Paul Nilsen is a freelance basketball journalist writing for various web-sites and publications across Europe. If you would like to contact Paul you can e-mail him here badaball@hotmail.co.uk.

Ever since that time I have felt compelled to dig around Europe to find a similarly fascinating venue and I think I have come up with a definite contender based in the UK- or at least in the sense of being interesting and very definitely unusual.

British basketball has been much maligned in past years and in some quarters this is still very much the case. For those ‘in the know' progress has been affected in no small part due to the chronic lack of facilities - a real ongoing issue for those trying to take the sport forward.

This has and still means huge obstacles having to be overcome for the owners of clubs. In such circumstances it would be easy to quit and move on to doing something else but the passion and dedication to basketball flows vigorously through the veins of people like Vince Macaulay - owner of the Milton Keynes Lions.

He was left in quite a predicament recently in terms of venue and that meant a choice of becoming homeless or having to get creative - and when I say creative, I very definitely mean creative.

Milton Keynes Lions vs Jets

He explained "We were due to move into our own purpose built facility adjacent to the MK Dons football club. However the recession has slowed this project down drastically and though the building is up, the interior is bare."

"It was supposed to be a 3,700 seater facility for us to play in while our existing home at that time, the Bletchley Leisure Centre was going to be knocked down last December following the building of a new one."

"In keeping with the UK's vision for sport, the new one that was built was smaller than the existing one, so we would be homeless."

That left the club with a huge dilemma and with no other facilities in the locality, it meant Macaulay having to look outside the box to keep the club alive. Fortunately the former British Basketball League Chairman isn't someone who gives up easily and to the astonishment of everyone - he came up with a unique solution.

The new home of Milton Keynes was a shopping mall. I kid you not. The Lions ended up playing their games right in the middle of a giant shopping centre in the middle of the city called Middleton Hall - something that you can imagine took quite some putting together and this included the store owners explained Macaulay.

"Middleton Hall is a large 60 by 30 metre space right in the middle of the shopping centre in Milton Keynes, ‘thecentre:mk'. As an empty space it could host plenty of exhibitions, Santa Claus and much more. the idea of basketball there came to me after I had looked at every single possibility."

"When I suggested it to the owners, they were intrigued. Once we could overcome the logistics, we were on. 10 sold out games there out of 13 were testament to it's success."

The obvious question had to be asked and Macaulay was not ashamed to admit that everybody thought he was absolutely crazy.

"I think everyone outside Milton Keynes thought we were mad, but one thing I have learnt about this city is anything is possible."

"I believe this place is the perfect city for basketball in the UK, the population profile is perfect for our sport. Once we understood what it took there was no stopping the idea."

Playing in the middle of a shopping mall was a huge adjustment for everyone involved and that includes the management team, the players and of course the fans.

"There has been a lot more hard work in the set up. We start at 8pm on a Sunday night ahead of a Tuesday night game, we have 18 people involved in set up and 42 on game day. We have had to employ more security, marshals and a health & safety advisor."

"For the players, I am sure it was strange but because it had a big game atmosphere everyone was up for the game."

"For the fans I think it was obviously strange, but to be honest we had more new fans than old ones so everyone was re-learning their roles."

Such a venue has of course given ammunition to rivals fans in the UK who have been able to joke about shopping loyalty cards for Lions supporters and fears that the store windows might be smashed with the game ball. However, most people have been left simply astonished at the resourcefulness and daring proposals of Macaulay.

In the past,  the owner of the club has been controversial at times but nobody has ever questioned his unwavering commitment to basketball and perhaps only he could have not only come up with such an innovative solution but also pulled it off with such a flourish.

It is naturally something that has left him bursting with pride and not only because he found the answer to the homelessness crisis but the move has ended up being the best thing to happen in the club's history from a business perspective too.

"We are very proud of what we achieved. Every Coach and club owner came up and congratulated us on what we did. It shows that basketball can continue to break new ground and indeed that is what we needed to do."

"We could not survive on the current crowds we had. We needed new and innovative ideas to draw people in - we had never previously sold-out games on advance tickets but that changed at Middleton Hall."

Now the ambitious Macaulay is hoping that his temporary home amongst some of the biggest brands in the commercial world can help the club when they finally move out of the shopping mall and into their purpose built, near 4,000 facility in 2011.

"Firstly we need to iron out any issues with where we currently are, we understand the Stadium will be finished in the New Year so we look forward to that, but right now we will do whatever we need to in order to survive."

My quest to find more unusual venues in Europe won't stop there and so if you can better a former railway factory and a team playing in front of bemused shoppers right in the middle of a giant shopping mall - I think you had better get in touch!