Central Venue League Format
The CBL operates a Central Venue League format, which pools all teams together in the same venue, utilising the same facility, same set of officials and equipment for all teams. This enables us to keep costs of competition to a minimum and significantly lower than National League play.
Central venue play means on any given CBL day, multiple games from any division may be played on the same date, in the same venue, creating a tournament atmosphere every week within league play.
Competitions Season
The Community Basketball League 2024/25 ‘Regular Season’ will commence from 3rd November 2024 and complete by 18th May 2025. There will then be 2 weeks of playoffs, culminating in an end of season finale in June.
CBL Divisions
The Community Basketball League will host teams in the following Divisions for the 2024/25 season:
Mixed (boys and girls)
- U10 Mixed Division – for players aged under 10 (as of 31st August)
- U12 Mixed Division (Division 1 & Division 2) – for players aged under 12 (as of 31st August)
Boys Divisions
- U14 Boys Division (Division 1 & 2) – for players aged under 14 (as of 31st August)
- U16 Boys Division (Division 1 & 2) – for players aged under 16 (as of 31st August)
- U20 Mens Division – for players aged under 20 (as of 31st August)
Girls Divisions
- U14 Girls Division – for players aged under 14 (as of 31st August)
- U16 Girls Division – for players aged under 16 (as of 31st August)
- U19 Girls Division – for players aged under 20 (as of 31st August)
Teams will be allocated positions in the appropriate league following applications and then at the discretion of the League Committee.
*Please note, the age for CBL player eligibility in each respective division is aligned to Basketball England age classifications. Therefore players must be under the respective ‘age’ or under on the 31st August to be eligible to play in the ‘age’ division. For example, a player who is aged 13 or under on 31st August 2023 is eligible to play in the U14 division.
Competitions – Regular Season
The CBL regular season will consist of each team playing every opponent once throughout the course of the season. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top 8 teams will be seeded 1-8, based on win/loss record in the regular season and enter into a ‘knockout’ playoff format to decide the overall division champion.
In the first round of the playoffs the top eight teams will play in four games.
- Game 1 – 1 v 8
- Game 2 – 2 v 7
- Game 3 – 3 v 6
- Game 4 – 4 v 5
The second round (semi-finals) will see the four winners play one another.
- Game 5 – Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 4
- Game 6 – Winner Game 2 v Winner Game 3
The final round will see the two winners from the semi-finals compete for the CBL Division Championship.
- Games 7 – Winner Game 5 v Winner Game 6
The CBL division 2 regular season will consist of all teams in a division playing each other once. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top 4 teams will be seeded 1-4, based on win/loss record in the regular season and enter into a ‘knockout’ playoff format to decide the overall division champion.
The first round (semi-finals) will see the four top teams play one another.
- Game 1 – 1 v 4
- Game 2 – 2 v 3
The final round will see the two winners from the semi-finals compete for the CBL Division Championship.
- Games 3 – Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 2
