The information below has been detailed to improve families understanding of how SA Country operates.

Tournament costs

It is a reality of our sport that we are funded by our participants - we do not have large scale sponsorships or media deals that ease the burden on our families. We make all attempts to keep costs down whilst trying to maintain the quality of our program and the experience the participants have.

Travel costs are arranged and equalised by Basketball Australia, through Rising Stars Travel;

• We book our preferred flights, including number of passengers well ahead of time, through Rising Stars
• Rising Stars collate the total travel costs for the tournament and this is then divided by the number of participants in the tournament. This is to ensure that no teams are disadvantaged (or advantaged) by their travel distance to the tournament. Even the teams who do not have to travel pay the same travel costs
• Consequently, even our own players who do not utilise a flight home are going to pay the same amount for travel as someone who does; however not utilising a flight does contribute to reducing the overall cost of flights and subsequently the equalised payment required from each player
• Also included are the coach, 2 x assistant coach and team manager flight costs. In the event of a female team with no female assistant coach, an assistant manager will be taken to the tournament
• Any SA Country staff costs are not included in the tournament costs

We try to cover all costs related to the tournament and preparation in the budget for the event in addition to the travel costs, including;

• Flights for players, coaches and managers
• Coach & manager travel & uniform subsidies. Our volunteers are allocated a small travel allowance for training weekends and uniform allowance for the tournament to offset a portion of their expenses
• Court hire for training weekends
• Breakfasts – an allowance of $20 per player is allocated to purchase cereals, breads, milk etc.
• Tournament accommodation – including that for coaches and managers. SA Country staff accommodation is not included in the tournament costs
• Motor vehicle and bus hire – including fuel costs. SA Country staff vehicle and fuel costs are not included in the tournament costs
• Team photos
• First aid and ice – an allowance of $20 per player is allocated to stock first aid kits and purchase ice (from the first training session to the end of the tournament)

SA Country subsidises the total cost with a $5,000 grant. The balance of the total budgeted costs are equalised among 20 players attending the tournament.

Added to this will be;

• Meal allowance ($30 per day, usually this is a 10 day trip). Within the meal allowances, team managers will also make some purchases of recovery snacks/drinks for the players
• Uniform costs. We continually monitor our uniform pricing to ensure our supplier is competitive. Compulsory uniform items don’t carry any mark up and discretionary items are rounded to the nearest $5 or $10 amount – we do not seek to make these items an income stream for SA Country

We strive for a balance between seeking the very best and being thrifty – we understand that this will not meet everyone's ideal, but we ask for your understanding of the above information.

Training and trial venues

Accessing suitable courts in Adelaide is an increasing frustration for everyone – not just SA Country. Throughout our preparation we continually face difficulties securing venues that are suitable, often resulting in delays advising families of where we were training – in some cases we contact 20 or more venues before locating one that is available.

As a result we may make a decision to book all training sessions at a SA Country friendly venue such as Murray Bridge; this allows us to advertise early what the training plan will be.

Murray Bridge BA charge nominal court hire to SA Country for State team training. This is generous of MBBA and it does help keep the overall costs down. To pay for court hire for our entire training program would add approximately $160 more to each player invoice.

Trial games are organised between coaches and cannot always be notified early. We ask for your understanding and flexibility in these cases.

Uniform

SA Country use local uniform supplier and manufactuer, SportsCentre. This arrangement has been in place for many years and has served us well. The quality and price meet our requirements and we take great pride in supporting local manufacturing and supply.

Certain items of the uniform are compulsory;

• Red playing uniform and a white playing uniform. At National Championships, an alternative uniform is required
• Warm up top
• Team tracksuit
• Backpack
• Playing socks
• Drink bottle
• Towel
• Recovery sack (food bag)
• Polo (same as Country Cup polo)
• Jams (same as Country Cup jams)

If you have compulsory items from previous years - or can borrow/purchase identical items from a past player - then it is not compulsory to purchase every item. The only exception to this is the playing uniform which must be ordered each year; the dye-lots used by the manufacturer do not allow them to guarantee the colours are the same from one year to the next.

Other items are made available that are optional to purchase. The 2014 uniform order sheet and flyer is at the bottom of this page, for your information.

As our uniforms are high quality, we have a strict policy on how it is worn whilst we are away. Players are not to mix uniform items with casual clothing, including hats and socks, when away from the team accommodation. This is to ensure SA Country maintains our reputation as one of the best presented organisations at the championships.

Transport

In most cases we will fly to the nearest capital city to a tournament and self-drive to the team accommodation. A second flight may be required to travel to a more remote venue.

Team managers are responsible for driving the team bus.

All players, coaches and managers are required to travel with the team from Adelaide Airport.

Parents may collect their child, by prior arrangement with the team manager, the morning after the closing ceremony.

To assist in reducing the overall tournamnet costs, please notify as soon as possible if you do not wish to utilise the flight home.

Accommodation

We spend considerable time locating team accommodation with the following in mind (in no particular order);

• Price
• Locality to training and playing venue
• Locality to supermarkets, restaurants
• Player comfort
• Ability to manage the team environment
• Other facilities (pool, televisions capable of operating our scouting equipment, meeting areas, bus parking etc.)
• What other teams are in the facility

Parents are also reminded that we have a strict policy on parent attendance at team accommodation. Any parent attendance must be approved by the Executive Officer - other than to drop something off to a team manager, it is unlikely that approval would be given.

If anything above is unclear, or if you have any further questions, please contact the office on 8268 8157.