British basketball faces an “unsustainable and untenable” position and is so lacking in resources it is unable to employ a single person full-time. That is the stark message from the sport’s chairman, Chris Grant, just two days before GB’s women aim to take a major step towards qualifying for the Olympics for the first time.
In an open letter seen by the Guardian, Grant also questions why basketball receives so little funding compared to sports such as sailing when it is the second most played team sport in the UK after football, with 1.3 million regular participants – 47% of whom are from backgrounds other than white British – and has a women’s team that has broken into the world’s top 20.
“GB Basketball is on the up, but I fear we’re going to blow this golden opportunity and – yet again – fail to do justice to the talent and commitment of our players,” Grant writes, before warning that the sport is at a “critical crossroads”.
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As things stand, the British Basketball Federation (BBF) gets less than £500,000 a year from UK Sport, which goes towards travel and competition costs for its national teams at senior and age group levels, as well as licensing the British leagues for men (BBL) and women (WBBL). That compares unfavourably to £5.65m a year for sailing, £3.4m for canoeing, £3m for equestrian and £1.55m for shooting. UK Sport bases its funding almost entirely on its predictions of medal success.
“We’re the second most-played team sport in Britain; one of the biggest markets for the NBA in Europe, and produce a steady stream of players with the talent to succeed at the highest levels,” Grant argues. “Despite all this, the main response I’ve had from funders and media when I’ve asked them to get behind us is that we’re a ‘niche’ sport.
“The same people who have invested many times more than the British Basketball Federation’s total annual budget in securing rights to show the NBA or funding sports like sailing or shooting. The same people who pay lip service to the need to engage ‘hard‑to‑reach’ groups and contribute to educational outcomes and community cohesion dismiss basketball as peripheral or incidental. We’re doing our best, but the position we’re in is untenable and unsustainable.”
Some of these issues are not new, but Grant’s words are likely to have more of an impact given he assisted UK Sport in the successful introduction of Mission 2012, which underpinned Team GB’s Olympic and Paralympic success in London, Rio and Tokyo.
Grant can also point to several successes in his seven months as chair of the BBF – including getting a sponsor, gbbasketball.tv, for the GB teams and gaining the support of the sport’s global governing body, Fiba, to fund an interim executive post. Six age‑group GB teams will also be sent to tournaments this summer without players’ families having to pay for the privilege of representing their country.
“I understand why people felt it had to be done last year, but the idea of charging the families makes me feel physically sick – especially during a cost‑of‑living crisis, and in a sport which is rightly acknowledged for reaching parts parts of society that others can only dream of,” Grant told the Guardian.
Grant is also proud of the progress of the GB women’s team, who will qualify for the final 2024 Olympic qualifying tournament in February if they finish in the top six of the EuroBasket competition, which starts on Thursday. Last time they competed they reached the semi-finals.
However, in his letter, Grant admits that he continues to have concerns and is considering stepping down from the role given it is “much closer to a seven days per week CEO/chair job than the two days per month volunteer chair position that was advertised”.
“When I arrived in November we literally had zero full-time professional staff,” he told the Guardian. “Whilst the efforts of volunteers, and the contribution of Wales, Scotland and England governing bodies have helped us keep things going, we’ve had to call in favours from UK Sport, British Cycling and others to create a tiny team focused on GB.
“And we still have no CEO, no commercial executive and hardly any of the roles that a normal organisation of any size – let alone a functioning national governing body – would take for granted.”
In a statement, UK Sport said it was investing over £1.3million in the BBF during the current Olympic cycle. “This funding, from our progression investment stream, is to allow the BBF to appoint new staff, build and grow the organisation.”
UK Sport added that the funding will also “provide immediate support to the women’s EuroBasket campaign – an important qualification opportunity for Paris 2024 – and help secure the long-term financial sustainability of the sport.”
