Hoops

A plea to the Comp Committee and CEO of BSA

Nix, good point. ABA can be like an ex-wife on the purse strings of a club leaving the juniors nothing but gristle when they should be fed steak.

But, junior development is a chicken and egg thing. I think it would be great if all clubs were of a similar strength (not weakness) and every game was within a few points. However, in order to get to that a club needs skilled juniors, skilled coaches and an environment conducive to development. When efforts go into LONG TERM junior development, the benefits at ABA flow on.

Any consideration as a result of yielding a Div 1 spot must go into junior development.

Yes, the member club does have a right, but if they chose not to nominate, some consideration may help them to better develop juniors to fill that gap.

The call from some clubs to put a second team into Div 1 is constant and deafening. So here is a solution.

Div 1 is scheduled as a "carnival" with all Div 1 games for a club being played at the same night and at the same stadium. The 10 member clubs have a priority spot in the Div 1 competition as they must be able to develop players to maintain ABA teams. So, in the case of a competition where a member club does not nominate a team for a season, then this creates a bye situation.

I therefore propose that in this situation, with the consent of the member club, another club could nominate into that vacancy providing that they play their home games at their stadium in order than that scheduling is not disrupted.

For example, the U16 girls Div 1 situation. No South and no Woodville means a double bye. So let's say that both these clubs chose not to nominate a Div 1 team for winter (as a result of a whatever) In this case Forestville 2 and Sturt 2 in the Div 2 competition could be in a position to fill their spots. As Sturt is closer to South, they play their games as the South Proxy, Forestville 2 play their games as the Woodville proxy.

That means that the Sturt team only play at Pasadena when South play at Pasadena and similarly with Forestville, they only play at Wayville when Woodville play there. All their other games are played at the stadiums where their hosts play.

No you don't get something for nothing and a Div 1 spot has an inherent value. Therefore, another condition would be some compensation to the host club for yielding that spot for the season. I would start the compensation at say $1,000 per Div 1 spot to make sure that these teams were serious about playing.

Thoughts?

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