COUNTING THE COSTS OF COVID
BELLARINE Peninsula Basketball Association will go without nearly $200,000 in revenue because of the coronavirus as it launches a fundraising campaign for the sport’s restart.
The pandemic hit the association at a time when it would expect to generate about 30 per cent cent of its annual income.
General manager Aaron Lothian described it as a “major impact” on the association, which has 270 domestic sides, 20 junior representative teams and a men’s and women’s outfit in the Big V competition.
He said it would typically receive between $160,000 and $180,000 across May and June when the domestic and representative seasons start.
“We’re quite fortunate we did have some cash reserves that we didn’t have to lay anyone off; we were able to keep all staff on,” Lothian said.
“We’ve had zero revenue for three months through our peak time. May, June are our first and second best months of the year.
“Our revenue for the year overall will probably be down somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent.”
The online fundraiser is aiming to raise $10,000 to ensure it is “ready to host competitions and training sessions when restrictions for indoor sport will be lifted”.
Funds would go towards covering external facility hire, casual staff, referee payments and modifications required to meet COVID-19 guidelines.
Lothian said the $10,000 figure would go part way to covering expenses, including sanitisers, cleaning wipes and temperature guns.
“We’re kind of anticipating, we’ll probably need to spend somewhere between $700 and $1000 a week on those items,” he said. Indoor sporting venues will be allowed to open from Monday to a maximum of 20 people per space and no more than 10 adults.
Lothian said it was hoped both junior and senior competitions could resume in midJuly.
“The fundraiser is a minor amount to get us back up and running but it’s something we think we can achieve to at least get us back on court,” he said.
“If we can get back on court, we can start generating money again but it’s going to impact the association for years financially.”