No anon, this is new.

hopefully we can now get our fair share of govt funding.

Best appointment in the history of Australian basketball. She could be earning a hell of alot more money doing something else but she is very passionate about the support.

Good signing but basketball in aus needs to move away from the Americanisation.

Everything from carfino, players among others.

Commander I believe she's Canadian not American

The aus public will see her as American.

Also I was hoping scott Darwin would get the gig long term.

Scooter derwin**

Scott derwin**

Damn ipad auto correct.

Derwin has proven to bE a great leader over a long period.

Who will be the chairman now?

Actually she was born in the US and moved to Australia in the later 90s and renounced her US citizenship becoming a naturalised aussie.

I guess this is why BA went with her rather than someone within BA

"the Board felt Kristina presented a complete package to BA: demonstrated leadership skills; strong understanding of community, government and the private sector; and excellent communication abilities."

I agree with the above comments, if basketball in australia is going to survive & grow it will need to reconnect and grow junior basketball & community programs dramatically, raise the profile of the NBL not just through exposure and media coverage, but also by creating stars out of NBL players..the game desperately needs personalities, players that fans buy jerseys of and players fans love to hate.

To say the Keneally has zero basketball experience is wrong. According to reports in the Australian she was a high school star and played for Notre Dame at college. On the matter of her being American so what? As long she does the right thing for the sport it shouldn't matter where you are originally from.

I feel it will be a good move.

A good decision in the end, and a nice boost for the credibility of the sport by getting someone with some political clout. I suggested Vlahov for the position in an older post, but it's better to see a non player take the position.

Regarding the "too American" suggestion, so what? She's more known for being NSW premier than being American. Though I agree that the commentators should be Australian and Carfino needs to be shown the door from anything public, that's a different matter entirely.

Good luck KK, let's get the sport back to the top!

I want to be an Nbl commentator and am Aussie, who do I apply to? Seriously...

I for one am amazed by this. Not because Keneally is considered worthy of the job, I certainly think she is. But because of the way it has been handled.

People have been screaming here about the Anstey/Gleeson thing.

So, lets look at the scenario.

Keneally becomes Chair of BA.

Within months of taking the reigns, she (and her board) push Larry out.

Lets make no mistake about the resignation - Larry was "asked" to resign.

In isolation, nothing has been done wrong

a) BA needed a high profile quality chair and they got one
b) BA had a poorly performing CEO (by all accounts) and they needed decisive action on that
c) BA pushed the CEO out
d) BA advertise for a new CEO
e) A new CEO is appointed

In combination however this is tawdry and questionable, and has amazing similarities to the Melbourne Tigers matter.

I am sure people will accuse me of being negative, they always do when I question something. Don't get this wrong, she is an outstanding appt in my view, but, do the means justify the end?

It was rumoured Larry was asked to quit over the whole second Melbourne NBL side fiasco and the special treatment his mates got in becoming the preferred bidder for the franchise.

It is about time the good old boys network has been shaken up a bit.

This is a very good appointment for BA.

The CEO keeps changing but BA doesn't improve. May be if they took out that tier just below them, they may finally see some improvement.

Kristina Keneally was born in Los Vegas

Does it really matter where she was born? If she can do the job well, i don't care if she's a one eyed monkey who talks in pig Latin!

Anon, I don't think racist is the word you want here.

Best looking CEO ever!

She is hot and has great legs. Great appointment

To the ANON who said

"I would of preferred someone who have played basketball in Australia and are intouch with the basketball community and has maintianed a profile in the basketball community. "

Thats been tried and failed many times over, time for some fresh outside blood to push this sport we all want to succeed forward.

What was Larry's prior experience in leading?

Actually Maxine Fowle I would challenge that. Other than interim type CEO's such as Dick Butler, which BA CEO of the last 20-30 years meets the criteria and has played etc other than Larry?

So BA decide to bring in arguably the worst NSW Premier in a long long time as their CEO. SMH, just another one in the long list of stupid decisions made by Basketball Australia.

Lot of small minded ignorant comments here about her. Fact is she did make Premier - anyone who commented lay claim to that ?

As chairperson, she had a clear strategic intent and touched many of the weak or non-existent abilities of BA. Government funding is one, connection between the National / NBL teams and grass roots Bball, recognition by advertisers/sponsors that basketball is one of the largest participation sports in Aus (comments previously that NBL is small time compared to say NRL are misleading - but thats due to a failed marketing and communication strategy with corporate australia. The media are also to blame but thats another thread).

Its a great appointment as she isn't part of the old boys club, has fresh ideas and energy and above all, can rise above the negative dribble that keeps popping up around the place - especially this forum.

I am assuming that is views in the iiNet freezone? If so they are good numbers.

Pleased to see the story all over the news services
all day . Impressive CV . A return to politics is possible mentioned.
Sengstock - The NBL remains at 9 teams - certainly seems odd.

personally thinks its a great appointment, someone with no apparent ties to the "old boys club" and someone how can fight for exposure has gone through the pressures of winning and losing and now wants to take on what is commonly regarded as the basket case of Australian sport.

i say good luck to her and hope she does what the rest have failed to do, as someone said she could have easily got a private sector job earning at least 5x times more then what shes getting here,

no money to chase in BA, so she must be in it for other reasons, hopefully the betterment of the game

best of luck KK

thomo - ridiculous statement. this job is a 350-450k role, well ahead of what she was earning as a pollie.

sorry, she would not have landed a 1.5 - 2 million $ job anywhere.

HO - former politicians of Kennealy's standing are worth a lot of money to the private sector, either as direct employees, consultants or board members.

To suggest that she is earning her full potential with BA, is not something I agree with.

Do we know how much the BA CEO role is paying? Is it relevant?

I agree, she could have earned some very good money in the private sector in a variety of consultancy and advocacy roles.

Firstly, as the Tomlinson's still own the Blaze licence, I don't think the new CEO can now make them cough up the $1 million when already officially excused from it. Wish she could.
Surely someone/the board approved it in the first place. Could it have been another Sengstock blunder?
The license never went anywhere, they were never in liquidation. Derwin saying they were considering all this, was absolute rubbish.
I'm interested in whether the clubs who put up the surety for their teams, can get to be on equal footing with the multi millionaire owners and have it removed.
No NBL club put up their own surety from the club coffers, rainy day account, so there were private backers involved, surely. Make the Blaze find one like everyone else if the owners refuse to do it from the family funds.
Welcome comments and corrections to this post.

that is not what i suggested doc.

I said she would be earning much more as BA CEO than as a pollie.

I also said that if, as rumoured, the salary range was 350-450 then there is no way she could have walked out of parliament into a job worth 1.5-2 mil.

thomo said she could be earning "at least 5x what the BA role is paying..."

No way it's a 350 to 400 job 100-150 I would have taken a guess at

It's a $350k -400k job.
It has to be, it's time to be dinkum.

Apologies HO.

I think the point Thomo was trying to make, is that she has chosen the BA role over better paying private sector gigs. This is probably the key point.

To those doubting her ability and influence, she had Abbott at the Opals game, Gillard tweeting about her, etc. We need that influence to pull back the money being thrown away at soccer and to re-gain some Hoops profile.

Isaac, having Gillard tweet about her and Abbott being at the Boomers game is hardly having any "influence." Seriously, the only thing that is going to influence government funding is the $$$ the sport can generate in the NBL. Until they increase that number drastically, the NBL will always be behind other sports in the pecking order.

Only implying it was a start. I don't remember Gillard doing the same for Sengstock. Have you seen the disparity between money pushed by government in to soccer/football and basketball?

I get the impression that club owners are pretty happy with the appointment. What are you going on?

(Still shocked that the NBA Finals didn't go to 6-7 games?)

The reason football gets more money than soccer is because it has a more stable organisation running it with members who have a proven track record of business success. When your organisation is being run by the man who set up Westfield, you know you're on a good wicket. 10 or so years ago, basketball had everything at its feet in Australia. Then one year if I remember correctly, they slashed the salary cap by a long way (might have been over 500k), introduced the point system and ultimately the league spiralled downhill into something that a lot of sporting fans in Australia deem irrelevant. The NSL 10 years ago was a joke. But the difference there was that the crowd numbers were low and the league has a whole wasn't anything special due to the clubs being ethnic based. When Lowy first joined the FFA, the first thing he wanted to stamp out of the sport was the ethnic problems with it. The establishment of the A-League has been a success in becoming a feeder league for young Australians to develop their skills before attracting moves overseas to bigger European clubs. Then you consider the success the Socceroos had with world cup qualifying, the FFA moving into the AFC and it's clear that soccer is on the up in Australia.

The problem is that you can't say the same about basketball. The main problem with basketball in Australia is that for so many years the administrators would shoot themselves in the foot and find many ways to ruin the NBL. They have to go back to what they were doing 10-15 years ago when the league was running well, analyse what they were doing right back then, and use that as a marketing blueprint to attract fans back to the game. The fans were there 10-15 years ago, but not as many are now. It's untapped potential that BA have to go into if they are ever going to be taken seriously in Australian sport again.

As for the NBA Finals, it was over after game 4.

I'm actually very surprised that the role would pay that much!
Shouldn't a salary be based on how much money is generated for the business?
Just about every NBL side is making a loss and I don't think that BA is making millions either.
Not sure why people would say take the Americanisation out of the sport...the NBA is struggling isn't it???
The AFL are becoming more "American" every day and they are making an absolute killing!
Every change they have made to the game has almost followed the changes the NBA have made.
They are basing free agency on what??? AMERICAN SPORT!
I would love to see trades happening in the NBL, would make things very interesting.
People whinged about Larry Sengstock since day one, let's see what this girl can bring.
All I hope is she can organise some funding for the sport and distribute that right down to grass roots level, because I think that's where things need to be fixed.

"10 or so years ago, basketball had everything at its feet in Australia. Then one year if I remember correctly, they slashed the salary cap by a long way (might have been over 500k), introduced the point system and ultimately the league spiralled downhill."

Your memory is letting you down badly. 10 years ago the NBL was well into its downward spiral, in fact it wasnt far off bottoming out with no FTA TV or major sponsor and little media coverage, and average crowds dropping to around the 4000 mark heading down to just above 3000.

The drop in salary cap (from just over $1mill to $700K) had little impact because the big clubs ignored it.

Things went wrong when the league and clubs didnt invest the dividends of the early 90s boom into infrastructure and grassroots marketing, choosing to increase salaries and cover the costs of unsustainable spending instead. By the turn of the millenium clubs were leaking money.

The truth is the NBL is in the best position it has been for a long time. That doesnt say much though, because it is still in a fairly precarious situation if a few things go wrong.

Panther, based on your idea of pricing the CEO position, wouldn't the first hint of a slide risk driving the competition down further? e.g., a cheaper CEO risks poorer results which brings about an even cheaper CEO and so on?