Basketball in Bathurst will be undergoing its most significant structural change in years following Bathurst Basketball Association's annual general meeting on Wednesday night.
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Due to what the Bathurst Basketball Association deemed "legacy issues", the committee voted to undergo a voluntary cancellation with the Office of Fair Trading.
The issues at Bathurst Basketball Association came to a head in late 2017, leading to a request from Bathurst Regional Council that Basketball NSW take over the management of the stadium.
The changeover took place on January 1, 2018.
In a release from Basketball NSW on Thursday, the governing body stated that the existing Bathurst committee had been working tirelessly to address issues.
Those problems meant the committee had been unable to hold an AGM since 2013.
“[The vote is a] long-term strategy to ensure that the sport of basketball will be in a better position to grow," Bathurst Basketball Association public officer Nancy Haslop said.
"The committee has been working very closely with the NSW Office of Fair Trading, Basketball NSW, Bathurst Regional Council, Weekes Accounting and Advisory (our auditors) for some time now."
Thankfully for the city's players and families the cancellation with the OFT will not affect regular weekly competitions, nor any junior Bathurst Goldminers sides.
Basketball NSW will now lead the newly formed Bathurst Basketball Council in order to ensure the Goldminers representative program can go ahead for 2019 while current sports stadium management will continue to administer local competitions.
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"The decision made by the members of the Bathurst Basketball Association Inc was the correct one to make,” Basketball NSW CEO Maria Nordstrom said.
"Basketball is strong not only in Bathurst but right across NSW and Australia. With the support of all key stakeholder groups, we are confident that the sport will continue to grow and flourish.
"Our main goal was to ensure that the Goldminers could continue and that kids in Bathurst can play representative basketball."
Nordstrom said no concrete time frame had been put in place for when the Bathurst Basketball Council could run independently of Basketball NSW's control.
"We'll look to do that over time, once a stable committee is in place," she said.
"We'll put a formal structure in place to get them up and running. That could take a few years, possibly longer."
Western Sydney associations have undergone similar procedures in recent years.
