The Darwin Salties basketball team has announced it has left the Queensland-based NBL1 North competition saying it is financially unviable for the club to pay for its opposition teams’ travel costs, and further said the club’s ability to negotiate with another league was limited owing to the loss of its general manager after only ten months in the role.
On Thursday the NT Independent reported the team’s general manager Matt Nason quit earlier this month, after starting in the role on November 8 last year, and that Basketball Queensland, which runs the NBL1 North league, would not comment on the Salties’ financial situation or its future in the competition.
Nason told the NT Independent that it “just felt time” to leave the job.
In May the team’s solvency came into question following the release of a draft 2024 financial statement, which was given to the NT Independent by an NT basketball insider. That financial situation was despite the club being given roughly $1.25 million in less than two-and-a-half years from the NT Government and the club’s owners, the Darwin Basketball Association and Basketball NT.
Two sources from accounting and business backgrounds, along with someone with a deep knowledge of professional basketball, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity, previously told the NT Independent the draft statement showed that based on an anticipated expenses versus anticipated optimistic revenue for the rest of the year, the Salties would likely not be able to pay their bills unless the club was bailed out.
In a statement on Facebook on Friday, Salties interim chair Gary Shipway announced the club was leaving the league and was “exploring options” for the 2025 season.
“The club met with Basketball Queensland to discuss an improved cost-sharing model to continue in their North NBL1 division but could not reach agreement,” Mr Shipway said.
“…Darwin Salties enjoyed strong on-court results in 2024, with the Darwin men finishing second on the ladder leading into the finals, and home crowd spectator numbers remaining the highest in the NBL1 North league.
“However the Salties board has decided the current model with BQ is not financially sustainable as it requires the club to pay all its own interstate travels costs and those of visiting North teams.
“These costs are excessive at a time when air travel from Darwin is at an all time high. No other NBL1 club has this arrangement.”
Mr Shipway said the club had “early discussions” about joining another league, citing South Australia’s NBL1 Central league because it opened the possibility of playing some games in Alice Springs, however he said the resignation of Mr Nason “complicated matters” and had “limited day-to-day operational ability”.
The statement said the Salties NBL1 Wheelchair team, which won back-to-back national championships and had two members represent Australia at the Paralympics, would not be affected by the withdrawal because the team played in a separate league.
The club said it was conducting its annual end-of-season review and was developing a junior program called Future Salties. Mr Shipway said basketball participation in Darwin had never been higher and had experienced growth of almost 16 per cent.
Basketball Queensland said it would be issuing a statement about the departure of the Salties, and the NT Independent emailed Basketball SA for comment but the organisation did not respond by the time of publication.
The Finocchiaro Government has not yet responded to questions about whether it would provide money to the Salties or whether it would spend almost $20 million on Darwin Convention Centre upgrades announced by the previous government and linked to a push for the Salties to become an NBL team.
No audited financial statements have been presented to the membership, which necessitated postponement of the Annual General Meeting earlier in the year, yet the Lawler Labor government provided taxpayer money to keep the team afloat.
The NT Independent has been unable to speak to Mr Shipway, who is also the DBA chair, about the financial situation of the club.
The financial backstory
The club, which is jointly owned by the DBA and Basketball Northern Territory, was granted a second-tier NBL1 licence in November 2021, and played its first game on April 22, 2022. However, the Salties did not become a separate legal entity until November 23, 2023, meaning the DBA has responsibility for preparing a financial statement for the first two years of its operations.
On August 2, 2022, then-chief minister Natasha Fyles and Ms Worden announced in a press release they had awarded $100,000 of taxpayer money to the association to upgrade seating in its grandstand. Ten months later, on June 2, 2023, they announced they were giving an additional $400,000 to the association, purportedly to support the growth and expansion of the men and women’s NBL1 teams.
The NT Independent first saw the 2022 and 2023 audited BNT financial statements, the 2022 and 2023 DBA unaudited financial statements, the unaudited 2022 and 2023 Salties financial statements – prepared by the DBA – and a seemingly rough draft of the 2024 financial statement prepared by the Salties in May, which listed a profit and loss statement until April 30, as well as receivables and payables summaries until May 22.
The NBL1 North team’s draft statement for this year showed the organisation received a further $280,000 before April 30 from the government. The former Labor government did not announce this money in a press release, and would not say if more taxpayer money had since been given to the team.
The other statements show the two parent organisations gave the Salties $100,000 in start-up money, with the DBA giving two loans totalling $177,000, and BNT giving two loans totalling $200,000. The statements indicated the loans were unlikely to be paid back.
The total of known money given to the Salties from the government and the basketball organisations is $1.25 million, with the Salties running total operating expenses of $1.32 million 2022, losing $438,000, with expenses of $1.34 million in 2023, and losing $92,000.
The draft Darwin Salties 2024 profit and loss statement showed the club made a $128,000 profit at April 30 (which included the $280,000 from the government), but were $130,000 in the red with debts versus creditors, and were owed $90,000 as on May 22, but actually owed $219,000. In addition, their forecast expenditure versus revenue was minus $60,000, with an optimistic figure for anticipated revenue of $462,000, and expenses of about $525,000, however revenue was listed to the end of 2024, whilst expenditure was only listed to the end of August.
The anticipated revenue included securing $100,000 in extra corporate and player sponsorship and something called the ‘Sundowners’ despite the season being half finished. It also relied on the club being able to convince major sponsor Tamboran Resources to give them an additional $50,000 for 2025.
The club was asked if was trying to get 2025 revenue in advance to use in 2024, but it did not respond.
The anticipated revenue also counted on $50,000 for the men’s and women’s teams playing in grand finals, plus being able to sell the stadium naming rights for $75,000. Neither team played in a grand final.
The DBA was forced to adjourn its annual general meeting on May 26, because it could not provide audited financial statements for both it and the Darwin Salties for the two years, which Shipway claimed was because its bookkeeper was sick along with the added complexity of doing the books for the Salties.
A new annual general meeting of the DBA is scheduled to he held on Sunday.
The draft DBA statement showed the association had a net deficit of roughly $282,000 for 2022 (compared to a net surplus of $80,000 in 2021), while BNT declared more than $195,000 in losses in 2023, after an $8,000 profit in 2022.
The association appears to be in breach of the Associations Act for not having its two years of financial statements filed within the required period and not holding both the 2022 and 2023 AGMs.
I smell intrigue and clouded judgements at the back of the story.
Put the cheque book away and locked up NT Government. Plenty of sports in the NT need funding without giving heaps away to one organisation for what would appear to be some dubious results.