HoopNation courting more local support

Paul Berridge (left) and KJ Allen do not want Wanganui teams to feel undervalued at Springvale Stadium next weekend. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Tournament's growing success means continuing talks on arena upgrade

The organisers of Wanganui's ever-growing moneyed basketball tournament do not want HoopNation to collapse under the weight of its own success, and that means local support.

It is now seven days until tip-off for the 30 teams that make up this year's tournament, starting at 9am on Labour weekend Saturday with two headline men's premier games on courts 1 and 2 at Springvale Stadium.

That will continue in much the same trend for the next three days and co-organiser Paul Berridge said while they were looking to promote the sport across all the grades, preference must be given to the NBL, Breakers, and Tall Black stars in the top teams.

"We've had a couple of Wanganui teams complain because they're on court 3. It is the nature of the venue. We understand their concerns, but you have to understand the capacity of the event as well.

"Those Wanganui teams will play on court 1 if they make the semifinals."

Berridge and fellow organiser KJ Allen would like Springvale to have the resources of three or more top-quality courts, as they want the premier teams to leave Wanganui raving about the springy surface so HoopNation's reputation continues to grow.

They say talks continue with Wanganui District Council about the future prospects of upgrading the arena, which they feel would then become self-sustaining through the arrival of more national basketball, volleyball and netball events.

"They are talking about capping numbers. Why would we want to cap something when it can keep growing?" asked Berridge.

The recent national secondary schools basketball championships in Palmerston North brought in an estimated $1.9 million to Palmerston North for the one-week event, he said.

After starting with 16 teams two years ago, Berridge and Allen have raised their bar to aim for 42 teams in 2014.

WDC is behind the tournament as evidenced by the help in funding the airfares of David Chu, a former FIBA-official who now acts as a basketball agent in Asia.

Berridge says Chu will be coming to scout the tournament with the prospect of bringing some of the top Asian teams to New Zealand next year. Chu is one of the drivers behind the big game between the Asian All Stars and the NBA legends, being played in Kuala Lumpur the week after HoopNation.

Waitakere's "Killa" Cam Stuart was selected as the winner of the Hoop Nation/Mai FM Throw Down King competition to go play in that game, which he was promoting along with the Wanganui tournament on Maori TV's Code show on Thursday night. Allen said other promotions included merchandise being given away by hip hop star King Kapisi on his Juice TV programme Majestic Riddims , along with local radio stations.

He and Berridge will travel with Stuart to Kuala Lumpur to set up a HoopNation display in the 14,000-seat arena during the All Stars game.

HoopNation festivities start with team registrations next Saturday from 8am.

The doors open to the public at 8.45am.

Entry is $8 for adults, $4 for secondary school and intermediate students, and free from primary school-aged children and under.

The main games on Courts 1-2 are Waitakere Super City Rangers vs Auckland Flash and Palmerston North That's Us vs NZ Maori Kauri.