300 short of number#1

As we prepare for another season of NBL action, I’d like to set a goal to all basketball fans across Western Australia for the next 12 months – and that is simply to be Number#1.

Before you think I’m being unrealistic, I’d like you to consider some statistics.

Nationally, basketball is the third most participated sport. In Victoria it’s number one. In NSW it ranks second.

(Statistics based on Participation in Exercise, Recreation and Sport 2009).

Here in WA we rank second too, but most importantly netball, which is number one, has a meagre 300 more participants than us.

So if we united and worked to increase participation across our great state we can easily be number one!

What’s more, we are growing! We recorded a 12% increase over the previous year.

Nationally we are quite popular. 25% of all Australians consider themselves basketball fans with 9% wanting to be identified as fanatics of our sport.

The Perth Wildcats cannot achieve this goal to be number one! But if we teamed up, we can give it a decent shot.

A little over 12 months ago we were staring at oblivion…not just for the Wildcats but the NBL. We implemented a total restructure of the national competition as well as our own organisation.

We released a large percentage of the team and made significant cultural and strategic changes both on and off the court. Led by our new head coach Rob Beveridge and the character of the entire team, we were blessed with a championship.

Many would have considered us insane when we said that our goal was to win the championship given the adversity we faced, but with hard work, discipline and a bit of luck, we got there – a lot earlier than any of us imagined.

This year, we as a club, have set even higher goals of greatness to aspire for. Key to this is to make our sport more popular across our state, and I hope all West Australian hoops fans will unite to take basketball to the heights of popularity we experienced not long ago.