Price hike unavoidable, basketball body says

SURFCOAST Basketball Association (SBA) has defended recent fee increases for domestic competitions and says it is exploring every avenue to clear waitlists for junior playing spots.

Local teams are set to pay $16 extra for each game during the summer basketball season, just over 10 per cent more than the previous winter season.

But the local association says the cost increase is necessary and that SBA game prices remain competitive with neighboring associations in Geelong or the Bellarine.

SBA president Leon Sayers said the organisation faced more costs than met the eye for each of its junior competitions.

“People see a referee or two referees on the court, the court hire and they stop there and think ‘That doesn’t add up’.

“What they don’t comprehend is at the back end we have our court supervisors, we have our domestic and rep admins who have to do the rostering, there’s platforms that we need to buy and pay for from Basketball Victoria and some of their suppliers.

“There’s a lot of costs that people don’t get to see that we incur when running a competition.”

Mr Sayers said price increases across local courts had also affected costs for recent seasons.

Increasing demand for playing spots has also led the association to look outside of Torquay to host games, including newly constructed facilities at Bellbrae Primary School earlier this year, and potentially at Anglesea later this season.

Those smaller, one-court facilities still require supervisors that cannot watch multiple courts at once like they can at Wurdi Baierr, which Mr Sayers said increased SBA’s costs per games played.

Initiatives such as referee mentors to improve officiating standards have also started in recent seasons.

“We’ve absorbed a lot of years of cost increases without passing them on and we got to a point with this summer season where we just couldn’t absorb fees any more,” Mr Sayers said.

Ongoing demand for spots amid a local court squeeze has also left junior clubs dismayed at leaving players on waitlists to join teams.

But SBA says its expansion to new courts and rostering had minimised the number of young players left on the outer.

“I’m not aware of any teams that didn’t make it, but I am aware that there are some kids that are on a waitlist and we’re doing our best to try and get them in,” Mr Sayers said.

SBA had also faced criticism for keeping a large cash reserve while passing on its price increase.

The association has government funding to install a digital scoreboard and retractable seating at Wurdi Baierr Stadium, which Mr Sayers said SBA would also contribute to.

“We have to cover the rest of the cost. So we are putting the money back into the system… and reinvesting back into the community.”

The SBA is hopeful its new seating and scoreboard will be in place before Christmas.