Isaac
Years ago

Sengstock resigns as BA CEO

How by-the-book are resignation press releases? Wish it just said "Got sick of it", "Life threatening disease, sorry", "Was fired for stealing stationery", "Found a better job", etc.

The Board of Basketball Australia today announced that Larry Sengstock had resigned from his position as Chief Executive Officer.

Chairman of the Board, Kristina Keneally, expressed her appreciation for Mr. Sengstock's contribution to Basketball Australia.

"Larry took on the CEO's job in 2009; just months after NBL clubs and State and Territory Associations passed a unanimous vote for the unification of basketball at all levels under the governance of Basketball Australia. He has worked hard to make that unification a reality - drawing together the constituent members of BA and creating a single voice for the sport," Ms. Keneally said.

"Pleasingly, these stronger connections across the basketball family - players and fans - has led to increased attendance at NBL and WNBL games, and increased viewership on television."
The Board of BA will be commencing its search for a new CEO immediately.

"The Board has decided to take Basketball Australia in a new direction, and refocus the organisation's resources and structure to best deliver on its recently adopted Strategic Plan."

BA Board member and former CEO Scott Derwin has agreed to act as an interim CEO until a new Chief Executive Officer is appointed.
No quotes in the press release from Larry himself?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Makes you wonder why

Reply #358369 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

another one bites the dust

Reply #358370 | Report this post


Happy Days  
Years ago

Not rated by other CEO's in the basketball community.Might look for a higher profile candidate.

Reply #358371 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

How many more to go

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Isaac  
Years ago

NBL have released a "Statement from Larry Sengstock" with a few comments on his achievements and then:

Mr. Sengstock has declined to make any further media comment on his decision to resign.
Dun, dun, duuuunnnn.

Reply #358378 | Report this post


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

Stepping down during the grand final series, seems a bit odd to me.

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Jack Toft  
Years ago

The Media release sounds very straight up and down and occurring during the GF series could be construed that he was pushed or something more to it, which may not be the case at all. Usually they have a quote when they leave on good terms, eg "I'd like to thank all the fans for their support over my time and I'll see you at the Kingdome". Agree Isaac, would love to see a media release with something like:

" Mr Smith was sacking immediately for having sex with his secretary in the photo copier room"

Reply #358380 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Money quote:

"The Board has decided to take Basketball Australia in a new direction, and refocus the organisation's resources and structure to best deliver on its recently adopted Strategic Plan."


Kristina Keneally new CEO?

Reply #358381 | Report this post


Wildcat Fan  
Years ago

Sad to see him go. Thought he did a great job in helping rebuild this sport. Do you think it may have anything to do with the dodgy TV contract with One that led to his demise/resignation?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

He was good for the sport but they need some people outside of the game in Australia who have had ties to managing sporting codes before, to come in and really set in place a management model that will be sustainable and achieve progression over the next few years, from a grassroots level right through to the NBL.

The NBL surely must has an untapped market. I mean, the NBA is followed by heaps of Australians but I guarantee that the majority of those people don't follow the NBL. This is a combination of lack of quality in the NBL as well as numerous marketing/advertising/business management faults that have been made by the NBL and BA over the last 10 years.

Reply #358383 | Report this post


Fill Smythe  
Years ago

A push in the back is normally an unsportsmanlike foul.

Reply #358384 | Report this post


curtley  
Years ago

Bob Brown to take over.

Reply #358386 | Report this post


moo moo  
Years ago

maybe julia gillard will want the job in a few months,ha ha

Reply #358387 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Found responsible for problems with new team bids? Wild guess. Certainly seems odd.

Reply #358389 | Report this post


Temerity  
Years ago

Want we don't need is someone from the US to come over and try and run the sport. Best that the NBL goes and recruits the person they want. Perhaps someone from the AFL or a high profile business identity. Also move BA back to Victoria the home of ball.

Reply #358390 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

might of been called to account for the wayne carroll shemozzle eh ? they all participated though. might as well clear out the whole lot there as enablers.

Reply #358391 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

what we dont need is Scott Derwent? Surely he has had his crack and got the boot?

Reply #358392 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

will chuck-e-doll have a another crack ? dear god !

Reply #358393 | Report this post


skull  
Years ago

WOW.......i'm shocked...not sure where to start.

i'm sure there were issues with tv contracts/new teams bids etc, but.....
The NBL is a second/third tier Australian pro-sports programme that has a high number of its best(sometimes debatable) born and bred athletes/players not playing in it.(o/s)
it is basically a stepping stone/feeder league,which makes it a marketing nightmare.
we have smallish stadiums so even if you fill them you dont have a huge financial win because of cheap ticket prices etc, plus in many cases drinks and food profits go to the venue(in cairns anyway)
Happy Days-not rated by other basketball CEO'S??
might look for a higher profile CEO....crikey's,Larry is a legend among basketball people,the battles that guy endured as an under-sized center for the Australian Boomers all those years are still talked about.

i hope BA has a rock-solid plan this time..........or maybe Larry left on his own terms/mission, to get the Brisbane Bullets back in the NBL ???

Reply #358395 | Report this post


Nutwork  
Years ago

is this for the goodification of basketball?

Reply #358396 | Report this post


Rocket  
Years ago

I met Larry a couple of times, watched him play a lot, coached against him, and I have the utmost respect for him as a person and player.

I am confident that he took on the role with the best intentions,and I think he has taken the sport to a much better place.

Why he is gone, I do not know, but I hope it is because there is a person/group who will take Australian Basketball to an even better level, particularly in terms of management across the board.

I think we still have a way to go to work out where we sit in the world of Basketball, and what are the best strategies to ensure we can make this sport a major rather than minor sport in Australia.

Reply #358397 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

MAYBE he has been put back in charge of getting a Brisbane team back in?

Reply #358399 | Report this post


Y not  
Years ago

Face facts Oz basketball is slowly being swallowed up by other sports who took a more professional approach years ago. Marketing the product 20 years ago around TV like the NBA does would've given it a better chance.

Even the AFL started structuring LIVE broadcasts around TV.

Jim Henson might as well been running this muppet show!!

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Libertine  
Years ago

The key is the second-to-last paragraph. Look out for one of the new Chairman's mates to take on the role.

Reply #358405 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

nbl = joke

Reply #358408 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Would love to see Cal Bruton in the role. Has a good marketing brain and a undertanding of basketball.

Reply #358414 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Cal Bruton? Dear God no - we are in enough trouble as it is! We need a hard arsed and experienced business person who will single mindedly run the game like a business and make tough calls when needed.

Reply #358415 | Report this post


Isn't David Stern stepping down as NBA boss after this season?? Maybe he can come and turn it around!! lol

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Once KK got involved Larry was gone.

Reply #358420 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Seriously - this is the toughest administration job in Australian sport.

He resigned because there's nothing more he can do. Not even John O'Neill or Andrew Demetriou could make Basketball popular. Look at what Ben Buckley is going through at the moment with the FFA.

You're on a hiding to nothing with basketball.

Participation rates will always be 'up' because it's a participation sport - anyone can play as the slogan says.

The 'problem', as always, is league exposure in an over saturated sports market and getting our National team to a position where they can at least be mentioned in a sentence with the Wallabies, the Australian cricket team and the Socceroos.

Reply #358423 | Report this post


anonanonanon  
Years ago

Has anyone heard what is happening with the proposed new NBL team?

Reply #358426 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Doubt over funding. O/S money involved.

Reply #358430 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

Sengstock didn't really do much. Not disappointed to see him go.

You need someone with more fight in them who won't accept the status quo or spin bullshit.

Reply #358431 | Report this post


FM  
Years ago

Seriously BA needs a clean out. Anyone who has been there longer than 3 years needs to go. They have a few people in their in the top tier which are bad for the game. The ones underneath them should have brought this out by now and the fact they haven't unfortunately makes them tainted with the same brush.

The same should have happened in SA 20 years ago and it didn't, we went belly up as a result.

Reply #358435 | Report this post


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

Time for some younger new blood in BA/NBL. No more former players, please!

Reply #358438 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

Also need people with proper experience dealing with big companies. Doesn't appear like the current mob have any idea what they are doing in that regard.

Reply #358439 | Report this post


Boomer  
Years ago

Rumors going around the basketball courts today.

1) Drewey will be new CEO (I say doubtful)

2) Larry let go due to giving his mates the 2nd Melb NBL team without giving the other groups a fair go or correct due diligence done on the group that got the rights. The deadline for new teams has well and truly passed.

3) Larry involved financially with the new Melb team so obviously a conflict in itself so he did the right thing and stepped down accordingly and if true raises so many more questions about the whole process.

Not sure on the validity of any of it but that's some of the things out there today.

Let's hope they go for a businessmen.

Reply #358445 | Report this post


orbit  
Years ago

If Sengstock was gonna get involved financially wouldnt it be with Brissy?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Please not Drewey as CEO.

He always thinks things are going rosey.

112 people could turn up at an NBL game and he would still say "It's a great crowd turnout tonight"

Reply #358448 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Never heard so much sh!t in my life.
Drewey... No.
Sengstock finacially involved with any NBL team, and the negotiations got this far? No.
Worst part for me is that Scott Derwin is back in charge

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Boomer  
Years ago

Knox was the place to be tonight. Apparently Larry has been there the last two days so one assumes its to do with the new team.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

should of stepped down in september last year when it became obvious to those in the "new club circles" that there was gigantic conflict of interest brewing. might not of pissed off so many people then, including prospective owners wanting to enter discussions !
fm the ones underneath them should of brought this out ? what makes you think they and others around the new club attempts werent trying to do that already and going blue in the face with nothing being done ? dont assume nobody tried to blow the whistle. these are often the ones that unfairly and wrongly get tarred with the trouble maker brush, when they are the ones who should be rewarded for having a conscience. they are torn down instead then walk away.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

I agree 100% with FM. Hopefully Landon will be the next to go as part of the new direction? If the whistle blowers ever get heard there woould be plenty of pain for the sport but it would be a good thing.

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HO  
Years ago

The comments here as a group show how much posters do not understand the structure of the game in Australia.

For a start, the NBL is not BA. The NBL might be a window to the sport but it is not the game. The game remains in strong shape in many many respects - participation, international standing, player development etc etc. The game is thriving in Vic, WA and Qld reportedly, struggling in NSW and holding its own elsewhere. AND BA have very little say in state strategies - in fact, almost none.

LS has been under significant scrutiny for some time by many people in the sport - the states, who control the majority of the vote, have been very dissatisfied according to many.

Scott Derwin has been appointed in an interim role. People bagging him here need to validate what he did so poorly in the past - remember, in his time, he never controlled the NBL - it was a distinctly different organisation - and it is the NBL that has been seen to be the basket case for so long.

Derwin oversaw the Unification of BA and the NBL and then resigned - that unification was a major achievement - 30 years in the making. BTW, Derwin and Landon were "running the show" when we won our world championship in 2006 - possibly the best thing to happen in the past decade.

Speculating that Keneally wants the job or that this is about the Melbourne/Brisbane team is just that, speculation. For a start, for Keneally to take the chair, then manipulate herself into being CEO by sacking the incumbent, would be the worst way to take the position. If that was her plan, then she could have played this very differently.

My understanding is that another senior staffer was let go recently... the BA marketing guy?

Finally, temerity, the BA office is in Victoria. Larry moved it down. And it was never in Victoria previously so that you could "move it back" to Vic.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

HO agree on all bar two points.

Landon and Darwin do not get credit for the women's world championship. Give me a break!

Secondly just because BA hasn't been in Melbourne in your time doesn't mean they have never been there. I assume you BA was based in Melbourne for a very long time.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

"My understanding is that another senior staffer was let go recently... the BA marketing guy?"

Paul got the arse?

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seen it all  
Years ago

Scott Derwin advised the first set of Administrators for the cannons that the Canberra NBL licence was only worth about $15,000, so $20,000 was a great price for the adminitrators to sell the license to the Newcastle Hunters group for - so that's what they did.

When this came out at the first creditors meeting,and the actual figures of the previoust 2 commercial transfers of NBL licenses were given to them ( all in six figures), then that set of administrators actually spent 30mins trying to convince the ATO representative to vote AGAINST them continuing in the administrator's role - totally oblivious to the fact that ATO policy was inflexible on that matter.

So when the votes were cast and it was clear that on the basis of the money owed to the ATO ( essentially creditors' total votes were completely proportional to moneys owed to that creditor)- they were to be reappointed - they actually refused to continue in that role - the first time in Australian corporate living memory where that had happened .

It was very plain that that set of auditors saw just how much trouble they were in from taking advice from people like Derwin, - and just wanted out at any cost.

Have very little time for Derwin, In my opinion he has done little inside basketball except take a salary, and had and has done even less outside it.

Reply #358513 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

#358493

I said Landon and Derwin were at the helm when we won the world champs. They had overseen the period from the Olympics to the 2006 world champs in terms of national teams and high performance. I am not sure how they cannot be seen to be involved in the success of 2006, given they were making policy, they appointed Stirling, etc etc. You cannot just say it was a fluke, and you cannot just say it was the coaches and the team. Team's don't normally win in spite of a shite administration, they normally los ebecause of one - I think you give credit where it is due and you would have to saying the Derwin/Landon administration was a positive one for the Opals in this period.

BTW, likewise, Derwin needs to take some responsibility for the Boomers failing in 2001.

Perhaps you are confusing the NBL, WNBL and ABA offices which were all in Melbourne? The WNBL from memory moved up around 2002, along with the ABA. The NBL was in Melbourne for some time after that.

But, for the entire history of the NBL, starting in 1979, the BA offices were in Sydney, and to my knowledge, was never in Melbourne until Larry moved it down - it has been quite a Sydney institution.

Seen it all, that was when the NBL was completely separately run - why would Derwin be involved giving the Cannons advice? We are talking 2002/3 here - decisions and advice like that sat at that period with either Peter Ali or Rick Burton...unless I have my administrators out of order... and Derwin never ran the NBL.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

I heard in the rumour mill at Knox that Mike McHugh is the next to go. Richie Gee was the marketing guy that resigned. Not sure if we was told to leave but resigned and wasnt give 4 weeks notice, same as the CEO, resigned Friday and not coming back, seems the sack to me????

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anonanonanon  
Years ago

Knox Knox Knox - becoming a much used word !

Reply #358548 | Report this post


seen it all  
Years ago

HO
A few hours ago
17:37 15 Apr 12

Reply #358515
re: Sengstock resigns as BA CEO

#358493

Seen it all, that was when the NBL was completely separately run - why would Derwin be involved giving the Cannons advice? We are talking 2002/3 here - decisions and advice like that sat at that period with either Peter Ali or Rick Burton...unless I have my administrators out of order... and Derwin never ran the NBL.

You have it EXACTLY right - There was absolutely NO reason why Derwin should have made it his business to give advise such as that .. or to have spent as much time as he did on closing down the cannons and moving the license to Newcastle ... but as the CEO of BA he decided to undervalue the license for reasons that were unable to be explained by the receivers who were first put in charge of the administration of the Cannons -

I'd spend many many months having some first hand experience of Derwin, and I'm more than a little concerned that he's back "in charge" - even if it is only "temporary" .

By the way Burton was the nbl commissioner from July 2003 to August 2007 - and this was happening in jan-march 2003.

Reply #358562 | Report this post


anon  
Years ago

word has it brookhouse will be the new man ??????????

Reply #359233 | Report this post




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