Basketball New Zealand is continuing to monitor the Government announcements and Alert Levels.
Due to the cancellation of Winter Tournament Week and consequently the Premiership qualification events, BBNZ remains hopeful that two ‘invitational’ school basketball events will go ahead, in place of the NZ Secondary Schools ‘A’ and ‘AA’ National Basketball Championships.
As mentioned in earlier updates, large events like these are only viable in an Alert Level 1 or below. In balancing the desire to provide a pinnacle opportunity and the need to provide certainty for schools to plan with confidence, a final decision will be made next week (week beginning 20 September).
The deciding factor is whether we have any indication from the Government that areas outside of Auckland will be in Alert Level 1 by the tip off date of 6 October. If we don’t have some reasonable confidence that this will happen, then it is likely we will be forced to cancel.
Currently we continue to work on these events with the belief they will be held.
As indicated in our previous updates and with the likelihood that Auckland will not be at Level 1 before tip off, we are now planning a downsized ‘AA’ schools invitational event of 16 teams per gender, this due to the absence of schools from Zone 1. The ‘A’ schools event will also be an ‘invitational’ event with 12 teams per gender. Both events would start slightly later, running 6‑9 October at the Central Energy Trust Arena in Palmerston North. The AA’s has been shortened to four-days and will be held simultaneously with the A’s.
INIVITATIONALS | Due the premiership qualification events being cancelled, we needed to make these events ‘invitationals’. Unfortunately, due to the limited spots available, not all schools will receive an invitation. We recognise the pressures that schools are under at this time – schools who receive an invitation to participate are under no obligation to attend. We have looked to spread invitations across the three zones.
Criteria for invitations included, but were not limited to:
- Schools that entered their respective qualifying tournament
- Local competition placings, local tournaments
- Advice from member Associations
- History from previous BBNZ tournaments
- A geographic spread of schools
It’s worth noting the ‘A’ event will be very similar to the current allocation as Auckland schools do not usually enter this event.
COSTS | We are mindful of costs that schools will incur, so have looked at ways to reduce costs including:
-
- Reduced entry fee
- No opening ceremony so that schools can arrive on the first day
- Zoom for the technical meeting
School Sport NZ continue to support BBNZ in its timeline for providing decisions and assessing the viability of these events.
We hope these events will be able to proceed and will look to update the community next week. For now, we await the Government announcement expected next Monday.
UPDATE ON OTHER EVENTS
- Aon U13 Regional Championships | 13-16 October:
- Northern Regional Championships. Eventfinda Stadium, AUT North Shore, YMCA North Shore, North Auckland.
- Central Regional Championships. Pettigrew Green Arena and Hastings Sports Centre, Napier and Hastings.
- Southern Regional Championships. EA Networks Centre and Basketball Mid-Canterbury Stadium, Ashburton
We are still hopeful these will happen, but will be making a decision on these next week after the Government announcement. We are aware that some Associations would like time to consider planning localised regional events, should these events be cancelled.
- Schick 3X3 Cup, 14-16 October. ILT Stadium, Invercargill | Still scheduled. We are waiting on the Government announcement next week.
- Sal’s NBL | teams and the league remain committed to seeing the women’s competition go ahead and are waiting on the Government announcement before reassessing.
- Four regional HP age-group Camps at Labour Weekend. These are still scheduled, although we are considering alternative locations for the Auckland camp as a Plan B. Right now, we are hoping it will continue in Auckland at Level 1.
