Basketball: Slow progress being made

Grant Roydhouse
Grant Roydhouse
Basketball Otago is moving closer to resolving its financial situation but is still in limbo, board member Grant Roydhouse says.

BBO ceased trading in October having accumulated a debt of almost $179,000.

Its members voted against going into liquidation at a special meeting in December. A fundraising campaign fell short of its target of $100,000 but did receive $40,000 in pledges and raised another $10,000 from an online sales promotion and a pre-season game.

Last month, Roydhouse was hopeful a deal could be reached with the creditors but the process had taken longer than expected, he said.

''In some ways things have been very slow moving,'' Roydhouse said.

''There has been some positive progress and we are hoping to hold a creditors' meeting ... but there are a couple of things to be sorted out first.

''We need to get 75% [of all the creditors to agree] and that has been the key hurdle. We've got to around about that now.

''There has been quite a lot of work gone into that. I had hoped to have this sorted out in March but having said that, I have a meeting planned for Thursday this week and after that we hope to announce a creditors' meeting.

''If we are lucky we can hold the creditors' meeting sometime this month, and if the majority agree to 30c in the dollar then I'm optimistic that we can call in funds and get it done.''

Basketball New Zealand is funding BBO's minimal operational costs in the meantime but hopes to recover some of those funds once the organisation gets back on its feet.

''We are still in limbo but we are in the fortunate situation to have the ongoing support of BBNZ. They have been very good through this but understandably they are a little bit concerned about the duration.''

In the meantime, it is business as usual, as club basketball gets under way on Saturday.

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