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Another financial crisis has rocked the NBL, with the Cairns Taipans stunning league officials by going into voluntary administration.
League officials say the first they knew of the Taipans’ plight was late on Monday, when majority owner John O’Brien broke the news to interim NBL chief executive Scott Derwin.
It came only six days after the Sydney Spirit announced they would be able to finish the season, following frantic efforts to save the club.
Derwin flew to Cairns on Tuesday afternoon to meet with the Taipans’ administrators from KPMG.
As yet, the NBL do not know whether the Taipans will be able to play their Saturday night away match against the Gold Coast Blaze.
The league are understood to have told the administrators they need an answer on Saturday night’s game by Thursday.
It has been a horrid year for the league, with the Sydney Kings, the Brisbane Bullets and Singapore Slingers all dropping out of the competition because of financial woes.
The Cairns Post website reports that O’Brien has blamed the Taipans’ woes on the impact of the global economic crisis.
O’Brien’s company, Pacific Toyota, had to withdraw its support of the team.
“We initially supported the Taipans because we believed the team would be a great boost for the people of Cairns, and it certainly has been,” O’Brien told The Cairns Post.
“But we have to act in a financially responsible manner for all involved and, like virtually every company on the planet, we have to cut back.”
The players and coaching staff apparently found out about the club’s dire situation on Monday morning at a training session.
Cairns were expected to be a force in the league this season, but they are second-last and are on a seven-game losing streak.
Derwin made it clear in an NBL statement on Tuesday that the league had no previous indication of the Taipans’ plight.
“The decision to hand the club over to administrators has come as a shock to the league as it had received no previous indication from the Taipans that the club was experiencing extreme financial difficulties,” Derwin said.
“There was also no prior indication from the club that it intended to take this course of action when the recent issues surrounding the Sydney Spirit were being addressed, which is disappointing.”
While the NBL will desperately try to keep the club going, the Taipans’ future is now up to the administrators.
Derwin said the financial difficulties of several clubs this year highlighted why basketball in Australia was undergoing significant reform.
“Basketball now has a unified national governing body to run the sport with a revised management structure focused on delivering strong commercial and community benefits for the sport,” he said.
“The need for greater accountability and commercial viability will see the introduction of a more stringent criteria for the new NBL, in terms of ownership guidelines and financial guarantees, when it is launched next season.”
Comment was being sought from O’Brien.
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