The Christchurch Cougars were a New Zealand

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team based in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. The Cougars competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at

Cowles Stadium Cowles Stadium is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Aranui, Christchurch. It is the home arena of the Canterbury Rams of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) and the Mainland Pouākai of the Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa women's bask ...

. The Cougars played two seasons in the NBL before folding following the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...

Team history

In December 2008, in the wake of the

Canterbury Rams The Canterbury Rams are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Christchurch. The Rams compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Cowles Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as Th ...

withdrawing from the NBL, the Christchurch Cougars were established by Christchurch basketball couple Amy and Andrew Gardiner. The Cougars debuted in the NBL in the 2009 season with Andrew Gardiner as head coach. They reached the semi-finals in 2009 and missed the playoffs in the 2010 season. Following the 2010 season, the Cougars ran into financial issues. In January 2011, the team was kicked out of Cowles Stadium due to unpaid debt to the city council. The Gardiners intended to move their team to a new stadium just being finished in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

on the outskirts of the city. However, following the

Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region in the South Island, centred south-east of the centr ...

, the Cougars were forced to withdraw from the NBL in March 2011. A rescue package to save the Cougars was attempted, but ultimately the level of

financial risk Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financi ...

was too great. In April 2013, the Cougars were rumoured to be ready to re-enter the NBL within two years. This did not eventuate, and in November 2013, the Canterbury Rams were granted re-entry into the league.

References

{{National Basketball League (New Zealand) Basketball teams in New Zealand National Basketball League (New Zealand) teams Sport in Christchurch Basketball teams established in 2008 2008 establishments in New Zealand 2011 disestablishments in New Zealand Basketball teams disestablished in 2011