300k is nothing. they should give us millions. find the money out the health budget etc as it would be worth it long term.

40mill for soccer, 300k for us. Yeh awesome

Australia's in recession, and the government awards 300k to a sport. awesome

Fair point Skud. I am all for hosting the soccer world cup but $45 mill required just to submit a bid........come on

300k is insulting.

300k for Australian Basketball that produces the best women basketballers in the world and a mens team that is top 10.

How much does AFL get?millions
Soccer? 30million for A League then another 40mill to blow trying to get the world cup here
I bet we could find a heap of other fringe sports that get bigger government support, hell i know that one other fringe sport gets more from the SA government than this alone.

Disgraceful effort from the government. Larry should be attacking them rather than bowing down IMO.

Isaac, this 300k grant isn't the sum total of Commonwealth support for basketball for one year is it? I would assume there is separate funding for the AIS basketball program as one example?

Yeah, this is just a specific boost to the existing funds:

Sengstock said "This significant grant, on top of the funding we already receive from the government, also serves to underline the importance of basketball as a sport in Australia."

$300K? You can't even buy a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs for that. Another way to look at it is every adult and child that supports the NBL donates $10 each. That's all $300K is. Its better than a kick in the backside but you can't honestly believe its going to make much difference to the league.

"The Federal Government's increased support of basketball is a major vote of confidence in our long-term strategic plan," said Sengstock. Sounds more like a lack of confidence. Its a bribe for the Government to be seen that they are supporting all sports in Australia.

300K from the federal govt. Does Larry understand how small this amount is????? 4-5 million would be an indication of the govt commitment to basketball.

After reading his article i think this money is going to go to a GM (so whats Larry?). Another 0 on the end would have been nice but its certainly better than a punch in the front of the undies!

To get anything at all shows the game is in the right hands cos Sengstock knows how to play the politics game. Maybe its the tip of the iceberg - once the pollies see results they will invest more.

i'm still a Sengstock fan...

Some facts for you all.

- BA get over 4 mill per year from the Federal government already

- this money is above and beyond that (the issue is, and you've all missed it, that it appears to be a grant not funding per se so i read that as not being ongoing)

- BA are probably in the top 5-6 funded ASC sports, from memory rowing was #1 but certainly now football is (football drafted 32 mill over four years - announced 2 years ago and specifically to set up the w league)

- the 45 million football got is not ASC funding, is not anything to do with ASC - its fed gov disbursement to bid for the cup and its peanuts really to bid for an event like this properly

- Basketball's participation is right up there with all of the major participant sports (football, AFL, netball)

- the 300k is small fry to support the ongoing "reform" process. My guess is a much bigger pot was originally on the table but the disastrous couple of months the reform process has had recvently has harmed that.

- and finally for Kent, your fringe sport comment is right on, your AFL comment is way off... direct fed gov support for AFL is very small compared to Basketball. 30 million was NOT for a-league. in fact, i think you will find virtually none of that was for a-league.

What's everyone complaining about? It's a boost on top of current funding. BA needs every dollar they can get, and it sounds like Larry lobbied Ellis for funding for a specific position at BA and was successful. Well done.

Great post (as usual) HO and I agree with you thedoctor also.

Anon, I think "GM of High Performance" will be someone overseeing the Boomers/Opals programs and so on. Saw a comment somewhere saying that it might be fairly similar to the role Pat Hunt's held? And a suggestion that Andrew Vlahov might pick up this new/revised role?

Could well include the marketing portfolio for the national teams, which is a crucial one.

And in regard to the $10 from everyone who supprots the NBL. Given that 30K attend games each week on average, where a number of teams dont have home games, and most people only go to a handful of games each year, there would have to be at least 150K who attend NBL games, let alone those that watch on TV.

My understanding is the GM High Performance is a much more senior role than that Patrick Hunt held - Patrick was national director of coaching I think.

Lorraine Landon is currently heading up the national teams portfolio, but that does not cover things like ITC, caoch development etc. I think the new role pulls all those things into one basket.

$10 says its Wayne Carroll

I think BA and basketball have to prove to the Government that they are capable of running a profitable comp before more money is injected. The old NBL was poorly run and managed and no one had balls to stand up to the power owners but that has all changed as we saw with McPeak and Dragons owners.

Baby steps people. As I see it the NBL is making positive movements

Good point EC, they won't be able to build a 3 bedroom house for that sum but if the NBL is a first home owner, then they qualify for the $21000 grant plus stamp duty concessions. I think with a little more thought, your housing investment might be quite fruitful for the league.

Can anyone tell me what the 4 million BA recive is spent on? How is it broken down?
Junior development,national teams,staff? just be intresting to know how its spent?

$3.99m trying to get Rick Burton's signature off the balls.

MMW..

The ASC are very precsriptive about how they expect the money to be spent and it varies year by year, depending on commitments. So in a senior mens and womens world championship year you probably get a little more.

So its not really a matter of how its spent, as to what the ASC tell you that you must allocate it to.

so this % for admin (probably small)
this % for senior men
this % for senior women
this for itc
this for coaches etc

normally sports can be creative about how they mix it up. So they might not emply a mens and womens coach but might employ a dirctor of coaching.

Very little is allocated by the government for participation programs. So they might get 10-15% for these purposes, and much of that would be chewed up in provision of services such as paying an Aussie Hoops administrator, share of a managers wage, travel, training and workshops for state deliverers etc.

I have no idea of actual break-ups, but certainly they mix and match depending on what the load is, who's year it is for a championship etc. Not sure if AIS is in this amount or not.

I heard a bloke last year, I think he was the Head of the Confederation of Australian Sport, who said that last year, the British government gave the mens wheelchair basketball program more money than the Australian government gave BA for all of their national teams combined. So while 4 million might be a fair bit for an aussie sport, its nothing overseas.

Thanks for that Ho, very informative clears thing up a fair bit more for me. Issac i wonder what has happened to all the old Rick Burton basketballs? Seeing the NBL has been tight for awhile now they might still be using some!

I don't really know what you people expect Larry to say. If he went public and said the money wasn't good enough, how much would he offered in the future?

Very informative HO, thankyou, but since we're in Australia would you mind calling soccer soccer and football football.

XztatiK,

No problems, what should I call AFL then?

"and football football."

The AFL is a league, not a sport.