Hoops

Sixers On Death Row?

Hood 33, this comment ("The 36ers are basically a small business employing a handful of people.
They don't really put anything back into the economy") is quite laughable. In today's economic climate of rising unemployment, the club would be keeping around 30 people employed, both on court and off court. On top of that, the caters make money, the merchandise manufacturers make money, the photographers, the printers, Venue Tix, the list goes on. All these people and organisations involved pay taxes on the money they make. If this is not putting something back into the economy, I don't know what is. I thought you said you owned a business and employ staff?

Hood 33, I don't know the nature of your business but we are talking about sport here. More specifically a national basketball team at the highest level in Australia. If the 36ers competed in some sort of well publicised international competition and won the title, you can bet the government would be doing some gloating over the significance to their state that this would represent. The Adelaide 36ers is South Australia's Basketball team. They may be privately owned but they represent South Australia.

It might be that the Dome would sit there empty for a while , as the income from under 10s etc. may not cover the costs of opening ,upkeep, management etc.

Peter, I don't agree with your comment about taxpayers who don't support basketball being pissed off with government funds going to basketball. I can give you a list as long as my arm showing where my tax dollars are going and yet I have no interest nor benefit from these tax payer funded schemes. Its all about fairness and giving something to everyone. Its not about continuously pouring in money like pre private ownership days. Its just getting them over the line with the guarantee. I think its enough that basketball is a heavily participated sport at junior level and there is a need for a progression trail at professional level for those who are ambitious enough. You will find that a lot of the junior coaches are actually players of ABA teams. There would be a connection between young players reaching ABA level. From there, there is still another rung up the ladder to NBL. As a government, you should not be removing these opportunities. As Australians, there is always a lot of national and international pride in competition, don't kill it.

Basketball is not a high priority for Media Mike it seems.

Shadow boxing will bikies seems more his bag

Its extremely disappointing that the State Government won't give some financial assistance. It absolutely sickens me to think that they would allow the 36ers to die rather than inject some life back into them.

"The 36ers have a proud history in South Australia, culminating in four premierships, and we look forward to members of the local business community getting behind the team," Sports Minister Michael Wright said. Yeah the government has every right to be proud whilst refusing assistance and watching the team disappear, how pathetic can you get. It is particularly annoying because the government gives financial assistance to other sports. I have a passing interest only in football and went to the showdown tonight. When I was told that the Footy Express bus was free and partly funded by the State Government, it pissed me off. I would rather have paid for my ticket. Not only does the State Government refuse assistance but the Local Government is also out to make things difficult by placing a caveat on the Dome and not allowing it to be used for non sporting events. The Dome with the freedom to be used without restriction would be a much more appealing investment and anyone with the money to buy both the Team and Venue could offset some of the losses from the team by the income on the venue.