Otago body remains in black, despite loss

BASKETBALL Otago remains in the black, although it returned a small loss for the 2016 year.

The association reported a $4386 deficit at Tuesday night’s annual meeting, leaving it with a total equity of $27,920.

It had returned to the black with an $85,263 profit last year, after several years of financial difficulty.

The major difference this year came in an increase in wage and salary costs, at $156,727, up from $75,160.

That came as a result of Basketball New Zealand having taken operational and financial control of the organisation throughout 2015, meaning BBO had few staff members to pay.

Other key areas of expense came in travel costs, court hire and referee costs, while the bulk of the revenue came in player receipts, team entry fees and grants.

In his report, BBO chairman Karl Andrews said there were several key areas in which the sport moved forward, although he acknowledged there was still work to be done in others.

From a sustainability perspective, the result provided a good base, with $5000 of the expenses coming from a provision of doubtful debt.

‘‘The operating result prior to provisions is breakeven in a year we actively didn’t seek to push funders who had been very supportive in the year prior,’’ he wrote.

‘‘This provides us with a good base to push forward with building reserves over the coming years.’’

He said new sponsorship revenue channels had been identified and groundwork had been done for future growth.

Participation in competitions had increased at both secondary and social levels.

Secondary school teams rose from 138 in 2015, to 145 in 2016.

Those had since risen to 157 in 2017.

It was an even bigger increase over a sixyear period, having risen from 96 teams in 2011.

The social grades had had a jump from 86 to 106 teams between 2015 and 2016, although that fell by three this year.

Overall team numbers rose from 385 in 2015 to 435 in 2016, with a one team drop this year.

Andrews said being named as one of three biggest participation sports in Otago gave BBO confidence it was heading in the right direction to achieving its vision of the game becoming ‘‘the sport of choice for players of all ages and abilities in this region’’.

There were more females coming through the BBO development system, and BBO development manager Natalie Visger had been accredited as a BBNZ supported ‘‘coach developer’’.

Visger was also one of three local coaches involved in national programmes, alongside Gavin Briggs and Brent Matehaere.

The representative programme had been successful at playing, coaching and refereeing levels.