The End Of Division One Basketball For Solent Stars

Fleming Park Leisure Centre, under the management of DC Leisure, has made a decision to not make its facility available to Solent Stars Basketball for the forthcoming season.

A complete lack of alternative venue with spectator accommodation within a 25-mile radius therefore makes it impossible to present Division One basketball for the foreseeable future.

The club has been trying to overcome the situation over the past months, but with the season's start fast approaching, feels it has to accept the fact that after 27 years there will be no Solent Star senior men's team playing in the English National Basketball League in the forthcoming season.

Bob Paulley, the current owner of the club, has written a full report of the situation and sent it to Basketball's national governing body, Sport England and local Members of Parliament to illustrate how decisions taken outside the senior team organisation have affected the future of his club. He and the directors are concerned that in a period leading up to the 2012 Olympics the loss of clubs like Solent Stars will not reflect well on the country's intention of encouraging elite sportsmen.

This news, coming on the same day that we learned that Leicester Riders had been saved from extinction, is a blow not just to the Solent fans, and to EBL Division 1, but to the game as a whole in this country.

Any spectator sport thrives on tradition, and the loss of a club which has been in the league for all but one of the last 27 seasons (they took a break, for financial reasons, in 1990-91), and who were EBL1 champions as recently as 1999, leaves division 1 with only two teams (Coventry [1987] and Tees Valley [1985]) with a history going back before 1990.

I sincerely hope that the Stars will be able to bounce back - and in the not too distant future. In the meantime I'm not (yet) removing their fixtures from the listings, just in case there's a last-minute change of heart by the Leisure Centre management (and I notice [4th September] that their fixtures are still listed on the EB site)..

That (above) was how we saw this story when it first broke at the end of August.

Further investigations, over the past few days, have revealed that, as always, things may not be quite as simple as they seem at first glance. The fuller picture does not alter the basic fact that the loss of a long-established and successful team is a blow to the history, tradition and credibility of the league, but it's always useful to try to understand why things have happened.

Any further analysis must be approached carefully, and I'll try to do so without treading on too many toes, though that may not be entirely possible. Let me say, however, that I am merely trying to ascertain reasons, and not to apportion blame - I abhor the current "blame culture" from which we're suffering (as epitomised by "Ooh, I've tripped over in the street. Who can I sue?")

So, the first point to make is that there may have been problems at Solent well before this announcement. What had been a thoroughly successful, vibrant multi-team club has fragmented over the past couple of years, with both the women's team and the youth programme loosening their ties with the parent club.

Both changed their names (the women to the Suns, and the Juniors to the Kestrels) but while the Women's decision was based on the need to access funding (which required a separate identity), and they remained in reality very much part of the Stars' set-up, it is still unclear why the Juniors chose to change their identity.

There is also the question of whether relations between the Stars and outside organisations were exactly sweetness and light. The action taken by Fleming Park, in terminating their right to use the facilities, seems to have come out of the blue, but it seems the decision had been taken earlier in the summer, and one cannot help but wonder whether there may have been background issues involved, to which we're not privy. Since this is basketball we're talking about, it doesn't seem impossible that these may have been financial.

The club statement (below) clearly apportions some of the responsibility on England Basketball, for what they refer to as renouncing the franchise arrangements, and it's clear that they feel that the admission, last year, of Southampton Sharks and Southampton Trailblazers into the League (albeit in Division 4) damaged the Stars' ability to promote the game as the sole club in the area, and possibly hurt them financially, too.

There was a suggestion that Southampton Trailblazers had been seriously looking at the possibility of using Fleming Park, but I understand that that is not the case. Knowing that EB awarded franchises for the exclusive use of particular venues, they had not even applied to use Fleming Park last year, and it's only this season that they have moved to St mary's leisure Centre.

However, from the point of view of Fleming Park, if they had already fallen out with the Stars, the knowledge that there was another EBL team in the area, who might find the idea of playing there attractive, may well have made it easier for them to reach their decision.

The real tragedy, though is that if you were to remove the names from this story, and send it to any number of people involved in basketball they would be hard pressed to identify which of a dozen or so similar scenarios that have been played out over the years. No, basketball is very unoriginal in that respect - it doesn't do different crises ... it just reprises the ones it's had before!

THE END OF AN ERA

For the first time since 1980 the name of Solent Stars will not appear on this season’s fixture lists for the English Basketball League. The club, which has the longest pedigree of the teams in Division One has fallen victim to a series of circumstances that has made it impossible to continue, despite efforts to do so.

When Fleming Park Leisure Centre decided over the summer to pull the plug on Solent’s occupancy, the dearth of any suitable arena in the region (a sad indictment of our sporting facilities) signalled the end of the Stars.

Owner, Bob Paulley, who currently does not wish to comment, is anxious to protect the game of basketball. He has prepared a 100 page report and sent to England Basketball and other interested bodies stating why the Solent Stars club cannot continue at the present time.

It is known, however, that the Fleming Park decision was just part of the problem for the Stars. The main action was taken by the National Association last year when it renounced the franchise arrangements, forcing several of the private owners to virtually write off their asset value of holding any franchise. This action also led to two other local clubs being accepted into the league.

Owners generally have to pay out a lot of money to keep top-flight basketball on the agenda. Sponsorship has been in short supply in recent years and arrangements for home games have suffered through limited match and social facilities being available. The above combination has not helped the situation.

Solent Stars has a proud pedigree, having won all the major trophies, some in recent times, and can demonstrate a strong development programme including Basketball Academy status in association with Southampton Solent University. It may have been victim of its own success because, as an amateur organisation, it has had to rely on dedicated people to carry it through. With no full-time employee to oversee coaching and financial arrangements, the club has found itself stretched in its ability to co-ordinate its activities.

The directors are grateful for the efforts of all concerned, especially those who have tried to continue Solent Stars senior men’s presence on the national scene. They regret that it will be a disappointment to all talented, local players that there will be no club playing at the top level for the foreseeable future.

Whilst not wishing to be drawn on commenting on the current situation at this time, Bob Paulley is of the opinion that the club can start again in the future

I was horrified to read the following announcement, today, on the official Solent Stars website:

The End Of Division One Basketball For Solent Stars