Vision for Basketball

I am not going to bother anymore on the days I publish. Let me just say I publish twice a week.

I have read quite a number of articles published on basketball. My main source was http://www.mybasketball.wordpress.com/ It is an excellent blog that brings together people who are passionate about the game in South Africa. The reader will be amazed about the quantity of basketball in South Africa. Subjectively basketball is big. But formal studies count against us. One obvious reason for this is that basketball does not have supporters. With all my heart I know that the sport can attract spectatorship. It is unfortunate that the person from the street will not be able to see this.

One thing that is keeping the game going is the vision of the community basketball leaders. These people have given hope to the sport that we love. They have kept the flame of basketball burning as every year we see new basketball talent. Since these people have a vision of basketball, do the basketball leaders have a vision of basketball?

Hearsay suggest that the Premier Basketball League has had an interim governing structure since the end of their court case with BasketballSA. Yours truly is of the opinion that this is a bad recipe for the reputation of the league and basketball. One should understand that the leaders of this structure have other responsibilities. It is important to note that the Premier Basketball League is a private company. When a person registers a company, they work hard to make it profitable and successful. A company may make a lot of profit. All that can be turned into a loss due to unforeseen events such as BSA taking PBL to court. That has resulted in the sponsors taking away their investments.

Companies can make a comeback. Some just don't. It is business culture. The days of business are not all rosy.

Do the current PBL executives have what it takes to bring back the company from nothing? Past executives had what it takes and there is one lesson we can learn from them. Each contributed so much money for the birth of PBL. History has got a way of repeating itself. What will it take for the present PBL executives to emulate those who gave birth to the PBL, just for one year. The difference between now and when Sprite was running a promotion will be that you will be doing it for yourself. No one is going to do it for you. You have what it takes to make it. You have a person with great credentials in Graham Abrahams who would negotiate with his bosses for a broadcast sponsorship. Supersport need as much content as possible. They sell and their sponsorship could bring them quite a number of subscriptions. They will have a good number of an audience that watches Slam Dunk.

There is a great spectatorship for basketball in the country. There are local leagues available where we can draw those spectators. There are many ways to attract the spectators. We can also introduce a few loyalty programmes for the Premier Basketball League in the first year.

It has been done before. It is up to you as PBL to take a decision of bringing back PBL at your expenses. History can repeat itself and you hold key to that action. The risk that you will take will be worth it.