Playing numbers are up.
Income has increased.
Basketball is riding high in Dunedin.
There are just a couple of minor quibbles.
Basketball Otago (BBO) returned a small deficit for the financial year ending December 31, 2022.
It recorded a $7466 loss for the period.
Given the association’s close scrape with insolvency in 2014, it is hyper aware of its financial position and even a small loss is closely monitored.
General manager Peter Drew said the deficit had been discussed at board level and was deemed "an acceptable outcome" as the association was investing in its workforce.
"We had a couple of good years before that, where, for the first time really, we had a decent chunk of reserves in the bank," Drew said.
"That has given us a position of security we haven’t really had before. But with the game continuing to grow — it just continues to explode — from a delivery point of view we were needing to expand."
The association has had to employ more staff and, to help pay for it, BBO has increased its income from $561,155 in 2021 to $646,207 in 2022.
The timing was right to invest in staffing levels "and if that meant a small deficit then that was an acceptable outcome".
"Obviously we don’t want to be doing that year after year, particularly with what has happened in the past but for a one-off, we’re OK with that."
The other bugbear is the kind of problem which brings a smile to the face of sports administrators.
The game has grown so much it is tough to find enough courts to cater for everyone.
The largest area of growth has been in the school grades. In 2021 there were 325 school teams, but that had grown to 353 teams in 2022 — an 8.6% rise.
Staggeringly, the primary school grades have grown 20% this year.
"It is an operational challenge but we’d rather have that challenge than the challenge a lot of the other sports are having where their numbers are going the other way."
BBO has been casting a wide net in the search for more courts and is in discussion with the Edgar Centre about potential solutions.
"But there are capacity issues we are just trying to work with the best we can."
Basketball Otago no longer owns the Nuggets, but continues to benefit from the team’s success.
The Nuggets’ championship run in 2022 and its win in the National Basketball League showdown in 2020 has helped keep the profile of the sport high in the city.
"The aim is to get the Nuggets out to at least 40 schools during the season," Drew said.
Those visits are funded through community grants and the aim is to inspire more children to get along to the games and take up the sport.
