Hobart Chargers

Hobart Chargers is a NBL1 South club based in Hobart, Tasmania. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The Chargers play their home games at the Hobart Netball and Sports Centre and Pembroke Park's South East Stadium.

Early years
In 1981, the Hobart Hornets entered the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) for the league's inaugural season. After two seasons in the SEABL, the team withdrew from the league due to the introduction of the Hobart Devils in the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1983. The Hornets re-entered the SEABL in 1990. Between 1990 and 1996, Hobart had seven straight seasons of missing the playoffs under coaches Denis Hyland (1990–91; 1993–95), Danny Adamson (1992), and Ross Park (1996).

Success of the Chargers
The Chargers name was born in 1997 after the demise of the Hobart Devils. The Chargers immediately saw success as they won back-to-back SEABL South Conference championships in 1997 and 1998. In 2000 and 2002, they not only won their third and fourth South Conference titles, but were successful in claiming the ABA National championship in both years. During this period, a Hobart Chargers women's team had an unsuccessful five-year run between 1998 and 2002, as they failed to make a playoff berth in that time.

The Chargers' inaugural coach, Mark Chivers, ended his 11-year tenure following the 2007 season. In 2008, Dan Krebs took over as coach of the Chargers and guided them to their fifth South Conference title. They went on to win the overall SEABL championship after defeating East Conference champions, the Knox Raiders, in a contest that earned the winning team a semi-finals place in the Australian Club Championships. In the ACC semi-finals, the Chargers defeated the Melbourne Tigers 128–126 to move on to the grand final. There they were defeated 103–99 by the Rockhampton Rockets to finish as national runners-up. Despite his successful season with the Chargers, Krebs was replaced as coach in 2009 with former NBL player Anthony Stewart.

In 2010, the Lady Chargers re-entered the league. In 2014, they made their way through to their first ever conference final. After winning the South Conference championship, they went on to lose in the SEABL grand final against the Brisbane Spartans.

New era of Hobart basketball
In 2016, former Tasmanian Labor premier, David Bartlett, was appointed president of the Chargers. Bartlett's immediate aim was to have the club be "NBL ready" in three years and win at least one SEABL championship over those three years. He later declared a Tasmanian NBL side could be competitive with a yearly budget of $5 million. The club had numerous issues off the court at the time of Bartlett's appointment, including being $120,000 in debt. Financial problems almost resulted in the men's team being booted from the 2016 SEABL playoffs, while questions remained about the financial security of the women's program.

Bartlett wished to acquire a new home venue for the club – for more than a decade, the Chargers had played at the Hobart Netball and Sports Centre, but were forced to train at New Town High and Warrane Stadium because the centre was not available during the week. He boldly declared his long-term vision of averaging 3,000 fans for matches after securing a deal to return home Chargers' SEABL contests to the Derwent Entertainment Centre in 2017. The Chargers also introduced a new logo and playing strip for the 2017 season.

In 2018, the Chargers men's team won the SEABL championship with a victory over the Nunawading Spectres in the grand final.

Following the demise of the SEABL, the Chargers opted out of the new NBL1 competition which debuted in 2019. After gaining entry into the NBL1 South for the 2020 NBL1 season,  they ultimately sat out 2020 as well due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the men's team won their first NBL1 South championship after defeating the Mount Gambier Pioneers in the grand final.