Basketball: Don't pay then don't play

Basketball HB board chairman Gerry Sullivan weighs up his options on how to pull the amateur body out of the financial doldrums.

It's a steel-cap boot in the teeth but the message from Basketball Hawke's Bay to its age-group representative players is they'll have to wear it.

"Don't pay, don't play," Basketball HB board chairman Gerry Sullivan said last night. "That'll be the absolute rule."

Sullivan's remarks come on the heel of the amateur basketball body pulling itself up off the canvas following a fiscal knockout punch that left it in the financial doldrums this year.

Asked if that policy would prejudice the selection of many talented youngsters, especially those from lower socio-economic families, Sullivan agreed some parents had up to three children in a rep programme would feel the pinch but that simply meant those who couldn't afford it would have to wait for the next tournament or the following year to vie for higher honours.

"We've probably got no one to blame but ourselves but, having said that, we do have a very reliable family base," he said after the Hastings District Council's decision not to emulate the gesture of its Napier counterpart in helping wipe off court-hire costs of about $30,000.

Instead, the HDC followed the Pettigrew-Green Arena Trust to grant Basketball HB "a generous payment plan" which the councils were now mulling over with the code.

"The Napier council were intending to write off the debt if Hastings were so the logic of that is just beyond me."

However, Sullivan said the councils had made it abundantly clear they were there to serve the ratepayers and not amateur sport organisations.

"They're saying sports codes must be self funded and they are here to represent ratepayers. That's in black and white ... so it's tough out there for amateur sport."

It cost Basketball HB close to $100,000 to hire the three venues last year and it had paid off $70,000 of that from grants and subscription fees.

For the body to apply for more grants and pub charities this year it needs to show its books are up to date from last year.

The organisation's coffers were empty towards the end of last year but with schools resuming a fortnight ago it was beginning to refill.

"The councils are sending the message that as an organisation they are not there to bail you out or provide back up for amateur sport."

What resonated with Sullivan was the Napier council's "unanimous" resolve to write off the debt.

"They valued what we're doing although they did put a proviso not to break the rules with others.

"Hastings doesn't see it that way and have said that you've made your bed now lie on it."

He said while that was "fiscally prudent" of the Hastings council it didn't do much to help Basketball HB.

"But we're not going to slag them off."

With the astronomical growth in the number of representative sides helping the players was not viable anymore.

"The user-pays policy has to apply to those teams.

"I don't want to be the negative nancy on it right now because we haven't actually worked out the details just yet."

Sullivan said rep teams often contributed about $600 towards a tourney but when they had to go to a venue as far south as Dunedin it often equated to $2000 a head a player subsidy.

"We'll still apply for funding but we're still very tight because we have no room to move or subsidise.

"It's a good lesson learned so we're biting the bullet and not slinging the mud at anybody."

The non-profit body's turnover last year was $800,000 and every cent went to basketball.

On the bright side, the councils had invited it to apply for community grants but he said he had stressed on them there was a decade of apathy but they would now gratefully lodge applications.