Yes. Regularly.

My son had 2 weeks in a row cancelled. Wayville and Pasadena.

Every week BSA send an email to the referee contacts showing how short they are. Every week they are calling for referees to help out at almost all stadiums, almost all timeslots.

Saturday mornings are an issue too.

Phil Haines struggling

Will get worse ,if Sixers are playing then no district games.
Unfortunately BSA don't listen and now this happens and it’s gonna get worse.

Sebastian
Basketball SA have at least 4 paid staff just on the Referee management team including a sub contractor & the wheels seem to be falling off however I don't think it’s fair to blame Phil in this case

I have heard a lot of referees refuse to referee junior games due to the people higher in the pecking order than Phil.

A specific female in operations and the former CEO helped create a culture that will take a lot to recover from.

And then they hire SSOs who have no idea about basketball, and would rather tell people you can't sit there, rather than help develop the game.

Most of the senior referees have full time jobs. They work hard 9 to 5 - would you want to come out for $20 a game to be told by a coach that the last call was a bad one because pushing is fine if it's during a box out? Or have an under 14 kid wave his arms and yell after a call because he is living his parents dream and really has no idea what he is doing?

Covid helped a lot of people realise that there is more to life than basketball

But in saying that, what organisation would charge people registration fees, then cancel games every week, and simply not care?

BSA!!

He is the man in charge of the department is he not?

Sebastian, yes he is the head of Officials but if you understand how bsa operates I think you will find that would be the type of job in which your hands are tied

To start with, too much Basketball at this level with division 10 junior teams is crazy

The domestic leagues are better & pay the refs higher than bsa pay for district

Why not scale back the amount of BSA run comps to div 1-3 or 1-4 & then all of a sudden they will have enough refs for these games and the clubs will benefit by running bigger domestic comps

Kids in division 5-10 can still play with Bearcats but in the Bearcats domestic (make sense)

Now Phil Haines can do his job and work with refs who make it to the junior rep level

After several years in the role the department has gone backwards. Time to stop making excuses and produce results

It's time BSA took a move BV approach to umpires

The sport is growing, which should be good

But inadequate infrastructure, planning, and communication lead to these outcomes.
Obviously, Victoria has a larger population but it can support 45+ basketball associations and continue to have growth

BSA has 10 clubs (16 if you count United, Church + Unis)

SA had one of the most significant population growths from 2021-22 if BSA isn't prepared for the sport to grow people should be looked at as liabilities

So the referee shortage is causing problems for the St Clair Christmas carnival also.

With them saying they will need to drop complete divisions and potentially the whole senior age group this year.

How does Eltham/Dandenong run a carnival mid year with teams from all over Australia (and even outside) but SA cant even hold a carnival with the population within the state?

how has the sport participation grown so quickly but the referee participation has dwindled just as fast?

Surely the "Head of referees" has to answer for this issue.

Pay refs more in district than they can get in domestic

Court supervisors involved and monitoring parent behaviour ( what ever happened to the two court supervisors)

As BFLP suggested remove grades. 1-4 domestic and the balance domestic.

Just maybe if parents could keep their mouths shut and not throw verbal crap at the referee this problem might runaway.

Another round of Thursday night games canceled due to lack of refs. Was a make up round but still with no Friday night games ( lack of available stadiums) and no weekend games disappointing 80 odd games can't go ahead Thursday.

Have they replaced Phillip Haines position yet?
Seems some leadership in this area is desperately needed

in all fairness - it's a long weekend that originally had no games - a shorter notice plan to try to recover some games this TH / Fr. Best for BSA to plan / pencil in a few non long weekends (maybe some Sundays like previous years) where catch up games may happen on the calendar at the start and everyone knows that is a possibility from the outset. Plus it's important for everyone to have a break and the games are forecast now week after Easter from what I understand. (first weekend of school holidays)

Plus
You are saying that everyone needs a break when they have already a load of the championship season. And then you are saying they are better off playing catch up games on a sunday when traditionally it's even harder to get refs, costs more & then you are saying they should wait to play games in the school holidays when people will actually want to go away

Ok, I think it’s strange they could not play a full round this Thursday night since they could have asked the entire ref group to cover the games and many would be keen since they have no games on the long weekend

Seems on the outside it because they now have no staff in the ref department

It’s a Shambles but I hope it’s sorted soon and the sport can thrive

In all fairness, by cancelling this reschudule of Thursdays games it tells me District basketball is in serious trouble. Thursday night is a normal basketball night. Yes this weeks games were originally scheduled as a bye, but, a very big but, bsa sent an email 2 weeks ago when games were cancelled due to heat specifying they were looking to reschedule the games for this week. So with 2 weeks notice and now with no Friday or Saturday games they don't have enough refs to cater for the games.

They need to do a big recruiting drive , refs are always in short supply, but it doesn't help when parents abuse the junior refs who are still learning and they get paid peanuts, I wouldn’t want my son doing it ( or daughter ) only to have irate parents heckle them from the side
Like everything it comes from grass roots and builds

So how do other states handle this issue?

Of refs being abused, I mean

In 12's you can’t talk to refs at all. Absolutely no communication whatsoever. 14’s you can ask a questions but can’t yell out stuff. Some refs are good and are quick to set the tone by not letting anybody talk to them. Most coaches accept this.

16,18’s there is a little more flexibility to say something.

The easiest way to deal with any ref is not yell. Even if they are bad, it’s not going to make them better. Some people think it’s part of the sport to yell at refs. You just end up looking like a dickhead yelling at a young kid learning the game.

Maybe SA should start with a no tolerance rule at all ages and work from there.