You raise some good points but I have to say your negative comments at the end about what we have stuffed up in this state is a pretty negative approach.

What about the things that we do in SA that are brilliant.

Clipsal 500, Wine industry (one of the best in the world) Crows, Power have both won premierships on a national scale, the tram extension, sorry, some people like me think it is a brilliant idea, Tour Down Under, Christmas pageant (sydney tried to organise one a few years back, but couldnt found it all to difficult), our defence industry is world class ect, ect.......

You get the picture?

Regarding people flocking to a few clubs, thats human nature; you want to be associated with the best. Those clubs should not be penalised for being the best.

I have not seen any change in B/ball since the sale either. We all hear that things are being worked out, lets hope it is sooner than later.

Rave on, thats what makes this site so interesting; differing opinions.

I think we should limit the teams to two. (Makes programming easier)

The two best stadiums around at the moment are The Dome (Woodville) and Don Stadium (Forestville). All the current teams are then affiliated with one of the Stadiums.

First look at Forestville. So South then becomes Forestville South, Southern becomes Forestville even further South, and Sturt becomes Forestville South Central. (Do you think Sturt would like to have 'Central' in their name?)

Next up is Woodville. West are now known as Woodville West, North are known as North Woodville, and Centrals are known as Outback Woodville.

Flames and Eastern become Woodville and Forestville East respectively.

F v W
FS v WW
FEFS v NW
FSC v OW
FE v WE

Div 1 this, Div 1 that. How many stars were found playing div 2 or 3 during their junior years to finally pop out as super stars in u18's?

#112212 - "zone and develop regional pride"? IMHO zoning would only affect about a quarter of current junior district players - the vast majority play for a club that isn't too far away. Clubs try to recruit locally - some people choose to travel further. A strict zone would result in some player swaps between clubs with adjoining areas but would have little effect on the number of teams fielded by clubs nor the relative standard of the teams.

What does vary is the participation rate in basketball between different areas. Centrals and Eastern are in growth areas, but have small populations within 10km of their home stadium.

We could restrict each club to say, 40 junior teams, but it may mean a reasonable number of kids choosing another local sport rather than travel to another district basketball club.

As for transfers, my kids are open to free uniforms & subs - I don't think it is going to cause a problem because there aren't too many of them going around. By the time someone requests a transfer you've already lost their loyalty - let them go. Chances are they won't be playing in a couple of years anyway.

The reason kids can transfer between clubs so easily is that there are no contracts. Contracting a 10 year old kid probably is not the way to go. If kids that want to swap clubs still owe subs, then they dont get the green light to move.

The only way to stop the current climate of swapping is to have zones.

Of course any zone would have to allow kids at current clubs to stay. You would also need to have a brother sister rule that allows siblings to play at the same club.

A lot of clubs would have to get their act together in order for zoning to work. Details such as venues, canteens, bars ect, need to be sorted before a zone was ever introduced so that every team could start on a level playing field.

This would be the reson that it wont happen, organization.

There are many reasons but one of the main reasons is money.

The strong clubs at the moment are from higher socio-economical areas (eg sturt, forestville). The clubs not doing so well are clubs from a lower socio-economical area (centrals, west, tigers). I realise this a generalisation but having been inolved with a club in a lower socioeconomical area I know that there are many kids who don't play district basketball cos it is too expensive.

I realise there are many other factors eg better coaching, pro active recruiting etc but money talks!!!