Basketball: Group positive about ticket sales, sponsors

The Keep Basketball in Otago group plans to keep chipping away despite sales not going as well as hoped.

The group hopes to raise at least $100,000 to prevent Basketball Otago going into liquidation.

BBO has debts of almost $180,000 and ceased trading in October. Members put off appointing a liquidator last month but will meet again on February 10 to decide whether to appoint one.

Keep Basketball in Otago's main fundrasing drive is an online sales promotion in which a lucky customer will win a trip for two to Los Angeles to see New Zealand NBA player Steven Adams play. The prize pool includes a signed Adams singlet and four nights' accommodation.

Sales have been sluggish during the Christmas period with the group making its 100th sale earlier this week. At $10 an entry the group has raised $1000 but the prize is worth $10,000.

Spokesman Karl Andrews is confident sales will pick up and sponsors will come forward to cover the cost of the prize.

''We are still working to get a headline sponsor for the whole thing and things have been reasonably positive on the sponsorship front,'' Andrews said.

Support for the group's pledge wall has been very encouraging with $50,000 pledged, and the group plans to give its sales promotion a push at a booth at the Golden Centre this weekend.

''The Golden Centre have given us a spot on the 17th and 18th, so we are aiming to have everything ramped up for those two days.''

There have been some teething problems with the website which the group hopes to have sorted as soon as possible.

''The last thing we want is for people to go to the website and be put off by the process, so there is still some work to be done to make it easier for everybody.''

Andrews is optimistic the sales promotion will capture the public's imagination.

''We have not gone nationwide with BBNZ [Basketball New Zealand] yet. We haven't been on the radio; we haven't tried TV angles. There are still a lot of angles we have to really push to get that nationwide coverage.''

 

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