By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

A LITTLE over a week ago the New Providence Basketball Association (NPBA) postseason ended with the Discount Distributors Rockets crowned as champions.

Ricardo Smith, president of the NPBA, and his executive team have served at the helm for almost a year and he is looking to improve on the strides they have made this season both on and off the court. “I feel that we did a fairly good job in the first year. We are not gonna sit down and pat ourselves on the back because we have a lot of work to do. I think that we have made significant strides in some of the objectives that we have put together. I believe a lot of the work that has started, we must now do the necessary things to make sure that what we have planted was not planted in vain,” the NPBA president said.

One of the main objectives for Smith going into the 2024-25 NPBA season is to continue to enhance the culture of the night league.

“We are trying to create a new culture. The NPBA has to be a more professional organisation. We have to make better plans and strategise what we want to do with regards to making the organisation more profitable, making sure we attract more fans to venues and looking at where we are at as an organisation to make sure we are progressing and growing,” Smith stated.

Last summer, the newly-elected NPBA executive team listed 10 main objectives for their first year in office which included a plan to adopt a new marketing strategy.

For the upcoming season, the NPBA president is hoping to increase the promotion of the division one and two teams.

“You have to have a full marketing strategy and you cannot sit down and say you want people to come to the gym. That has to be done well in advance so that you can pre-sell the season. A lot of what we have to do is sitting down with venues and finding out where we are playing on what day to figure out how to sell that to the public, businesses and to civic groups. We have to make sure we are able to pre sell and upsell the league prior to its opening,” he said.

Smith acknowledged that there were a few shortcomings this season with regards to coverage but they want to take it a step further by establishing a NPBA media team.

“Everybody has seemed to lessen their coverage of local basketball and it’s sad. We are now gonna have to find money for advertising in the local media houses and that is just the reality. You have to get the message out and while social media is good there is nothing that will ever replace mainstream media…We have to look at creating within our own organisation a media team that will be putting out information on a regular basis,” he said.

Before the start of the 2023-24 NPBA season, the games were moved from long-time venue AF Adderley Gymnasium to the CI Gibson and Kendal GL Isaacs facilities.

Despite the change in venue due to ongoing repairs at AF Adderley, fan attendance has been inconsistent.

During the offseason, the NPBA president is expecting teams to retool their rosters with the best talent available to display a more competitive brand of basketball for fans.

“The teams have to now look at the new players coming on the scene. There are some of our division two teams that could have beaten some of our division one teams. It is now up to those teams to begin to recruit those players that could make the difference or could decide how better their team can improve on the floor. We are gonna be involved from an executive standpoint to find out what is happening with these teams, what is their personnel and look at records to determine if you continue with the team. People want to see a competitive brand of basketball,” he said.

Lastly, the executive team will look to implement a select team to represent New Providence at national events.

The team will be selected by coaches and based on their season statistics.

“Next year we have to begin to kickstart some of the plans that we have put forward. We need to have a select team that is gonna travel internationally from division one and division two. There is a whole lot of work that we have to do to get where we need to be.

“A select team is a selection from all of the teams and the best of the best in the league. It will give everybody an opportunity. We will be looking next year to have the selected team travel,” he said.

The 2024-25 NPBA regular season will return this Fall.