BIG BOOST FOR BAY’S BIGGEST JUNIOR BASKETBALL COMP

Basketball Hawke’s Bay’s bumper after-school ‘Miniball League’ is already bursting at the seams, but it’s set to become even bigger thanks to a new sponsorship boost.

Around 1900 primary and intermediate students aged between 5-12 from 75 different schools currently compete in 16 different age group divisions in Basketball Hawke’s Bay’s (BBHB) Miniball League, which is played all year long across three different venues  –  Napier’s Centennial Hall, Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale and the Hastings Sports Centre.

From the start of term 2 on April 29, the competition will become known as the “Breakers Hawke’s Bay Miniball League” as part of a freshly-inked sponsorship agreement between BBHB and the Hawke’s Bay-founded Breakers Restaurants chain.

Four months into his new role, BBHB general manager Chris McIvor said one of his first priorities had been to seek out new funding opportunities and community partnerships, so he was thrilled to have secured support from Breakers for his organisation’s biggest competition.

Despite the region’s limited indoor court space, McIvor said funds from the Breakers naming rights sponsorship would allow BBHB to further grow the Miniball League,  as well as the other competitions played by its nearly 4000 registered members.

BBHB recently announced a small surplus for 2018 on the back of a 10 per cent growth in numbers, and McIvor said the new sponsorship would help keep costs down to reduce pressure on fees for players.

Just as importantly, some of the money would also go towards helping underprivileged kids to get involved in the sport, he said.

“Basketball is the fastest growing sport in New Zealand schools and Miniball is our biggest competition, but kids are still missing out. So a focus of the spend from our end will be towards ‘hardship’ players, and getting them into our programmes,” McIvor said.

The first Breakers restaurant opened in Napier back in 1997, and Breakers Restaurants Ltd CEO Stefan Burt said the company had a “proud history” of sponsoring sport since then.

Breakers is currently the major sponsor of new national under 16 girls’ surfing champion, 14-year-old Natasha Gouldsbury from Taranaki, and previously sponsored top Kiwi women’s pro surfer Paige Hareb back when she was a junior.

Breakers Palmerston North is also a major sponsor of the Manawatu Jets in the NZ National Basketball League and the Redsox Manawatu Sports Club, but Burt said the company wanted to take on a sponsorship at a local level in Hawke’s Bay to repay the community for its support over 22 years.

 “What impressed us was the growth in player numbers in the Hawke’s Bay Miniball leagues and the growth of the sport in general. And the fact that we have a Breakers restaurant near each Miniball venue meant it was a no-brainer, to be honest.”

Breakers’ corporate-owned restaurants in Napier and Taradale and Breakers Hastings owner/franchisee Simon Withnall are all contributing to the sponsorship “partnership”. Each term, every division-winning team will receive a free team celebration dinner at a Breakers restaurant in Hawke’s Bay  “just to give the players that little extra bit of motivation to succeed on-court,” Burt said.

Though the initial agreement only covers the remainder of 2019, Burt said the sponsorship would be worth five-figures a year when it was renewed ahead of the 2020 competition, as expected.

Given his company’s sizeable contribution to junior basketball in the region, Burt was unfazed if some mistakenly associated the newly-named competition with the NZ Breakers in the ANBL.

“At the end of the day if we can help young basketballers from Hawke’s Bay achieve their hoop dreams ­– particularly those ‘hardship’ players –  then it will have been worth it. We’ve been around longer than the other Breakers anyway,” Burt grinned.

For further information, contact:

Basketball Hawke’s Bay general manager, Chris McIvor

Mob: 027 457 4850. Email: chris@hawkesbay.basketball

Breakers Restaurants Ltd chief executive officer, Stefan Burt.

Mob: 022 639 2336  Email: stefan@breakers.kiwi