kung Fury once again battles and defeats the arcade machine robot, but notices a Swastika on the robot's body while Hitler and his "Reichsadler" enter the timeline, vowing revenge on Kung Fury.


title: Kung Fury

text: David Sandberg is a Swedish filmmaker who had previously directed television commercials and music videos. In 2012, he quit the commercial directing business and focused on writing a script for an action comedy film set in the 1980s, inspired by action films of that era. He initially spent US$5,000 on producing and shooting footage with his friends, which became the trailer.


title: Kung Fury

text: In December 2013, Sandberg released the trailer and began a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the film's production with the goal of raising US$200,000 to produce a 30-minute version of the film and stream it online for free. A second goal was added with the target set to $1 million to rewrite the story into a full-length feature and a possible distribution deal. Most of the raw footage over green screen had been filmed using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a Sony FS700, but additional funding was required for post-production.


title: Kung Fury

text: Due to a limited budget, Sandberg shot the majority of the film at his office in Umeå, Sweden, using digital effects to replicate the streets of Miami. As he could only afford one police uniform during the production of the trailer, he filmed the police precinct scene by shooting each extra separately and compositing them in the scene. The single-shot scene where Kung Fury dispatches dozens of Nazi soldiers was achieved by combining the primary take of Sandberg's moves with over 60 takes of individual extras attacking him.


title: Kung Fury

text: On 30 July 2014, Sandberg announced that he and his crew had begun filming new footage, with the 30 backers who pledged to be in the film as extras. Filming was also done in Stockholm for additional scenes and stunts. For the scene with Barbarianna riding a giant wolf, Sandberg used stock footage of a black wolf from the website GreenScreen Animals, as sourcing a real wolf was impossible in Sweden. Miniatures were used in Kung Fury's fight scenes involving the arcade machine robot and the Red Ninja. The animated "Heaven" sequence was produced by French video game developer Old Skull Games.


title: Kung Fury

text: In keeping with the film's '80s theme, the visual effects artists softened the film clarity and added videotape wear effects to give the illusion of it being a worn VHS copy being played on an old VCR. One instance of this effect is in the scene where the Viking Babe Katana summons Thor. The scene was in the trailer with Joanna Häggblom originally as Katana, but because Häggblom was replaced by Helene Ahlson for the actual film, visual scratches and distortion effects were added to the scene to mask the cast change.


title: Kung Fury

text: The soundtrack score was composed by Swedish synthwave musicians Mitch Murder and Lost Years, with additional music by Patrik Öberg, Christoffer Ling, Highway Superstar, and Betamaxx. The official soundtrack album was released on vinyl record on 8 July 2015.


title: Kung Fury

text: The film made its debut at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and premiered on YouTube, Steam, SVT2 in Sweden, and the El Rey Network in the United States, on 28 May 2015. By 1 June, the film had received over 10 million views on YouTube. , the video has scored over 37 million views on YouTube. The film has also been made available on VoD platforms through a distribution deal with Under the Milky Way.


title: Kung Fury

text: "Kung Fury" was met with positive reviews from critics. Tyler Richardson of "Latino-Review" gave the film an A, commenting that "What "Black Dynamite" got so perfect about Blaxploitation films, this does wonderfully for 80s cop movies." Jonny Bunning of Bloody Disgusting gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five skulls, saying that ""Kung Fury" is "The Avengers" if it had been made in the 90s."


title: Kung Fury

text: Todd Brown of Twitch Film also praised the film, calling it "a thirty-minute long, nonstop assault of some of the most astounding visual gags ever assembled in one place. "Kung Fury" knows its audience, knows it damn well, and while it has little to offer to anyone outside of its particular niche, for people "within" that niche this is absolute gold." Scott Weinberg of Nerdist Industries called it "a 31-minute masterpiece that feels like it fell right out of 1985 and hit just about every awesome b-movie genre on the way down." Melissa Locker of "Vanity Fair" praised the film, jokingly calling it "the best movie ever, of course."


title: Kung Fury

text: "Kung Fury: Street Rage" is the companion video game to the film published by Hello There AB released in June 2015, paying homage to classic beat 'em up games such as "Streets of Rage", "Double Dragon", and "Final Fight". The gameplay also resembles "One Finger Death Punch" by Silver Dollar Games, with the player pressing left or right of the character to attack in either direction.


title: Kung Fury

text: An upgraded version of the game, titled "Kung Fury: Street Rage - The Arcade Strikes Back", was released on PlayStation 4 and Windows in December 2015. The game features additional boss fights and enables players to fight as Kung Fury's allies Triceracop, Barbarianna, and Hackerman.


title: Kung Fury

text: Another expansion DLC, titled "A Day at the Beach", was released on Windows and macOS in November 2021. The updates features a new story, Co-op mode and a new playable character as David Hasselhoff.


title: Kung Fury

text: On 28 May 2016, it was announced on the Laser Unicorns Facebook page that "Kung Fury II The Movie" is in development.


title: Kung Fury

text: Sandberg worked with producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg on a full-length feature film version of "Kung Fury". In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", he stated that the project would be a "clean slate", containing no footage from the short film but taking place in the same universe. In February 2018, Michael Fassbender and Arnold Schwarzenegger were confirmed to star alongside Hasselhoff in the upcoming film. On 16 May 2019, it was announced that Creasun Entertainment USA purchased a majority stake in the film's rights and co-produced it with Argent Pictures. Filming commenced on 29 July 2019 in Bulgaria and Germany. On 13 September 2019, Schwarzenegger confirmed the film's title as "Kung Fury 2", that he would portray the President of the United States, and that filming was to begin that day. On 25 September, the official Laser Unicorns Instagram page confirmed that "Kung Fury 2" had wrapped filming. It is scheduled to be released sometime in 2022.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Joseph Eric Thornton (born July 2, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He has previously played for the Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first overall by the Bruins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft and went on to play seven seasons with the club, three as its captain. During the 2005–06 season, he was traded to the Sharks. Splitting the campaign between the two teams, he received the Art Ross and Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's leading point-scorer and most valuable player, respectively. Thornton would go on to another 14 seasons with the Sharks, including four seasons as team captain and a run to the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton's on-ice vision, strength on the puck, deft passing ability and power forward style of play have led to him becoming one of the league's premier top line centres. He is widely regarded as one of the best passers of all time, and he is one of only 7 players in history with 1,100 NHL assists. His nickname "Jumbo Joe" is a nod to his large stature and to Jumbo the elephant, who died in St. Thomas, Ontario, where Thornton was raised.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton was the last active player in any of the major North American professional sports leagues to have played in the 1990s, and the last active NHL player to have played in an NHL game against Wayne Gretzky.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton grew up playing minor hockey in his hometown of St. Thomas, Ontario, for the St. Thomas Travellers. He played "AA" hockey for the Travelers and in peewee won an Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship in 1992–93. His Bantam year was the first for the newly created "AAA" Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs organization, and Thornton joined the "AAA" Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario for the 1993–94 season. The creation of this organization led to the St. Thomas Minor Hockey Association to compete at the "A" level. During his bantam year, he appeared in six games for the Junior B St. Thomas Stars of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), scoring eight points in six games as a 14-year-old. The following season, Thornton joined the Stars full-time and reeled off 104 points over 50 games as a 15-year-old, and was subsequently drafted second overall in the 1995 OHL Draft to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds behind Daniel Tkaczuk, who was selected by the Barrie Colts.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Beginning in 1995–96, Thornton began a two-year career in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Greyhounds. He posted a 76-point season in his first year, earning both OHL and CHL Rookie of the Year honours. The following season, Thornton improved to 41 goals and 122 points, second overall in League scoring behind Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals, and was named to the OHL second All-Star team.


title: Joe Thornton

text: After his second OHL season, Thornton was selected first overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins. Thornton suffered a fractured arm in the Bruins' pre-season but made their roster for the 1997–98 campaign. He scored his first career NHL goal on December 3, 1997, in a 3–0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. Bruins head coach Pat Burns was measured in his deployment of Thornton, using him almost exclusively on the fourth line and making him a regular healthy scratch. Averaging eight minutes and five seconds of ice time per game over the course of the season, he registered three goals and seven points in 55 games as a rookie. In the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs, Thornton went scoreless in six games.


title: Joe Thornton

text: In 1998–99, Thornton saw significantly more ice time, averaging 15 minutes and 20 seconds per game, and improved to 41 points in 81 games, as well as a 9-point effort in 11 playoff games.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton continued to build into a key player in the Bruins' line-up, increasing his points total in each of the following two campaigns. Prior to the 2002–03 season, he was named team captain, succeeding Jason Allison, who was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 2001; the captaincy position was vacant for a full season after Allison's departure. In his first season as team captain, Thornton recorded 68 points over 66 games. The following year, he notched his first career 100-point season with 36 goals, a career-high, and 65 assists. He ranked third in NHL point-scoring, behind Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche and Markus Näslund from the Vancouver Canucks.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton's production declined to 73 points in 77 games in the 2003–04 campaign. He suffered a fractured right cheekbone in a fight with New York Rangers centre Eric Lindros during a game on January 19, 2004. The two power forwards fought after Lindros cross-checked Thornton in the head. The injury required surgery, keeping him out of the line-up for three games. The 2003–04 campaign also saw a drop in Thornton's goal-scoring production that has never since rebounded; his last 30-goal season came during the 2002–03 season.


title: Joe Thornton

text: During the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, Thornton went abroad to play for HC Davos of the Swiss National League A (NLA). He played on a line with fellow NHL players Rick Nash and Niklas Hagman, helping HC Davos to win the League championship and the Spengler Cup. Nash and Thornton have subsequently kept in contact with HC Davos and their longtime coach Arno del Curto; Thornton returns to train with the club for up to a month each summer.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Ahead of the NHL resumption in 2005–06, Thornton became a restricted free agent in summer 2005. Negotiations on a new contract were strained: Thornton was reportedly unhappy with the direction of the Bruins franchise, and upset with criticism of his play in the Bruins' early playoff exit in 2004. Boston's front office was apparently unhappy with Thornton's leadership style and for not raising his level of play during the playoffs. Nevertheless, Thornton re-signed with Boston on August 11, 2005, to a three-year, $20 million contract.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton began the 2005–06 season strongly (33 points in 24 games), making him the team's leading scorer by a substantial margin, but the Bruins were struggling in the standings. On November 30, 2005, he was traded to the San Jose Sharks in a four-player deal, which sent forwards Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau and defenceman Brad Stuart to Boston in exchange for Thornton. Mike O'Connell, the Bruins general manager who traded Thornton, stated in June 2011 that he "would still make the trade", and that it was "satisfying" that Boston had won a Stanley Cup before Thornton's new team had. O'Connell questioned Thornton's character both on- and off-ice at the time, contrasting him with Patrice Bergeron, who was playing his second full season with the Bruins when the trade took place. O'Connell recalled making a decision with assistant general manager Jeff Gorton to build the team around Bergeron instead of Thornton. Despite O'Connell's stance, the trade is widely considered to be one of the most-lopsided deals in NHL history.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Upon arriving in San Jose, Thornton improved the Sharks' fortunes and found instant chemistry with winger Jonathan Cheechoo. During the absence of usual alternate captain Alyn McCauley from the San Jose line-up, Thornton donned the "A" for the first time as a Shark in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes on March 30, 2006, and wore the "A" whenever McCauley was out of the line-up for the remainder of the season. Tallying 92 points in 58 games with the Sharks after the trade, Thornton finished the season with a league-leading 96 assists and 125 points total to earn the Art Ross Trophy as the league's top scorer. He became the first player to win the award while splitting the season between two teams. Due to Thornton's success, Cheechoo also enjoyed a career-season, winning the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal-scorer with 56 goals. However, in the 2006 playoffs, Thornton was once again criticized for his play, as his production decreased to 2 goals and 9 points in 11 games as the Sharks were ousted in the second round. In the off-season, Thornton was honoured for his regular season play and was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league' regular season MVP to go with his Art Ross Trophy. He is the only player in NHL history to win the Hart Trophy while playing for two different teams in the same season.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton began the 2006–07 season being awarded a permanent alternate captaincy, but struggled in the first half of the season while suffering from a toe injury that did not heal until January 2007. After recovering, Thornton enjoyed a productive second half, battling Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby for a second-consecutive scoring title late in the year, eventually finishing six points behind Crosby with 114. With a league-leading 92 assists, Thornton became only the third player in NHL history to record back-to-back 90-assist seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton began the 2007 playoffs by recording six assists in the Sharks' first-round series against the Nashville Predators. Advancing to the second round against the Detroit Red Wings, he recorded a goal and three assists in the first three games of the series. However, Thornton was effectively neutralized by Red Wings defenceman Nicklas Lidström, for the remainder of the series as the Sharks were eliminated in six games.


title: Joe Thornton

text: In the off-season, Thornton signed a three-year contract extension worth US$21.6 million that kept him with the Sharks until June 2011. In the 2007–08 season, Thornton finished with 96 points (29 goals and 67 assists) to finish fifth in NHL scoring. In 2008–09, Thornton was named captain of the Western Conference for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal. He completed the season with 86 points. In the subsequent playoffs, he recorded a goal and four assists in six games as the Sharks were eliminated in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks.


title: Joe Thornton

text: In September 2009, before the start of the 2009–10 season, the Sharks acquired Dany Heatley in a three-player trade that sent Thornton's struggling former linemate Jonathan Cheechoo, left-winger Milan Michálek and a second-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators. Thornton, Heatley, and Sharks captain Patrick Marleau were joined on the Sharks' top line and enjoyed immediate offensive success together. The trio helped the Sharks to one of their best-ever regular seasons in franchise history. Although the line's production slowed down in the second half of the season, all three Sharks players finished in the League's top 15 in point-scoring. Thornton's 89 points ranked eighth, while Marleau and Heatley finished 14th and 15th in League scoring with 83 and 82 points, respectively. The Sharks entered the 2010 playoffs as the first seed in the Western Conference for the second-consecutive year. After advancing past the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings in the first two rounds, the Sharks were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals. Thornton finished the playoffs with a career-high 12 points in 15 games.


title: Joe Thornton

text: After the elimination, team management vacated all the Sharks' captaincy positions, including Thornton's role as one of the alternate captains. Prior to the 2010–11 season, he was chosen to replace the retiring Rob Blake as the eighth captain in team history on October 7, 2010. Nine days later, he signed a three-year, US$21 million contract extension with the Sharks. Near the start of the 2010–11 season, Thornton scored the fourth hat-trick of his NHL career against Martin Brodeur in a 5–2 win over the New Jersey Devils. In November 2010, Thornton was suspended two games for a controversial hit to the head against St. Louis Blues forward David Perron. Perron missed the remaining 72 games of the 2010–11 season due to post-concussion syndrome. He returned after missing 97 games over 13 months (394 days) on December 3, 2011. Later in the campaign, Thornton eclipsed Marleau as the Sharks' all-time leader in assists. Thornton scored his 1,000th career point with a goal in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes on April 8, 2011. In the first round of the 2011 playoffs, Thornton scored the series-winning goal in overtime of Game 6 against the Los Angeles Kings to advance the Sharks to the second round.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On January 24, 2014, Thornton signed a three-year contract extension with the Sharks through to the 2017 season.


title: Joe Thornton

text: At the end of the 2013–14 season, Thornton ranked 46th on the all-time points leaders (1,194) and 24th on the all-time assist leaders (852) for the NHL. He also became the San Jose Sharks' all-time leader in assists with 567. Thornton finished the 2013–14 season with 11 goals and 65 assists as the Sharks amassed 111 points, just six short of their franchise's all-time-high mark, and were among the favourites to win the Stanley Cup. Facing their in-state rival Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2014 playoffs, the Sharks won the first three games in the best-of-seven series. However, Los Angeles won the next four games and became just the fourth team in NHL history to win a playoff series after trailing three games to none. Thornton finished the playoffs with just two goals and an assist.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On August 20, 2014, Sharks head coach Todd McLellan announced that Thornton had been stripped of his captaincy and that the Sharks would start the 2014–15 season without a captain. Joe Pavelski was eventually named Sharks' captain at the start of the 2015–16 season.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On January 26, 2015, Thornton recorded his 1,300th career point during a game against the Colorado Avalanche with his assist on a Joe Pavelski goal, Thornton's second assist of the game. Thornton is the 33rd player in NHL history to reach 1,300 points, second among active players (Jaromír Jágr being first). Thornton recorded 16 goals and 49 assists during the 2014–15 season as the Sharks failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2003.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton finished the 2015–16 season with 19 goals and 63 assists as the Sharks returned to the playoffs after a one-year slump. In the 2016 playoffs, the Sharks beat the Kings in the first round in five games, avenging a previous loss to them two years earlier. In the second round, they defeated the Nashville Predators in seven games and advanced to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2011, where the Sharks defeated the St. Louis Blues in six games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history. This was also Thornton's first time playing in the Finals in his career. However, the Sharks lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in the Finals. Thornton finished fifth in playoff points with 21 and second in playoff assists with 18. At the end of the season, Thornton was named a Second-Team All-Star for the 2015–16 season.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On March 6, 2017, in a game against the Winnipeg Jets, Thornton recorded his 1,000th NHL assist, becoming the 13th player in NHL history to reach the milestone. Since Thornton started playing in the NHL in 1997, he has had the most assists among the league's active players.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On July 1, 2017, Thornton signed a one-year contract to return to the Sharks for the 2017–18 season. In January 2018, Thornton injured his ACL and MCL and missed the remainder of the season recovering from surgery.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On July 2, 2018, Thornton signed a one-year contract to return to the Sharks for the 2018–19 season. On November 13, 2018, he scored his 400th career goal to go along with 1,500 games played and 1,000 assists. , this feat has only been achieved by six other players in NHL history. On February 11, 2019, in a 7–2 win over the Vancouver Canucks, Thornton passed Gordie Howe for ninth place on the NHL all-time assists list. Thornton and the Sharks would reach the Western Conference Finals, though they were knocked out by the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in six games. Thornton put up four goals and six assists during the playoffs.


title: Joe Thornton

text: He re-signed to a one-year, $2 million contract on September 6, 2019 to remain with the Sharks. He recorded his 1,500th career point on February 4, 2020, in a 3–1 win over the Calgary Flames. The Sharks posted a disappointing record this season, and did not make the post-season. Thornton expressed dissatisfaction with not being traded to a playoff team after the February 24 trade deadline to give him the opportunity to win his first Stanley Cup, as had happened with longtime teammate Marleau.


title: Joe Thornton

text: With the 2020–21 NHL season delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Thornton returned to HC Davos of the National League on October 15, 2020, for a third stint. Having held Swiss citizenship since 2019, he did not count against the import limit.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On October 16, 2020, Thornton signed a one-year, $700,000 contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. On December 14, 2020, Thornton left Davos to return to Toronto for the start of training camp. On January 16, 2021, Thornton scored his first goal as a Maple Leaf. On January 22, 2021, Thornton suffered a fractured rib injury after getting hit by Edmonton Oilers forward Josh Archibald. Thornton returned to the lineup on February 27, recording 20 points in 44 games. Thornton scored one goal in the Maple Leafs seven-game series loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.


title: Joe Thornton

text: On August 13, 2021, Thornton returned for his 24th NHL season, signing a one-year, $750,000 contract with the Florida Panthers.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton was named to Canada's national under-20 team for the 1997 World Junior Championships in Switzerland. At 17 years old, he recorded four points in seven games, helping Canada to a gold medal. Two years later, he made his debut with the Canadian men's team at the 2001 World Championships in Germany. Thornton collected a goal and an assist over six games, as Canada was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the United States.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton's next international appearance occurred at the 2004 World Cup. Established by then as a premier player in the NHL, Thornton tied for third in tournament scoring with six points (a goal and five assists) over six games. He notched two assists in the championship game against Finland, helping Canada to a 3–2 win. At the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria, Thornton led all scorers with 16 points (six goals and ten assists) in nine games and was named tournament MVP. Canada advanced to the gold medal game, where they were shut-out 3–0 by the Czech Republic.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton made his first appearance in the 2006 Winter Olympics. He recorded three points as Canada was shut out in three of six games, losing to Russia in the quarterfinals. Four years later, he was again chosen to Canada's Olympic team for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. Thornton was joined by his Sharks linemates Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau, as well as Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle, on the squad. The offensive trio of Sharks played on the same line in the Olympics, as well. Thornton registered a goal and an assist over seven games, helping Canada to a gold medal finish.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton was later invited to the Canada's hockey camp for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but did not attend due to his son being hospitalized with an illness. He was named to the Canadian roster for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey held in Toronto.


title: Joe Thornton

text: Thornton is married to Tabea Pfendsack, whom he met while playing in Switzerland during the 2004–05 NHL lockout. The couple has a daughter and a son. Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Thornton became a naturalized American citizen in July 2009 at a ceremony in Campbell, California, a suburb of San Jose; he later also received a Swiss passport. Joe and former Sharks teammate Scott Thornton are first cousins.


title: Joe Thornton

text: The Tragically Hip lead vocalist Gord Downie's song "You Me and the B's" (from his 2017 solo album "Introduce Yerself") includes a lament about Thornton's poorly-received trade from the Bruins to the Sharks in 2005.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: "Without You" is a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of British rock group Badfinger, and first released on their 1970 album "No Dice". The power ballad has been recorded by over 180 artists, and versions released as singles by Harry Nilsson (1971), T. G. Sheppard (1983) and Mariah Carey (1994) became international best-sellers. The Nilsson version was included in 2021's "Rolling Stone"s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Paul McCartney once described the ballad as "the killer song of all time".


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: In 1972, writers Ham and Evans received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: First recorded by the rock group Badfinger, the song was composed by two of its members. Pete Ham wrote a song originally titled "If It's Love", but it had lacked a strong chorus. At the time of writing, the band shared residence with the Mojos at 7 Park Avenue in Golders Green. One evening, in the midst of the parties, songwriting, touring, in Golders Green, Ham and his girlfriend Beverly Tucker were about to go out for the evening. But just as they were leaving Tom Evans said he had an idea for a song – Ham said, "Not tonight, I've promised Bev." But she thought he would be wondering if he had done the right thing later, if he went out. She told him, "Go into the studio, I'm fine about it..." He replied, "Your mouth is smiling, but your eyes are sad." The song Ham wrote that night was called "If it's Love" and has the verse "Well I can't forget tomorrow, when I think of all my sorrow, I had you there but then I let you go, and now it's only fair that I should let you know... if it's love". But Ham wasn't happy with the chorus.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it, and the track was slotted to close the first side of their 1970 album "No Dice". Badfinger's recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors' versions, was not released as a single in Europe or North America.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: The two writers of the song, Ham and Evans, later committed suicide due to legal and financial issues. In Evans' case, it was a dispute over songwriting royalties for "Without You" that precipitated his action. Songwriting royalties had become the subject of constant legal wrangling for Evans, and in 1983, following an acrimonious argument with his bandmate Joey Molland over the royalties for the song, Evans hanged himself.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: Harry Nilsson, at the time best known for his hit "Everybody's Talkin'" and for composing "One", recorded by Three Dog Night, heard Badfinger's recording of "Without You" at a party, and mistook it for a Beatles song. After realising it was not, he decided to cover the song for his 1971 album "Nilsson Schmilsson". The single was released by RCA in the autumn of 1971, and it first charted on radio stations across the US in early December. "Without You" debuted at number 99 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on 18 December 1971, and on its tenth week, in the chart dated 19 February 1972, started its four-week run at number one. "Billboard" ranked it as the number-four single of 1972. The record topped "Billboard"s Easy Listening chart for five weeks.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: The record spent five weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart, beginning on 11 March, eventually selling almost 800,000 copies. It went to number one in several other countries, including Australia (for five weeks), Ireland (two weeks) and New Zealand (two weeks).


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: The single, Grammy-nominated for Record of the Year, was produced by Richard Perry, who later explained, "It was a different record for its time. It was a big ballad with a heavy backbeat, and although many artists have cut songs like it since, no one was doing it then." Gary Wright, who worked with Badfinger on George Harrison's projects, played the piano. Also featured are Klaus Voormann (bass), Jim Keltner (drums) and John Uribe (acoustic guitar). The string and horn arrangements are by Paul Buckmaster. In 1973, the single won Nilsson the Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. While Nilsson rarely gave live concerts, he did perform the song with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September 1992.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey's version, based on Harry Nilsson's version rather than the Badfinger original, was released as the third single off "Music Box" in the first quarter of 1994, its US release date of 24 January 1994 falling just over a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack on 15 January 1994. In the US "Without You" was promoted as a double A-side with "Never Forget You". While she had heard Nilsson's version as a very young girl, Carey's decision to remake his hit was based on a chance hearing during the time she was recording "Music Box": "I heard that song in a restaurant and just knew it would be a huge international hit" recalls Carey. Carey's version has been considered very popular on talent shows. "Without You" was later included on some non-US pressings of her compilation albums "#1's" (1998) and "#1 to Infinity" (2015), and her 2001 compilation, "Greatest Hits". "Without You" was also included on her 2008 compilation "The Ballads".


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: In February 2008, Carey's version was performed in severely broken English on the Bulgarian talent show "Music Idol" by contestant Valentina Hasan, spawning a global meme called "Ken Lee" (misinterpretation of the line "Can't live").


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: "Without You" reached number three on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 for six weeks, remaining in the top 40 for 21 weeks and on the chart for 23. It reached number two on both the "Billboard" Hot 100 Airplay and "Radio & Records" pop charts (ending Carey's streak of consecutive number ones on the latter chart; all ten of her previous singles had gone to the top), and number three on the Hot 100 Singles Sales. It was certified platinum by the RIAA and sold 600,000 copies domestically. It was ranked 16 on the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts. In Canada, it peaked at number four.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: "Without You" remains Carey's biggest hit across Europe. In the United Kingdom, where Carey had yet to score a number one hit, "Without You" made its UK chart debut at number one where it remained for four weeks in total, and later ended as the 7th best-selling single of 1994 in the United Kingdom. Additionally, Carey achieved a "Chart Double" in the UK, with both "Without You" and the album "Music Box" holding the top spot at the same time. In the UK, "Without You" was Carey's only number-one solo hit although she has since topped the charts with her collaboration with Westlife: "Against All Odds" in 2000, until Carey scored a second number-one solo hit with "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in 2020. "Without You" was certified platinum in the UK with combined sales and streams of 600,000. It was a runaway success across Europe, in which it topped the European Hot 100 Singles chart for two weeks. "Without You" reached number one for ten weeks in Switzerland; eight weeks in Austria and Sweden; seven weeks in Belgium; five weeks in Ireland and the Netherlands; four weeks in Germany and Iceland; and two weeks in Scotland, where Carey's success had previously been limited. The song also peaked at number two in France and Denmark; at number three in Norway; and at number four in Lithuania. "Without You" was certified platinum in Germany and Austria by IFPI, and gold in France by SNEP.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: Being a number-three hit for Carey in Australia, "Without You" topped the charts in New Zealand for one week. It was certified 2× platinum in Australia by ARIA, and gold in New Zealand by RIANZ.


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: Scottish newspaper "Aberdeen Press and Journal" described the song as "inspirational". Larry Flick from "Billboard" wrote, "Carey offers a faithful rendition of the eternally sweet pop ballad". He added, "Song's arrangement is infused with all the romance and drama it requires, with Carey rising above the mix with a vocal that is more heartfelt and gutsy than note-scaling and acrobatic." Troy J. Augusto from "Cash Box" stated that "Carey has thankfully learned the important difference between dynamic control and sonic overkill, never more evident than here. Her recent short concert tour revealed Mariah to be an anxious, under-confident live performer, but this song, with its accompanying tale of her own childhood loneliness made "Without You" the show's climax. Expect a long chart life." David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly" called Carey's cover a "by-the-numbers remake of Nilsson's melodramatic 1972 hit." John Kilgo from "The Network Forty" wrote that "exhibiting her dynamic vocal range with powerful emotion, Mariah scores again with her rendition of Harry Nilsson's chart topper." A reviewer from "People Magazine" noted that "she takes on a sensuality—in a lower register—that is often sacrificed for her "look Ma, no hands" vocal fireworks." Pop Rescue stated that "Without You" gives the singer "a ton of space to really let her vocals reach wherever they want to", adding it as "an epic track, and a fantastic showcase of her vocals." Stephen Holden of "Rolling Stone" called it the "likeliest contender" for ballads like "I Will Always Love You", praising how Carey "dips into her lower register and is accompanied by backup singers (including herself) magnified to sound like a mighty gospel chorus."


title: Without You (Badfinger song)

text: On 15 May 1995, at ASCAP's twelfth annual Pop Music Awards in Beverly Hills, California, "Without You" was recognised as one of the 50 most-played songs of 1994 (due largely to Mariah Carey's recording). Discrepancies in ASCAP's books, resulting from a lawsuit against the Ham and Evans estates by their former manager, incorrectly attributed the song as being composed not only by Ham and Evans, but also by Badfinger's other bandmembers, Mike Gibbins and Joey Molland, and their former manager, Bill Collins. This designation and a lack of correction by ASCAP prompted the Ham Estate to boycott the ceremony. The song was also nominated for "Song of the Year" in London at the Ivor Novello Awards.


title: Oligopoly

text: An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, "oligos" "few" and πωλεῖν, "polein" "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result from the desire to maximize profits, which can lead to collusion between companies. This reduces competition, increases prices for consumers, and lowers wages for employees.


title: Oligopoly

text: Many industries have been cited as oligopolistic, including civil aviation, electricity providers, the telecommunications sector, Rail freight markets, food processing, funeral services, sugar refining, beer making, pulp and paper making, and automobile manufacturing.


title: Oligopoly

text: Most countries have laws outlawing anti-competitive behavior. EU competition law prohibits anti-competitive practices such as price-fixing and manipulating market supply and trade among competitors. In the US, the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission are tasked with stopping collusion"." However, corporations can evade legal consequences through tacit collusion, as collusion can only be proven through actual and direct communication between companies.


title: Oligopoly

text: It is possible for oligopolies to develop without collusion and in the presence of fierce competition among market participants. This is a situation similar to perfect competition, where oligopolists have their own market structure. In this situation, each company in the oligopoly has a large share in the industry and plays a pivotal, unique role. With post-socialist economies, oligopolies may be particularly pronounced. For example in Armenia, where business elites enjoy oligopoly, 19% of the whole economy is monopolized (BEEPS 2009 database), making it the most monopolized country in the region.


title: Oligopoly

text: With few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of their competition. According to game theory, the decisions of one firm influence and are influenced by the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants. Entry barriers include high investment requirements, strong consumer loyalty for existing brands, and economies of scale. These barriers facilitate the formation and sustainability of collusion by stifling competition.


title: Oligopoly

text: Oligopolistic companies can form when several companies expand into large business groups by appreciating and increasing capital to buy smaller companies in the same markets, which increases the profit margins of the business.The fundamental reason oligopolies form is related to future retaliation (deviation). In a market with low entry barriers, price collusion between established sellers makes new sellers vulnerable to undercutting. Recognizing this vulnerability, the established sellers will reach a tacit understanding to raise entry barriers to prevent new companies from entering the market. Even if this requires cutting prices, all companies benefit because they reduce the risk of loss created by new competition. In other words, firms will lose less for deviation and thus have more incentive to undercut collusion prices (obtain short-term deviated profit) when more join the market.The rate at which firms interact with one another is also expected to affect the incentives for undercutting other firms as the short-term rewards for undercutting competitors will be short lived where interaction is frequent and a degree of 'punishment' can expected swifty by other firms, but longer-lived where interaction is infrequent. Resultingly greater market transparency, in this case pertaining to the knowledge other firms have of prices and quantities of sales in rival firms, would decrease collusion. As oligopolistic companies would expect retaliation sooner where changes in their prices and quantity of sales are clear to their rivals.


title: Oligopoly

text: In developed economies, oligopolies dominate, as the perfectly competitive model is of negligible importance for consumers. Specifically, oligopolists will price fix, a practice that lessens buyer choice and raises prices, to dominate these markets. Most new prosecuted oligopoly cases in the US in 2013 were based on price-fixing.


title: Oligopoly

text: As a quantitative description of oligopoly, the four-firm concentration ratio is often utilized and is the most preferable ratio for analyzing market concentration. This measure expresses, as a percentage, the market share of the four largest firms in any particular industry. For example, as of fourth quarter 2008, if we combine the total market share of Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, we see that these firms, together, control 97% of the U.S. cellular telephone market. These four cellular telephone firms have become the top-tier in US carriers and were protected by the US government that acted as an intervention for other firms entering the market.


title: Oligopoly

text: Oligopolistic competition can give rise to a wide range of outcomes. In some situations, particular companies may employ restrictive trade practices (collusion, market sharing etc.) in order to inflate prices and restrict production in much the same way that a monopoly does. Whenever there is a formal agreement for such collusion between companies that usually compete with one another, this practice is known as a cartel. A prime example of such a cartel is OPEC, where oligopolistic countries manipulate the worldwide oil supply and ultimately leaves a profound influence on the international price of oil.


title: Oligopoly

text: There are legal restrictions on such collusion in most countries and relevant regulations or enforcements against cartels (anti-competitive behaviours) enacted since the late of 1990s. For example, EU competition law has prohibited some unreasonable anti-competitive practises such as directly or indirectly fix selling prices, manipulate market supply or control trade among competitors etc., either by means of formal contracts or oral agreements. In the US, the "Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission" was created to fight collusion among cartels"." However, a formal agreement is not a requirement for collusion to take place, as tacit collusion can be achieved through mutual understanding among firms. For the collusion to be prosecuted as a crime there must be actual and direct communication between companies. For example, in some industries there may be an acknowledged market leader that informally sets prices to which other producers respond, (known as price leadership). Tacit collusion is becoming a more popular topic in the development of anti-trust law in most countries.


title: Oligopoly

text: In other situations, competition between sellers in an oligopoly can be fierce, with relatively low prices and high production. Hypothetically, this could lead to an efficient outcome approaching perfect competition. The competition in an oligopoly can be greater when there are more competitors in an industry. Theoretically, it is harder to sustain cartels (anti-competitive behaviors) in an industry with a larger number of firms in that it will yield less collusive profit for each firm. Consequently, existing firms may have more incentive to deviate. However, this conclusion is a bit more intuitive and empirical evidence has shown this conclusion or relationship is a bit more ambiguous and mixed.


title: Oligopoly

text: Thus the welfare analysis of oligopolies is sensitive to the parameter values used to define the market's structure. In particular, the level of dead weight loss is hard to measure. The study of product differentiation indicates that oligopolies might also create excessive levels of differentiation in order to stifle competition, as they could gain certain marker power by offering somewhat differentiated products.


title: Oligopoly

text: When compared with Cournot and Bertrand's model, it can be seen that price competition is more aggressive and competitive, and also it is easier to sustain collusion under price competition.