CAIRNS general manager Mark Beecroft says the Taipans' community ownership model could provide a map for the future of elite basketball.

A rearguard action from a Cairns community determined to hold on to its only national sporting franchise helped save the Taipans and has already led to copycat action.

The financially embattled Wollongong Hawks seemed destined to fold at the end of last season, unable to meet Basketball Australia’s financial criteria for entry into the new league.

But the effectiveness of the "Save the Taipans" campaign encouraged the Hawks to launch a similar scheme, allowing them to come up with the working capital needed to enter the new league.

"If anything has come out of all this, we think the model that we’ve put up here in Cairns is the future model going forward," Beecroft said.

The fickle nature of private ownership was highlighted last week when owners of the South Dragons and Melbourne Tigers decided to withdraw their sides.

"What’s happened at the Dragons and Tigers has happened because of a few individuals with agendas that, I don’t know what they fully are," Beecroft said.

"Our agenda has been to have a national league basketball team here in Cairns and that has been supported by the community, it’s been supported by the Cairns Regional Council and our foundation and syndicate members.

"This is not my team, it’s not (Taipans president) Denis Donaghy’s team, this is a community team owned and put up by the community."

Taipans president Denis Donaghy agreed community ownership may be the model of the future.

"Given the ability of the private ownership model to basically wreck (a competition) … I don’t think you’d get the sort of volatility with a community-owned model," Donaghy said.

"There’s more stability. It’s not down to one person to make a decision. I think it could very well be the way of the future."

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