NBL Board Confirmed
Tagged in: NBL
Wellington Rugby Union communications manager Sam Rossiter-Stead will head the six-man team charged with guiding the National Basketball League into a new era.
Rossiter-Stead’s appointment as chairman of the newly constituted NBL board was confirmed by Basketball New Zealand on Wednesday.
Nelson Giants manager Steve Fitchett, Basketball Otago chief executive Mark Rogers and Waikato Basketball Council president Don Jefferies will represent the 10 NBL franchises, while current BBNZ board member Barry Wilson will represent the national body.
Sky Television chief executive John Fellet has been appointed as an independent by the franchises and Rossiter-Stead will fill the BBNZ independent role.
The new board will operate the NBL, due to start its 28th season in early March 2009, under license from BBNZ, but will contract the administration of the league back to the national body.
Returning the decision-making balance on the NBL board to the franchises was a key finding of an off-season review of the NBL, with owners and general managers buying into the change in September.
“The new board has in-depth basketball, business, financial and marketing experience,” BBNZ chief executive Dale Stephens said.
“One of the board members actually helped form the NBL back in 1981 and he has experienced all the models (that) it has operated under. That experience is crucial to running a professional sports league in this commercial environment.
“It’s good to see that franchises have taken the opportunity to make this succeed and there’s a continued willingness to work with BBNZ for the good of the league.”
Rossiter-Stead has 18 years’ experience in sports marketing and administration, currently as communications manager for the Wellington Rugby Union and Hurricanes since 2006. He also has a working understanding of basketball through wife Catherine, previously the marketing and sponsorship manager for the British Basketball League.
Wilson was one of the NBL’s pioneers, helping set up the league as a New Zealand Basketball Federation board member in 1981 and acting as league commissioner until 1994. Wilson was also BBNZ’s interim CEO in 2006 and is serving his third year on the national body’s executive board.
Fellet, Sky TV’s CEO since January 2001 and once described as “the most powerful man in New Zealand sport”, brings a lifetime love of basketball to the board. He’s a regular at NZ Breakers games, has coached the Howick College under-19 team the past two seasons and played an early role in the formation of Gaba (Greater Auckland Basketball Association).
Fitchett has been involved in the NBL since the late 1990s as Nelson Giants manager and since 2006 as a director on the Giants board. Father of Tall Blacks guard Michael Fitchett, he has coached and managed at high school level with Nelson and Nayland Colleges since 1980, and was Tall Blacks manager in 2007.
Rogers has current NBL administrative knowledge as Basketball Otago and Nuggets CEO since 2005, while he has also served as head coach, assistant coach and manager for New Zealand U18, U16 and secondary schools teams in the last five years.
Jefferies has been involved in Waikato basketball since 1981 and played in the NBL for one season in 1995 under the late Murray McMahon. He has served as the Waikato Basketball Council president since 2005 and had a previous stint on the board from 1998-2002.
Preparations for the 10-team league, to run in the same March-to-June window as the 2008 season, are moving forward, with naming rights sponsorship and television deals in the works, and the 2009 draw to be released within a month.
National Basketball League Board
Sam Rossiter-Stead (BBNZ Independent – Chairman)
Barry Wilson (BBNZ Representative)
John Fellet (Franchise Independent)
Steve Fitchett (Franchise Representative)
Mark Rogers (Franchise Representative)
Don Jefferies (Franchise Representative)
