Matty you're thinking too small mate.

I'm sure if you asked every parent, coach, referee and stadium employee that question 99% of them would agree with you. I'm sure a lot of players would too. I think the question you need to ask yourself is 'Why do we not have at least a one week break between season?'

The answer is simple. Money and structure. To have a week off you have to make that week up somewhere. Anyone who remembers the double up rounds of the past can understand why BASA wouldn't want to go back to that. The amount of abuse stadium staff and BASA staff in general received simply because there are too many rounds for the number of weeks available was ridiculous. So the clubs with BASA decided no double rounds should be scheduled. Now we're stuck with no break between seasons.

Personally the lack of space between the end of the Winter Season and start of the new Summer Season is of more concern.

The answer may be to shorten either the Summer or Winter Seasons. That
s where the issue of money comes in. As I am sure you are aware BASA is broke. Less junior games means less income and while that's a pretty crass way of looking at things it's simple fact. TO have less rounds means either raising player/spectator prices or finding the missing income elsewhere. Considering the cost all players juniors, seniors, social even miniball players must pay raising them further isn't the answer.

What is the answer you may ask?

Look at this forum and the opinion of many of this state's most informed basketball minds. A complete restructure of both the Junior and Senior competitions is the answer. Matty it's up to people like you and all players, parents and basketball fans to make your own club and BASA aware of that very fact.

What about the teams who haven't made finals? They have already had a two-three week break.

What about giving the grand final teams bye's in the first round?

Or doing what some social comps have done in the past, count the grand final as the first round of the next season. This might work for summer.

And, anon, if you think that BASA actually care about the grass roots of bball, you are delusional.

Isn't that a bit harsh Anon and Stip? One thing todays kids don't have enough of is commitment. So a kid has to play a sport at the age of 7, 8 or 9 for a whole year. If they didn't want to committ to a sport for a year then they can play sport through the school system. Think of all those budding little gymnasts who at this age are based at places like the AIS or swimmers who swim religously every day.
Besides which, why can't they drop out after one season? Isn't that what normally happens if a kid doesn't like the sport they are playing?
To say that BASA doesn't care about grass roots basketball is a big call. What leads you to think that Stip?

Stip:
The following extract is taken frm the BASA website as part of the Aussie Hoops program, which is situated in many stadiums and schools across the metropolitan area. Please note the fifth point:


The program is designed to:

Be safe

Gradually build confidence

Emphasize involvement

Develop healthy lifestyles

Develop a relationship between elite and grass roots basketball

Create a positive outlook on physical activity

Be enjoyable for players, teachers, parents and coaches

Be easy to implement

Adapt to any locality.

So yes, it was a big call to say they dont care, because unfortunately for you many clubs do, and they are part of BASA.

Anon you make good points. Unfortunately the bottom line is BASA is ten million in debt on the powerhouse and will never reduce to 6-8 mth seasons. This is understandable. The sports you have mentioned are played on ovals, which the local councils help maintain. The overheads of basketball of basketball are huge in comparison

I dont think swimming is a good example, while they may not compete Sat mornings, the sport places huge training demands on young kids.

Have you got any solutions

One major point was missed- The comment was that it would give BASA a chance to sort out the whole season. Here we are, 4 weeks in (3games), probably 6 weeks after nominations were in, and that's being generous, and still no program.
I heard that BASA can/have fined teams for late noms, will BASA give money back to junior programs foe each week that we wait for a program?

There is no program because of two reasons. One person (with help from one other staff memeber) pretty much runs all of the BASA Junior and Senior (including ABA) competitions. This is the problem of the current BASA/36ers/Lightning management structure. That means one person has to do all the programs for every grade as well as all the other day to day issues that arise.

Secondly programs don't come out because of players and clubs. How many people do you know that decide at the very last minute to either change clubs or not play all together? Have one week off and those people will use that extra week to make their decision. It's those people that force clubs to pull teams out a week into a season and therefore force that one person to redraw the program for that grade. In the past that can be up to 10 teams/program changes in a day. Meaning 10 rewrites and when that happens a week or two or three after the season then we have problems.

Again a complete restructure is the only solution. Look at Basketball Victoria for example. While the state can only field one NBL team the Junior program is second to none. Obviously their greater numbers are a part of that but a good program structure to build such a junior program on was the key to the sports growth at grass roots level in the late 80's early 90's.

Unfortunately SA missed the boat on that one. I still recall over 200 Under 14's trialling at ONE club for only 40 spots. Thats 160 kids lost to the sport and thats just one age group and one club.

While Cricket and Football play for 8 months a year other non-season based sports like Netball now play 12 months a year. Basketball isn't alone. Make the competition more inviting and structured and families will stay. Keep the current mess and problems will continue.

The only structure which seems to have any support is one where the Summer Season is turned into a Qualification Competition. Maybe North/South like BV and their Easthern/North-Western Conferences. Having spoken to BV officials on the matter in the past I know for a fact BV would assist in any planned restructure.

The problem with that is that it needs club support. While the stronger clubs who feel comfortable with their position will support the change the smaller so called weaker clubs will not as they will fight to keep their right to a division one spot.

It's time for club admin's to look at the long term; the bigger picture. Look outside of their own club and at the competition as a whole. The same could be said for the stagnant ABA competition which also could be run with a much bigger profile. But clubs fight to protect themselves and unfortunately hurt the sport as a whole.

As I said before complaining on here won't help. The way to get things changed is through BASA's management structure. Meaning either contact Mr.Local Basketball at BASA or write to your club's Junior Delegate/Executive Committee and make them make the changes needed for the sport to grow.

As 'on the outer' points out, players who withdraw after the
nomination date cause clubs to withdraw teams, which results in
scheduling delays. However, why doesn't this problem still happen in
the Melbourne structure?

The grading feature of the Melbourne junior competitions works well,
but on its own, it doesn't address the issue of players pulling out at
the last minute? Does this still happen in Melbourne, and if so, why
doesn't this result in scheduling delays?

The answer is that in the Melbourne system, demand for positions in
teams exceeds supply. For example, there could be 500 Under 12 boys in
the Dandeong domestic competition, but only two Dandenong Under 12
representative (district) teams. If players pull out of a rep team,
they are replaced by players from the domestic competition.

In Adelaide, clubs nominate as many district teams as necessary to
cater for all those that are willing to play. We do this partly for
financial reasons, and partly because there is no high-quality
alternative competition for non-elite basketballers. The alternative
is to turn kids away from basketball, which we are all reluctant to
do.

The solution is for clubs to run their own domestic competitions, as
per in Melbourne. This will create a pool of players from which clubs
can use to fill vacancies in their district teams. You'd still have
scheduling issues when players withdraw, but these issues would occur
in the domstic comps, not the district comps, and in the domestic
comps, they have less of a far-reaching impact.

Regardless, domestic competitions are a good thing in their own
right, in that they provide a low cost, low commitment, low travel
alternative to district basketball. Speak to your club's committee to
find out if your club is one of those that is in the process of
setting up a domestic comp.

There are a number of issues relating to the district competition that
have been discussed recently, including:
- playing each other team the same number of times
- completing Summer and Winter seasons within the calendar year
- a 1 week break between seasons
- Summer grading seasons
- promotion/relegation
- double div 1 teams
- expanding to include country teams

If you were to propose a structure which includes all of these
changes, none of the clubs will vote for it. Clubs are generally
conservative when making decisions of this nature, and if they
disagree with any of the changes, they'll vote against it. I think it
would be more productive to propose each change separately. Again, if
you have some input, speak to your committee.

My opinion is that while there should be some changes to the structure
of the district competition, the implementation of club-run domestic
competitions is more important.

Apologies for the formatting of my last post! I had a word-wrapping problem caused by cutting and pasting from a different application.

Excellent points all round here.

The Clubs need to have a body look at all of the above issues. I feel that we will not be able to move forward until all clubs have a domestic competition. However the problem here is BASA itself. For clubs to be able run these competitions BASA need to allow clubs to assist in running the local competitions while also providing opportunities for those clubs without stadiums to do the same at other venues.

Currently BASA can't see that this will actually decrease their overheads. But can see that it may decrease their much needed profits from local comps. The clubs need to sit down together and come up with a strategy that not only promotes their involvement in domestic competitions, but also INCREASES Basa revenues.

#27012 Anonymous

I am not part of BASA as such but have been part of a club for a very long time. I have been involved in Aussie Hoops for a few years now and am very proud of the work carried out and the progress made from grass roots basketball, and have seen some improvement in the gap, therefore that was the reason to post.