Leading from the top

MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) - In response to last week’s column ‘A big week Downunder’, a reader called @MoreHoops asked what Basketball Australia (BA) needs from their new CEO.

Great question, one that isn’t easy to answer.

To start I’ll look at some of what I think are BA’s strengths and weaknesses and I suspect my response will emerge from that.

Strengths
Numbers - When it comes to strengths, it is mentioned over and over again that around one million Australians play basketball. It places it up there with netball and soccer as the most played team sports, and is the most played sport by people under 25.

Guys and girls – when the government and corporate dollar is so keenly contested in tight economic times, having a sport that is so widely played by men and women, boys and girls, and people with a disability is a huge boost. The more groups in the community you serve, the more likely an MP is going to listen.

We’re pretty good – Australia isn’t a basketball powerhouse, but with our junior teams almost always in the top six, our women’s team considered a failure if they don’t medal, our men competitive with most opponents, and our wheelchair teams a constant title threat, BA can make strong claims to governing one of Australia’s elite performing sports.

Our national leagues – the NBL in particular has seen hard times, and has been mocked by many in this country. But the reality is both the WNBL and NBL have world-class players and play an entertaining style. The average attendance at an NBL game is 4,200-4,300 people, and both teams have a decent presence on free-to-air television.

Weaknesses
What national teams – In a country where many national sporting teams are national treasures, the Opals and particularly Boomers are barely known anymore. A big issue is the difficulty in getting quality opponents to Australia to showcase the international game, and this winter’s series against Brazil and Greece will be a real litmus test on whether BA can sell its elite teams.

What participants – While it is true basketball has a massive participation base, it seems BA has no way of really utilising is for commercial gain. Some state associations won’t give BA their databases and some local associations won’t give their databases to their state associations!

What youngsters – Too many of the country’s best young male players head to the USA to play college basketball. While a handful of players excel, a number of players seem to get lost in the system.

Where are the pro teams – The NBL has just nine professional teams, and that is a large reason why so many young players end up going to college. In 1996 there were 112 Australians in the league, this year there are 69 despite the fact participation has increased markedly in that time.

The wrap
So what does all that mean? Well obviously a good CEO will capitalise on as many strengths as possible and finds solutions to weaknesses.

But for me it all starts at one point, and that is getting all the sport’s governing associations on the same page.

For the professional side of the game to thrive, clubs need to tap into the local associations. For participation rates to grow rather than stay steady, local associations need the pro game to be attracting kids’ attention.

To attract big-time corporate support BA needs to be able to show they have pro leagues that both attract mainstream media attention and have a pipeline to grassroots participants.

If Basketball Australia doesn’t have access to databases of those who play the sport, it will never reach its potential.

It was once mentioned to me that BA has an excellent insurance set-up that both state and local associations access. If this is true then perhaps it is time to bring out the stick.

Any governing body who won’t join a national database could have their access to this insurance limited or cut out altogether.

After all, if you don’t want to contribute to the national strength of the game, why should you benefit from it?

There has to be some carrot as well. Local associations have grown ambivalent to the plight of professional clubs. They have seen them come and go and got used to going about their business regardless.

It is time to make a successful NBL club good news for the grassroots. Simple things like commission for local associations who sell NBL and/or WNBL memberships, game tickets and merchandise.

Strong links between professional players and associations, in a client management type set-up, is another way of building a stronger relationship.

Basketball can only compete in Australia’s sporting landscape if all its limbs are working together. The problem is it hasn’t really been done before, nor has there been strong leadership to attempt to make it happen. As a result the mention of it is met with suspicious eyes.

That is the number one task I would set out for the new CEO.

Effectively tap into the grassroots and the corporates will come, the professional clubs will grow stronger and the grassroots will benefit from the increased profile.

There is still plenty of work to be done once that is achieved, but work done without it is very unlikely to bear fruit.

If it were an easy task it would have been done before. But without it basketball will never challenge cricket, Australian Rules football and the rugby codes for public interest and corporate investment.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

FIBA’s columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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