strength during adversity makes the person - car pool etc

hire a minibus between a few teams going to the same venue

it is amazing what team building can go on here

nothing ever gos down in priice - so we have to live with it


would not be the first time I caught a bus as well

just depends what the game means to you

I happend to be on the same flight as Mark Hubbard the other week and mentioned this as an issue that I think BSA needs to start thinking about. I agree this is elite basketball and there are costs to play at the top but it is getting to the stage where the costs of petrol is becoming a serious issue. Clubs need to start thinking about facilitating car pooling. BSA needs to start thinking about regionalising the competition. A few yrs ago I would have called someone using petrol as an excuse for quitting a whinger. Now its a serious, legitimate issue in my opinion.

Imagine if you guys lived in the country!

The current price of petrol shows how average the public transport system is in Adelaide.

Dividing the comps into a north and south wouldn't really work.

y not Toft?

Hopefuly the tax cuts this new financial year will help alleviate this problem. Families serious about their child's basketball might like to use it towards that. Whilst a car is needed to transport a family from venue to venue, petrol rationing can be used in other travel, ie work. They wouldn't be the first to change from the car to the bus to go to work and before anyone starts arguing the merits of this, sure there are people it would not work for but the majority it would.

AOTW. Stop whinging....

Breaking news Servo's are going to start playing porn at the petrol pumps. So you can watch someone else being screwed at the same time as you are.

I can live with the petrol, I can live with the club fees, I can live with paying for my child to play each week, but I'm totally pissed at having to pay for both parents to watch our own kids!

So your kid is showing great potential, but you are going to pull them out because of the cost of petrol?

Think about the enjoyment your children get out of the sport while you are sitting at home, possibly having a smoke, while having a beer and watching foxtel or a hired video while munching on some takeaway.

??? I agree with you and then when you have two or three kids that play on a saturday morning at different stadiums you end up having to pay every time you enter a new stadium. Why won't they allow us to show the ticket from the first stadium that we paid at??

Ummm.. Im against playing the game out of 2-3 stadiums. Then the same people do the same amount of travel each week. Basketball has to be played out in the suburbs in the regions. Get community, sponsorship and schools to invest money in the sport.

skyhooked, do you know about the transfer ticket system where you only need to pay once to spectate during the week? You have to pay about $15 for the transfer ticket itself but you do get you money back after a few weeks because you then only pay entry at one stadium. The tickets are available from any stadium and are good for one season. I've bought a ticket to watch U16s on a Thursday night and used that for Friday and Saturday games as well, and the occasional catchup game on Sunday . Having said this I think it's still completely unreasonable to have to pay to watch your kids play.

(Mod: Helpful.)

(#192445) Did I cut to close to the bone for you? Do you put your enjoyment before your kids? Sorry for "insuling" you with my simplistic view.

Can I suggest that the sport is one of the most expensive to play in the 1st place.

If you can agree to that then take the thought a bit further and see if you can get your head around the fact that when petrol was $1.20 p/ltr the average car would cost approx $72 to fill from empty (based on 60 ltrs).

It now costs approx $108 to fill from empty.

What I am suggesting to you is that if the extra $36 costing per week over the last year or so has pushed you to the point that you are really thinking of pulling your kid out then I would suggest that the sport was probably too expensive for you in the first place.

For my family it is hard to put a price on what my kid gets out of the sport, because they get a huge amount out of it. For you its quite obviously dollars and cents.

Hopefully I have put enough thought "behing" this post for you!

In future when posting, instead of trying to come up with big fancy words, maybe just concentrate on getting the simple ones right sunshine!

Fuel cost is determined by speculation of available reserves at any given time by a bunch of suits specializing in jumping at shadows - "look! gran has not eaten her porridge this morning, oil has to be worth $10 more a barrel today".

"A guy in Israel farted; up $10 more - really humming now". Yep, there is a lot of farting that somehow always affects oil rich nations.

Prices can be esculated simply declining to conduct exploration for reserves. Likewise conducting exploration is costly and drives up costs. No one has a true figure on total oil reserves but it is fairly clear that demand is damn high. All people who chooose to indulge in automotive transport are to blame for that. Damn the Chinese and Indians for abandoning primative forms of transport.

In addition, we have a carbon emmissions problem (effectively causes a shift in atmospheric conditions = species death) that is aleviated by a reduction in fuel usage. Read - increase the cost of fuel through tax.

So the message is clear, high fuel costs like those in Europe, are here to stay.

Car Pool. Choose a fuel efficient vehicle. Choose not to travel to a venue. Choose not to travel or participate at all. Bump your ass on the moon however if you expect basketball rostering to change just for your increased fuel bill.

Rostering attempts to cater for all who are involved in the sport, driven to peak at excellence at the highest level. If a change is made to suit some, by pure fact it will disadvantage others elsewhere.

I have seen on a Thursday night Majic play West Adelaide at Pasadena.

That is a lot of wasted petrol for both teams.
This was an U16 Div 3, 4 or 5 game?

If Basketball SA are serious about looking at this situation, then the above fixtures need to change.

Car pooling is a very effective way of combatting the spiraling transport costs.

I do think that it may become an issue, especially in the lower leagues and the less succesful clubs.
These teams and clubs are very important to the whole set up and need to be looked after.

thanks bbgun for that information I'm gunna have to look into it for next season.

Rostering would depend largely on:-
Number of teams that call the stadium "Home"
Stadium availability
Cost of staging the game
Capacity to conduct the games - (i.e how many courts)
any existing contracts with the venue.

To a lesser extent:
Availabilty of officials (Gawler)

Having no knowledge of the financials or contracts that exist at present, I cannot accurately address your question.

In relation to fuel cost efficiency for basketball only, it would be wise to play for a team that is close to your residence.

Likewise if your residence was located central to all frequently used stadia - eg Mile End?

It would be advantageous if that club had multiple courts available and many teams playing for it.


The disadvantaged are the players from outlying areas particularly Mt Barker and Centrals. Small clubs with comparatively poor public transport options. From a previous thread however, these clubs have high standard venues. (Morphettville also suffers from the tyranny of distance).

The take home point is that basketball and BSA are stapped for cash so cost efficiency is high on their agenda ATM, ergo subsidizing travel expenses is not.

The increase cost in petrol should not be a deterrent to parents allowing their kids to participate in sport. Its a healthy activity and your kids will be healthier for it. Look at it as paying for the health of your kids. As I pointed out before, costs in petrol can be cut in other areas. The main one being driving to work. 5 weeks ago I was paying $70 a week in petrol driving to work every day and then the usual weekend activities. I now pay $20 a week in petrol and $26.90 a week in a bus ticket. That's a saving of $23.10 a week on top of other savings like less wear on the tyres, less wear and tear on the car itself, the lower kilometres increases the re sale value of the car, keeping it at home in the garage keeps the body in better condition than left in the open air everyday. Again increasing re sale value. All these savings alone probably pays for your kids sports and the parents spectator fees. I don't doubt that there are many thousands of people that could make this switch but for their own convenience choose not to. I used to spend 90 minutes a day driving both ways to work, I now spend 2 hours a day catching buses. An extra half hour a day would not mean that my convenience takes priority over the kids sports.

One simple question you could ask would be "Do you all get enjoyment from playing/watching the game?"

If so, then look at it as entertainment; and what would you be doing with your time/money if you weren't at your child's/children's games? Cinema? Hiring a video? Going out for tea? Drinking alcohol wherever? Having friends over? All cost money!

This way is healthy, enjoyable and give you time to bond with your children and hopefully socialise with friends and meet new people. Easy! Too simple?