FIBA tournament set to have impact beyond basketball

The FIBA Under 19 Men’s World Championship, starting in Auckland later this week, will have an impact that reaches well beyond basketball fans, thanks to the support of the government.

Several government-initiated projects are being run in partnership with the event to ensure it leaves a lasting legacy. They include ‘Trybasketball’ (Whakamatau - to try) - which aims to better connect local youth with their communities and promote active lifestyles - and projects to both bolster the region’s volunteer pool and test border services ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

New Zealand Major Events Director Wayne Morgan says the tournament organiser Basketball New Zealand has received $350,000 from the government’s Major Events Development Fund, but the partnership is about much more than funding. His staff have been working with basketball officials and local authorities in Auckland to develop leverage and legacy plan to ensure the country reaps benefits beyond those that come from the tournament itself.

“The government is serious about attracting and developing world class events like this one because we’re interested in the wider opportunities that come with them,” Wayne Morgan said.

“Events of all types can have economic, social and cultural benefits well beyond those that come from the event itself. The projects we’re working on will ensure that once the tournament’s over, there are on-going benefits in a number of areas.”

Trybasketball (Whakamatau - to try) is a game suitable for casual or street players and is aimed at youth in their own environment. During the tournament games will be run during the breaks in play at the North Shore Events Centre, and beyond the tournament there’ll be programmes targeted at young people in Counties Manukau and Waitakere with the help of local councils.

“The beauty of Trybasketball is that as well as being able to be played in community centres of almost any size, it can also be played in places like playgrounds and shopping malls,” said Barbara Wheadon, FIBA’s Oceania representative and manager of the legacy plan.

“It’s a way of getting young people more engaged with their community and more active. If the programmes in Counties Manukau and Waitakere are successful, we plan to roll it out as a nationwide programme.”

Fifteen young people from the Counties Manukau Youth Network Services have been recruited and trained to help set up and run the Trybasketball events.

On top of that, another 280 people, many from the basketball community, have been recruited and trained as volunteers for the tournament, through a programme run in partnership with SPARC.
SPARC chief executive Peter Miskimmin said SPARC had made it a priority to increase the number and calibre of volunteers.

``Events such as the FIBA U19 Men’s World Championship are being used to select volunteers who will work hard and excel. After the event, they will go back to their roles in their sports with more skills than before. In this way, we will ensure a legacy of highly skilled volunteers.’’

Next year’s World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro are also being targeted as an opportunity to recruit and train volunteers, so there are more skilled volunteers in the national pool for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and events beyond that.
The tournament is also being used to test services and systems at the border ahead of the World Cup. Wayne Morgan says the aim is to have a seamless and welcoming arrival and departure procedure for teams and visitors, while ensuring all necessary border requirements are still met.

“First impressions are important, so this is something we want to do well. We’ll be dealing with as many as 70,000 international visitors for the Rugby World Cup, and we need to show them New Zealand is capable of hosting big events like this,” he said.

Basketball NZ and FIBA officials are also organising a series of events to ensure the tournament leaves a legacy for the sport. They include a refereeing clinic run by FIBA’s technical Director Lubo Kotleba at Kristin College and coaching clinics run by Lithuania Coach Marin Sedlacek, a Basketball Without Borders camp director and FIBA Coaching Instructor. Seminars around the administration of the game and the hosting of events will be held.