After nearly forty years of representing the town, Bury St Edmunds Basketball’s long-term future is at risk after taking several financial blows following the pandemic.
The club had used its' savings investing in its girls and women's basketball team before the pandemic - with the intention of recouping the money through the 2020/21 season, fundraising and camps.
After this became impossible (and following further monetary complications off the back of Brexit) if the club can not secure an increase of sponsors its long-term future is uncertain.
Arron MacDonald, Head Coach at the club said:
"We estimate that we've lost over £12,000 of income through the COVID pandemic. Although our membership numbers remain good, we’ve seen more than 30 players have left the club, and have seen a number of volunteers step away, which puts more pressure on us all."
"Our club is run solely by volunteers and one of the biggest challenges we face in terms of being competitive in the National League is that we're not linked to a university or Basketball Academy - which means that we have to foot the bill for court hire, and that our players are paying to play - when some of our competition are being paid to play. We need the support of local businesses to help us to bridge that gap."
"The added pressure comes in that we're all volunteers, and so with a few people stepping away, the pressure mounts on the rest of the people who've stepped forwards. Though, I'm really not sure there are many clubs out there of our size who don't have paid staff. Relying on a small band of volunteers only further risks our long-term viability - but taking that next step is impossible without investment."
"Our mission as a club is to teach life skills through basketball - and it’s something I think we do really well. One of the biggest factors needed to do that is to provide positive role models for our young people - but it's really difficult for us to have high level players who have the time to be role models if they are having to pick up extra shifts at work to be able to afford to play."
Despite these challenges, the club have a number of ex-professional and current/former international players on-board in the National League Mens' side, and expect to have a strong season.
With sponsorship packages for players starting from just £100.00, and for the team from £300.00, if you can support the work we do, please get in touch.
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