YOU can’t get a ticket to Sunday’s NBL final-round clash between Melbourne United and New Zealand at Hisense Arena.

Your best option is tuning in live on Fox Sports — the match is sold out and has been for almost a fortnight.

Incredible when you consider it wasn’t too long ago that Melbourne was struggling to fill the 3500-seat State Netball and Hockey Centre.

Now the club is talking about upgrading to the 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena should it win through to the grand final series.

United star Chris Goulding, whose popularity in Melbourne has shot to another level this season, doesn’t and will never take the NBL’s revival for granted.

“I think the guys that have been around long enough are really conscious of how far the league has come in such a short time,” Goulding said.

“We want to try and do everything we can to make it as stable as possible going forward.”

The man known across the league as ‘CG43’ is talking from experience.

During his illustrious NBL career he has represented four NBL clubs.

He was on the roster when two of them – Brisbane Bullets and then Gold Coast Blaze – went into liquidation and closed their doors.

Players don’t forget that kind of thing quickly.

“(When that happens) it makes you cautious going forward because as a player you need to protect yourself, but at the same time you can’t be too bitter,” he said.

“That’s because a lot of the time there’s people that have put their hard earned money up to give you a job and to try to make basketball work.”

Instability was a constant during the early days of Goulding’s career.

Most teams played in front of small crowds and you were lucky to get one live game on television each week.

Clubs were constantly in financial strife and the public had lost faith in the league.

“It felt like every off-season one or two clubs would be in trouble or drop out,” Goulding recalls.

Enter Larry Kestelman.

The league has taken massive strides since the property tycoon took over the league last year and brought in former lawyer Jeremy Loeliger as his general manager.

Goulding played in Spain last season before receiving an offer from Melbourne to return.

A chat with Kestelman convinced him things were different in the NBL now.

“Larry’s a got a passion for the game and a passion for business,” Goulding said.

“To be able to mix that into one package and put out what we’ve done this year is really encouraging.

“But as good as it’s been, I’m sure Larry and all the club agree it can get bigger and better and I’m sure that is what they’ll be striving for.”

Goulding thrives on a full house, the big occasion.

When he runs out onto a packed Hisense Arena on Sunday, it won’t be lost on him how far the league has come.

“It’s always been a sport where when you get people to the games, they love it and want to come back,” he said.

“It is just a matter of getting them through the door.”