Dear clubs and members,
Thank you for your continued support for the game and the governing body as a member of Basketball England.
I would like to share some positive news about how the team will support you in the coming season, and some important changes to our membership, including key services to benefit you and the game.
Firstly, I want to apologise for the disruption to start the 2023/24 season and the impact on service continuity.
I know this was frustrating for members. We have had some serious challenges with our digital platform, and we have now changed the way we operate with our provider to correct this.
Our supplier will be applying more rigour to the development and testing of the membership portal before going live for the new season. We are also involving some members in the testing process to assist with this.
Your ongoing support and the membership fee you pay is important for the game's future at all levels. It helps to govern and safeguard the sport and our 40,000 members. In addition, we want to do more to develop the game, its integrity and reach in challenging economic times.
We also want to work with you to increase the membership and use this to lever more influence and resource for the good of the game.
I’d like to share news of several changes and improvements to our services and developments as we prepare for next season’s start. These improvements and benefits are designed to help you get more from your basketball in both the short and longer term.
We have been listening to your feedback throughout the season and we know we must do more in this area.
We’re changing our customer service systems and providing additional training for our team to respond to your enquiries quicker.
We also want you to have contact with us through the right channels so we can turn around your enquiries quicker. We have a range of services and expertise that can help you and we want these to be more accessible and helpful to you.
Also, we know some teams want contact at weekends and this will be available on game day and during busier times of the season for licensing. This will be communicated in June as a new service pledge when we have implemented the changes.
We also know that services and support is provided through the regions, local associations/leagues and clubs, and we are going to work more closely with them to support the grass roots game so the collective effort of national, regional and local organisations can unite to support and grow the game.
We are changing our membership structure to better meet the needs of our members, in addition to reinvesting more funds and resources into the game.
We are simplifying our membership categories, repositioning our member services so they are more visible and accessible to you.
In addition, we have a range of individual member benefits which will now include access to the Endurance Zone platform, through which our members can access a huge range of brands at discounted prices, as well as enter regular prize draws for merchandise and exclusive kit bundles.
This is being led by Marc Dring, who has been appointed to a new senior role in the organisation as our Membership Innovation Manager. He brings a strong membership, marketing and fan engagement experience in professional football and racing.
Our new Supporter Membership offer is designed to reach a wider audience and will reward fans and followers of the game and help us invest back into clubs; our Participant Membership for local league participants will help us invest into our regions and services; and our Performance Membership for will allow us to invest into our general services, the NBL and other competitions.
What we’ll be investing membership fees in
Basketball England will continue to fund a range of services that support the sport in the new season.
These range from the essential services that govern the game and protect our members and integrity of the sport, to supporting the infrastructure needed to help sustain participation and growth in the short, medium and long term.
For 2024/25, we will be prioritising improvements to:
There will be more news posted on this between May and September, what these changes will mean for you and how you can take advantage of them as a member.
Another important development with our membership is a new model for supporting the British Basketball Federation.
We will also be working closely with our Home Country Association partners of basketballscotland and Basketball Wales as members of the British Basketball Federation to align our collective effort to produce better talent pools and improve our international success.
From the 2024-25 season onwards we will provide structured financial support to the BBF to help them achieve their objectives, which include running the six Great Britain youth teams and two senior teams.
This is a major step forward to create more successful teams and help young people fulfill their potential when playing for their country.
All of the changes and plans I have talked about above, mean changes to our pricing structure with increases in membership fees in some areas and decreases in others. We will be releasing more information about what the changes to membership mean ahead of the opening of 2024/25 season sign-up for individual members in mid-July.
To conclude, I want to assure you that the changes we are making to access services better and the effort of the team to support a successful season ahead are designed to help our members get more from their basketball.
I hope you have had an enjoyable season and find this update on the changes to our support helpful.
To set the ball rolling, team entries for the 2024/25 NBL season are now open. Click the button below to find out more.
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