Lack of resources reason for games cancelled tonight, may not be the overall issue though.

Exceptional growth in numbers, plus lingering effects of COVID maybe making it look worse, or an excuse?

Not enough stadiums, not enough officials means always will be high risk of something going wrong.

Time for some considered thinking and not from the old...

South Australia has people who running things they way and it isn't working. There definitely needs to be new people involved in the rebuild and also a restructure. There also needs to be some transparency on what’s being done about these games cancelled and how the money spent will be spent in the future. Parents don’t have money to just give away and even the process in recouping funds spent is a big hassle.

More games canceled this morning due to lack of refs. Perhaps they need to offer more dollars to help attract and retain refs. Parents behaviour is another area that needs addressing.

No issue with staff shortages or lack of referees due to COVID causing cancellations but more notice should be given. Many of the district teams have country players who need to travel between 2 and 4 hours to get to games. Imagine their disappointment and frustration when they arrive to find empty courts. Or even at best, 2 hours into their journey are advised that the games have been cancelled.

COVID is a cop out at this point. All organisations have to have contingencies in place for staff or referees missing. COVID is not the issue with referees. BSA is.

The current CEO has taken the organisation down a path that will take decades to recover from. If the Commission have the strength to remove him and head hunt someone elite.

Which past experience says they don't.

Can't comment to specific's as not based in SA.
But do the clubs supply the ref's?
People come from clubs and become ref's? Surely BSA dont recruit/train/manage every ref? Clubs need to take some responsibility for this too?
I guess people complaining about no ref's could put their hands up and do the training to be a ref so there is no shortage?
Yes there is no simple answer, but everyone needs to contribute not just expect things to be given to them...

No BSA run venues and recuit/train/manage every ref. Nothing to do with Clubs. SA is not Association based, there's one Association.

There is a simple answer. Better management of the sport. Which has been grossly lacking for years.

As a parent of junior referees there is only so many games they can do in a week when they play as well, go to school and have 2nd jobs not to mention we are country so need to travel to wherever they are needed.

The cost of petrol means they make next to nothing if I ask them to contribute to petrol costs.

BSA needs a major restructure and it's sad because the kids suffer and parents are forking out money for this. The comment theme hear is the people at the top are running this sport into the ground and I agree. Definitely time for parents and others to take a stand or maybe start something new like a Super league & Jr NBL. Downsize the travel to area based with 1-3 venues for all major finals even look at getting the Adelaide 36ers involved as they benefit from having better development of players and locals. This seems to be a major issue In SA.

First thing that needs to happen is to downsize their competitions to no lower than division 4, anything below that and kids should be playing in domestic basketball leagues. This would reduce the amount of games by 30 games, meaning 60 referee appointments less.
Then school sport is a totally other problem. You have officials go and get 30 a game there. If district were to match game fees, then what would that mean to player registration costs to cover the game payment increase to officials?

Years ago I used to see junior refs being coached - the senior ref was out on the court speaking with them during time outs etc.

Also are Domestic Refs feeding through to BSA District games ? Like players can ?

Haven't heard of Domestic games ever being cancelled due to refs - can anyone comment there ?

Will these games be catch up games at any stage ? I think they should.

Plus +
I can aim to answer some of those questions

District Refs do coach younger Refs but many of those that are "ref coaching" should still be Umpiring juniors on Friday nights.

Domestic leagues pay more than district do
And on top of this it's easier money, less travel

I would think that lots of Refs, do it for some pocket money. Those that do it to advance to higher levels would want to ref for districts but the thing is that once they are in the system, many are pushed through quickly to the top (Nbl one) well before their time & then they stop doing juniors coz they are in the big league now

I’m sure the problems are way more complicated than this but I think these aspects are concerning

Also perhaps many refs quit completely after Covid forced them to look elsewhere

Each distract game the match fee alone is $200 or so. The move to Teampay would have also reduced the cost of each game by not having as many officials rostered on.

Pay the refs more can only help retain the refs you have and not lose them to other jobs or as above get paid more to do a college or domestic game. Would also help attract refs back or to the game.

How much does a district ref get per game? Does it depend on age group? Will there be a 5.1% increase after the election. :)

its hard to find enough refs that would want to ref a division 9 game

its ridiculous 'representative' basketball has this many divisions, 4 is more than enough

I was at State Champs and saw a senior NBL1 umpire who was put doing some coaching of the junior umpires being asked to do games, and he was refusing to do any games because of an issue he had with people in head office.
His words were "I refuse to do juniors while I have people like Phil and Jacky running this place".

And there used to be a bylaw (not sure if there still is) which said if there isn't umpires each club is to supply one for the game.

Agree with the comment about cutting the lower grade. Stop at Division 4. Even BasketballSA think its that silly that they have now put letters after the numbers to try and make it not look as bad....
Hi, I'm starting 5 in Western Magic's under 18 Division 24s.
Plenty of social comps for those to play in - shuffle on.

Issue is Denny that reducing the number of divisions in District will not help the referee situation. All you do is BSA wipe their hands of the issue and transfer the problem to domestic competitions as their demand for referees increase to handle the increased number of games. Alternatively children move on to other sports. BSA is dropping the ball when you reference their charter and their reason for existing.

Was15
That's interesting
Can you please share what BSA charter is ?
My understanding is different to what I see happening on a daily basis but I’d be interested to the facts

A good starting point for your investigation is to look at the constitution, specifically Clause 3 and the strategic plan, part of which is included in their last financial report. Both are available on their website

Pointless conversation. Current management will just continue to make things worse and no one will remove them.

This is just the start will be this way for a long time yet, there's even worse to come.

That's a tad negative
Not sure anyone needs to be removed anyway but answers are needed on what is required to improve the situation, surely

I would have no problems if the refs were getting $25-40 per game depending on qualification.

What's the current District remuneration ?

I think the junior rates are more like $12-$25 per game depending on grade of the Ref but could be a bit off on that

12-25 per game is not enough given the abuse they receive sometimes

that being said the referee standard in SA is shocking regardless of qualification

Apart from the rare example, there's nothing wrong with the standard of the people who referee in SA. (There are a number of people who shouldn't be refereeing but are due to the state of the situation but that's another issue.)

The problems are 1) there's not enough people willing to referee and continue to do it and 2) mismanagement. #1 is somewhat resolved only when #2 is.

Starts all the way from the NBL level down. SA refs are pushed up before they're ready, before they are at the level necessary and for reasons which have nothing to do with their ability.

That in turn removes them from the level they should be refereeing, meaning someone else not yet ready has to be pushed up the system.

This continues all the way down to Sat Mornings/Domestic basketball where it also happens.

In turn, these referees get more abuse for the blatant mistakes they make and quit. The cycle continues.

It starts at the top and all peak bodies are to blame. We need to stop blaming the referees when they're as much the victims of this as the players, coaches and spectators are.

In current by-laws https://websites.mygameday.app/assoc_page.cgi?c=1-3-0-0-0&sID=151214

3.19 Failure to Supply a Referee
Where referees are not available to officiate in a game, the two teams involved must
supply someone to referee the game. However if the teams are unable to supply
someone to referee the game, the game will be declared a double forfeit but the fines
provided under these By-Laws will not be imposed.

They're not current (although still remain on the District website). BSA at its finest.

They're running competitions under a new 2022 Rules of Operations. These Rules do not include the By-Law above.