BBL’s Leyden Dunbar brands BBA ‘a distraction’
An interesting exchange took place on BBC 5Live during half-time of the New York Knicks 102-87 win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, when Commercial Director of the BBL, David Leyden Dunbar, and BBA Chief Operations Officer, David Paton, discussed basketball in the UK.
Paton stated in the BBC interview that he had only been with the British Basketball Association for seven weeks and that although he appreciated the skepticism surrounding the legitimacy of the BBA, he believed that the BBA would be able to assist the British Basketball League in the future and drew comparisons between the BBL and BBA and the North American Soccer League and the MLS in the United States. Paton also stated that the British public can expect ‘significant, meaningful and substantial announcements’ going forward and that he couldn’t wait or for the BBA to ‘get off the ground’ in 2013.
At times, the two parties engaged in heated debate with Leyden Dunbar calling the BBA a ‘distraction’ and Paton saying he had been told that the BBL’s current crowds are made up of ‘a lot of free tickets’.
It was a bold move by the BBC to discuss British basketball during the glamorous NBA visit but it was a move that will no doubt encourage basketball fans that there is a future for the game in this country, regardless of what UK Sport says.
A transcript of the BBL-BBA segment is below, along with audio of their conversation.
Transcript:
BBA: “We’re looking at it from a standing start. Fresh piece of paper. The BBL, through no fault of their own – maybe the commercial side hasn’t been as strong as they’d have liked it to be – it’s been a very tough market to bring the commercial revenue in. We’ve looked at it from a different angle, from a financial sustainability angle. We want to spend money on the product on the court but to do it, it has to have the commercial revenue first of all to spend that money. It has to balance the books every single time.
Aside from that, we’re looking at the community grass roots programme. We want to get into the inner city schools and really give the kids something to aspire to going forward. That’s absolutely fundamental to what we are doing.”
BBC: “Is everybody singing off the same hymn sheet here because there seems to be an awful lot of factions and it seems to be a difficult thing to pull together.”
BBA: “It is. One of the analogies I’ve used a lot, especially today talking to other media people, is the North American Soccer League in the States – at one time it was the burgeoning league of Soccer in the US. It had Pele playing, it had the New York Cosmos, all these fantastic teams. It then went into the doldrums. Major League Soccer came along, it was a breath of fresh air, it had a different franchise system and if you look at soccer now in the US, it’s at a totally different level. Major League Soccer came along, they’re working away but North American Soccer League have benefited from Major League Soccer. We believe that the BBA coming forward with a fresh piece of paper, with fresh ideas and a fresh approach to it will actually be able to assist the BBL going forward.”
BBC: “We’ve heard all this before. You’ve been here for seven years. Year after year you release a press statement, around about now, saying you’re going to start a league up now. It’s not happened. Why should any basketball fan at home, or the BBL for that matter, believe anything you guys say?”
BBA: “Well, the first thing is, I’ve not been with the BBA for seven years. I’ve been with the BBA for seven weeks. I think straight away that’s the first difference. I’ve been brought on board to really drive it forward. There is this perception…”
BBC: “But you accept the criticism, we’ve been here before.”
BBA: “I can fully appreciate where the criticism has come from and there’s very little I can do to knock it back at the moment. All I can say is judge us on going forward at the start of 2013 onwards.”
BBC: “But why do we need, the BBA? Let’s talk to David from the BBL. Do we need a BBA or are you doing okay?”
BBL: “The fact is, you’ve got it completely right. The rhetoric is all we’re getting out of the BBA and it’s been six years of rhetoric. The only thing the BBA have updated in six years is the launch date which gets pushed a year back each time. I think what your listeners are interested in, and certainly what I’m interested in, is facts.
So let’s talk facts: Our gate receipts are up 20% on this time last year, we had the BBL Cup Final just last week – 7,500 capacity crowd and that’s the biggest on record so far. So we are moving in the right direction. The fact is, it’s almost at a time when the sport should be pulling together, it’s a distraction.”
BBA: “How is it a distra….As I say, yes, there’s been things happening for the last seven years. The one thing we are absolutely adamant about is we will not launch it fully until we have everything in the right place.
“For the last year, in my previous role before I joined the BBA, I was working with the BBA very, very closely and I can tell you that we are moving forward, week-by-week, month-by-month and there are going to be a number of significant announcements and it’s not just rhetoric as David said a minute ago. There are going to be significant, meaningful and substantial announcements coming forward. I can’t wait to get it off the ground this year.”
BBL: “If I can make one last point; It’s quite important in this kind of environment, for the past couple of months I’ve been very fortunate to be in a room with all factions of British Basketball; that’s British Performance Basketball, England Basketball and us, as the BBL. We’re all pulling in the same direction and I would challenge the BBA, if they put even half of the energy that they do into running the sport down in the UK, into pulling in the same direction as us, then the real winner at the end of the day would be British basketball.”
BBC: “David, are you pulling the sport down?”
BBA: “I don’t believe so, no. Absolutely not. We have come in with a fresh approach as I’ve said. We have some significant players on our side from the ticketing side…”
BBC: “So why would you make it better? What would you do that would improve the system that exists now and make it a better sport in the UK, a more successful sport in the UK? What can you bring that will drastically alter what’s being done now?”
BBA: “As I said earlier, the first thing is the financial sustainability. Also, the other important thing is that every single player in every single squad will be earning a living wage. Not the sort of £9,000, £10,000 that some, not all players in the BBL I grant you, but some players are. I’ve heard some horrific stories. I’m not here to bash the BBL, that was never my intention on this show tonight.”
BBC: “Roger Moreland, let me bring you in because this to me doesn’t seem the right time to have the two warring factions effectively ripping one way and then the other at a time when the funding has gone. There are clearly problems. Is this the right time to waste this kind of battle for British basketball?”
Roger Moreland: “Absolutely not. And what David from the BBL said before is absolutely spot on: We have been working together as partners for some considerable time now. The game at grass roots level is growing as a result, the home country federations are together, we are supporting together to get the Great Britain programme is really motoring in the right direction, which is what we’ve been doing the last six or seven years. And unity is absolutely a must in this.”
BBA: “Yes, again we’ve heard it all before from the BBL and British Performance Basketball to say that ‘things are moving forward, things are moving forward’ but again, I could challenge on a number of matters which I’d rather not do at this early stage but, you know, we will put our stall out, we are for the good of British Basketball…Roger is for the good of British Basketball, David is for the good of British basketball…”
BBC: “So why can’t you all come together and find a solution that fits for everybody?”
BBA: “I think the perception of basketball at the moment is, to a certain extent at the professional level, tarnished. They’re not getting the massive crowds. Yes, there were 7,500 people at the Cup Final but on individual franchises the numbers aren’t there. The Newcastle Eagles are by far the leader on that with about 2,000 going to them.”
BBL: “I’d have to challenge that because, again, it just shows a complete lack of knowledge. If you look at some of the inventory we have, either coming online or already online, we have the new Emirates Arena which will be the venue for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow fill that regularly 4,500. So to say that we’re restricted by Newcastle Eagles being the biggest team is just not correct.”
BBA: “Having been to a couple of the BBL games this year, I’ve seen then the crowds and it’s more in the late hundreds, early one thousands than the 4,000. I grant you that I’ve not been to Glasgow so I’m not going to challenge you on that statement but the games I’ve been to have not had the numbers that the BBL claim. And there are a number of occasions, I’ve been led to believe, that a lot of the tickets are free tickets, so there’s not the revenue generation coming through that.”
- To listen to the full half-time interview, including the BBC speaking to the Performance Director for British Basketball, Roger Moreland, about UK Sport’s decision to cut funding, click here.
