Whoops! Forgot to give my two cents:

I think that if we a going to enforce a salary cap that we need to remove ourselves from the ABA and compete as a separate league for two reasons:

1. Having such a low salary cap AND competing in the ABA means that our teams are at a serious disadvantage when going to the national finals and coming up against the Bendigos and Ballarats of the world. But we can't realistically raise the salary cap (most teams wouldn't even come close to spending the current cap) because that would mean the two or three clubs that have money to spend would dominate.

2. We save the money that we have to pay to the ABA to be part of their competition. This money could be better spent on developing juniors.

Some may say that we might lose some of our players to Mt. Gambier and Mildura etc but an Adelaide based team could possible still play in the ABA but play out of a major country centre (eg Port Lincoln) so they can attract decent sponsors and avoid the financial strain on our clubs.

Thoughts?

don't say boo to a goose as they may say boo back!

there wouldnt be enough money to make a seperatee league now BASAs folded

What costs are there involved with competing in the National Finals? Is it a big deal for SA clubs?

Rather than just juniors, any saved money could be put straight back into our ABL competition - higher profile, some publicity, money for clubs to spend on their players.

For any not aware, a Shawn Redhage playing for Ballarat (for example) would be paid almost double what a local club would spend all up on both its mens and womens teams.

Current ABL Cap is $25,000 per club.

Some other ABL competitions have salary caps upwards of $70,000.

How can we (SA ABL teams) compete against that?

Boti has the figure:

Pull the senior state league comp out of the Australian Basketball Association. It costs about $40,000 a year for the privilege of our league being known as an "ABA Conference". Big deal.

I actually thought it was more like $70k per year but $40k is still way too much. Imagine if we could put that back into our own state's league in the form of advertising, helping clubs to upgrade stadiums, perhaps more money to the development of the Academy team???
I don't even think the SEABL teams have a salary cap of $75k do they?
They have spoken about withdrawing for the last 4 years and never done anything about it. I say go back to a state league competition. If we are going to loose players to the SEABL we would be doing that now anyway, what would be the difference if we pulled out to now? I don't think anyone is basing playing in SA on playing in the Nationals!

Di Campbell is that you???

Classic Panther!!! Thats deserves a basketball too

$40000 can buy a fair bit of publicity for the ABL and at the grassroots level. School clinics provide a great opportunity for ABL clubs to promote the game, their club and finding potential recruits.
Having ABL players running clinics within their local area does more than you think.
Apart from players, past players and their families, who goes to the games? Not many. We need to get the community to feel affiliated with a team.

My thoughts exactly. And the ABL deserves more attention - very affordable and entertaining.

Yeah!! Panther - you scored a basketball.

Don't quote me here but I actually think that's my first ever basketball icon!!!
One from 770 posts, I think i'm doing alright!

You didn't get off to a very good start on the forum though...

Maybe we should start an All Star team - most icons ! (thread)

Panther wouldnt make the starting 5 , but i'd be interested to know who would ! Any ideas Isaac ?

Thanks to Boti for throwing his support behind my original posts.

On the basketball icons surely Bo would be way in front.

Personally I think my good friend Rex Hunt should make the team. He has a couple icons from only a few posts. He probably deserved a few more just looking at all of his posts:

http://www.hoops.com.au/sa/i.cfm/profile/?u=Rex%20Hunt

Where are you Rex? Please come back soon! :)

That's a very good point Isaac!

Found out a little bit more about this whole scenario. Supposedly in 1994 or so, Boti was employed by BASA to work with the clubs to push the ABA idea. The idea then, I believe, was the transition from having a few teams in the ABA to becoming an ABA conference. Concerns at the time included losing players interstate which didn't really eventuate. When you're talking about a reasonable player tossing up $5k and $10k where the great value would mean relocating and renting, it might not always be worth it anyway.

I'd like to see us withdraw, hold that $40k for something else, maybe spend half of it on promotion of the league ($5k each to a couple of part-timers to try some grass roots promotions, $2k to print materials, schedules for the fridge, all that gear) and give what was our central conference a new identity. Central Basketball League, Adelaide Basketball League, whatever. Give it a logo that is a silhouette of Michael Humphrys, referees with nicknames, and a few other things like that and we'd be laughing (mostly at the logo!)

Congratulations on your basketball icon Panther.

I agree with most here, pull out of ABA. We should focus on basketball in SA first, then worry about competing with other conferences once we are the envy of them.

Hmm, i wonder how many people who posted thoughts and supported pulling out are actually players with a possibility of taking their game to the next level?
I agree SA ball needs help at a lot of levels but pulling out seems a backwards step and we want to go forward.
We have great jnrs and a great SA bball product... lets market that, and face it if BASA hadn't screwed up finances for so long none of this would even have come up... I don't see making ABL pay for their overall mistakes will solve anything. At most it would be a short term, small gain and SMALL GAME solution.

Humphry, I would like to know how pulling out SA out of the ABL is going to stop players who are looking to take the next step? Only one team normally gets to go to the Nationals each year, so that leaves out every other team and every other player who is looking at getting interstate exposure! If a player wanted to take the next step, they will either be picked up by Phil and the Sixers or go and play in perhaps the SEABL which is a better conference. Any player wanting to do that can do it whether or not we are in the ABL or not!!!
If we want to compete in their league (ABL)we should be on the same playing field, ie. same salary cap. Without the funds no team (except Forestville, sorry Sweens) in SA can compete with the cashed up cows in the other states. We can't afford to bring in NBL quality players from other states let alone get the ones in our own (I'm talking Maher, Cooper, Holmes, Nash, Dusty, Farley). We can't afford two Americans which just about every SEABL team has, so we are simply not on their level.
I'm sorry but this only applies to the mens competition as you can see SA womens teams have always been competitive.
I'm not sure how long you've been around for Humphry but do you remembersay 10 years ago, when every Sixer played for a local team, plus most of them had imports on top of that!
Until we get the profile of basketball back up in this state we should save that $40k and put it back in at the grass roots level.
One benefit that has come from all of this is some good media coverage.

Stop some clubs rorting the salary cap and the ABA comp would be more even.

"doin'the Eagle rock"

I agree with Panther.

The ABA comp here is already pretty even. Woodville barely had a stacked roster and were successful. Forestville had a huge lineup but were beatable. Norwood had decent names, but sucked. Even a team like Southern who didn't do that well, would've fared better had they not had a few key injuries.

The primary focus should be getting more people to games, having a drink at the bar, etc. The crowds aren't huge right now, so achieving a substantial relative increase wouldn't be out of the question.

I've said it before - work together, share attendance figures, bar sales, etc and cooperate to increase them across the board.

One of the things I saw when playing in the SEABL and travelling around was a lot of better designed stadiums. This is definitely one luxury that no team has here in Adelaide. Stadiums would have corporate boxes, where sponsors would sit with finger food and an esky full of beer, wine and soft drink.
They also had things like professional introductions (Geelong in particular, WOW!) and half time networking drinks.
We need to filter money back into the clubs for stadium development, make it more attractive for sponsors, for marketing. Every club stadium should have an operative bar, some of the stadiums I saw were of NBL quality, with a seperate bar and also pokie facilities. Football clubs have gone down that path, should basketball???

When talking about putting the money back into 'grassroots' level, what exactly are we talking about? Is it ABL level, or are we talking school kids?
In my opinion more attention needs to be focussed on primary school children. Currently, basketball isn't even in the top 10 ranked sports in Australia in terms of interest, and that is because there is virtually no exposure to young children of the sport.
I remember the days when a few crows players would come to my school and it was the coolest thing ever... for the next 3 months every kid who saw these giants would be kicking a footy. In my opinion we need to find some willing and able ambassadors for basketball and have them doing this, but people that are either giants by reputation or giants by size... someone to really impress something on these kids minds... players (ex and current) like Brett Maher, Willie Farley, Kevin Brooks and Mark Davis come to mind.
There is no 'quick fix' to the problems facing basketball in Australia right now. I think focussing on building for the future while stabilising the current environment by introducing new and improved upper levels of management in this state would be best... any thoughts?

I agree, get into schools, particularly Primary Schools where a lot of impressionable kids still don't know what sport they want to take up. Development Officers going into schools, doing a clinic and then asking the kids directly to join a local club would help. The more exposure the better, and it doesn't have to be expensive TV advertising campaigns.

Issac, I wonder if you could expand on your comment "Forestville had a huge lineup but were beatable". Apart from 6 games that Brad Newley played, Forestville had no NBL or imports at all....Woodville had NBl player & American, Sturt NBL players x 3 etc...

I didn't think that players had to be imports or NBL-experienced to be useful and respected in the league? I think that most people here would consider Dix, Newley, Mottram, Farman, Sullivan, Gange, and Sutton decent players. They would put five of those guys on the court and you'd have to respect their ability to score. In the scheme of the league, I'd consider that a pretty big line-up.

It was only a team like Centrals who'd start Hammond and he'd barely trouble the bottom of the net, save for a couple of games. And then again, despite that, they got their share of wins. Every team could put a competitive five on the court and be a shot at winning. Flick back through the boxscores and you'll see that every team could upset another on their night.

I think you could've been imagining a snipe that wasn't there?

Little Johnnie at Paringa Park Primary School, Brighton:

'Mum! Mum! Guess what? Guess what? We played basketball at school today and it was soooo much fun! Mr. JB and Mr Truck took us for class and it was soo cool! They are coming back next week and we are going to play elimination again! Can we go and see them play this Saturday? Can we?! Can we?! Mr. JB says he can dunk but I dont believe him! Go Panthers!'

And there you go, another family at an ABL game and a potential recruit.

(Mod: It's something that needs to happen, and it's also funny!)

Thats exactly how it happens though. Kids in Primary schools are where the new recruits are, the key is also making it affordable and attractive to their parents.

No didn't imagine a snipe, just interested in what your train of thought was.

I agree in the scheme of things it is a big line up, however Mottram played 10 minutes for the season & Newley 6 games, so we didn't really get to see the impact of the potentail size....

If you wnat some size, Tigers in 2006 with Bowley, Alexander & Lallic plus the Hodges boys will be big....

ABL may be, but from what I hear the cost of junior basketball (inc subs, playing uniforms, game fees, shoes) is quite a bit more expensive than other sports such as soccer and football, which at the moment are the 2 biggest threats to basketball. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I don't have kids playing basketball, but from what I've heard it cost a bit for the average family.

Parents - don't buy your kid a pair of Nikes when he/she is playing u/10s or u/12s.

a pair of joggers will suffice at that age level.

i had to raise 50% of any price i paid for shoes as a kid.

I will admit when i found out how much junior fees where per year, i nearly fainted. When i was a kid Junior fees were about 120 per year...

Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't it just another thing that BSA hasn't controlled..?

Bring on the New board.