Sam Neter 💸🏀

You can be all for the culture but if your business no longer exists, you can't do anything for the culture. Got to find a model that works to pay you and your bills.

First ever homegrown British guard to make the W, btw.

She chose coming home to play in the WBBL over Oregon and has now made the WNBA. Unbelievable story. Congrats @hollywinterburn 👏

Big day- signed a year lease on our first office/studio space in East London… Won’t just be our home - the aim is for it to become a hub for the London basketball creator community 🇬🇧🏀

Great to hear @denk_tweets talk at Google HQ this morning on the future of media & journalism 👌

Another one 🇬🇧

I remember that version of the website in 2000, and leaving 3mb clips downloading while I ate breakfast to go back and watch when I’d finished. Insane how far technology has come.

This interview was a whole 14 years ago - just three years in to Hoopsfix and I was describing it as a long journey already …little did I know 🫠

PlayZones are the exact opposite of everything a basketball player would want. And I'd argue are the opposite of what most kids would want - no-one wants locked, bookable spaces in public parks, let alone ones that are MUGAs. Awful initiative & huge waste of money.

Forget about national league for the vast majority of junior clubs - I mean, do people REALLY wanna be travelling for hours to play a game? Build that local infrastructure so you can get competitive games within your area and save national league for the actual elite. 🧱🇬🇧🏀

@markbritball Why does it say "in a new boost for grassroots sport facilities by the Government" and is announced on government website? Editors notes says it will be delivered through the Football Foundation?

@SamNeter Not really government money at all - funds from Football Foundation. Other sports will be excluded from anything except fringe benefits.

£85million committed to football facilities by the government. "To ensure broader participation beyond football, at least 40% of funded projects must have a multi-sport offer. This approach will give more people access to a wider variety of sports and activities, such as rugby, cricket, and basketball." I can tell you now, it will not improve access to basketball. gov.uk/government/new…

Funding applications in England (£68.35 million of total pot) now open via the Football Foundation. Attached is their funding page under 'What We Fund'... (footballfoundation.org.uk/looking-for-fu…)

Exactly this. A lot of things being done at the moment to make it appear as though basketball is being helped, without actually doing what basketball really needs.

Very weird argument. History is not contingent on success, history is history. And British basketball has plenty of it.

Let's hear em...

@sportinghistory @HoopsfixFdn Done.

@SamNeter @HoopsfixFdn Hi Sam, would you mind dropping us your email address, and we’ll be in touch.

We’ve (@hoopsfixfdn) submitted a funding application a couple of times with bi-partisan support from all Home Countries + the BBF + the pro league + the archive at Uni of Worcester to build a basketball-reference.com style database of British bball but it keeps getting rejected 😭

Because the fund was for anything that helps preserve British history and they were keen for more sporting applications? Why does the Football Foundation receive £68m in government funding when the Premier League is making billions? You could make the argument for why x should fund x if they can afford x, about anything.

@SamNeter @HoopsFanUK When there's so much private wealth within the pro league's equity presently, what was the bid's justification for public/charitable funds providing the seed-funding for a GB Basketball reference site? If we can afford 6 imports & TV production costs, we can afford this instead?

British Basketball doing British Basketball things

I’ve spent an increasing amount of my time over the last few years looking at basketball facility options. Gone past this empty warehouse a few times and decided to give them a call to find out the cost. £800k rent per year plus £300k business rates (with rates relief for leisure spaces I think this would go down to £190k). lol. I ended up having a good chat with the lettings manager, who has been doing his job 20 years. He said he’s had an increasing number of calls about industrial spaces for sport, particularly padel, but it’s near impossible to make these spaces work for leisure in London. Aside from planning issues around switching industrial space to leisure, he said the costs are completely prohibitive. Might have a better chance outside of London. He said the only real chance in the capital is to find a council who owns property/land to support/subsidise. Not sure why I’m sharing other than to spotlight just how difficult it is to overcome the facilities problem that basketball faces, and the only way in the long term we’re gonna get close is with governmental support or very deep pocketed investors who don’t need a return any time soon. 💭🇬🇧🏀