Clubs want BA to step aside and let the Boomers move to Geelong, so why hasn’t it happened yet?

Basketball Australia has come under fire for its handling of a bid to save WNBL’s Melbourne Boomers, with some appealing for the organisation to approve a bid immediately.

Basketball Australia has come under fire over its handling of a bid to save WNBL club Melbourne Boomers, which threatens to derail the move by a high-powered Geelong consortium.

Sources told this masthead some current clubs had privately called on BA to immediately approve the bid “for the good of the competition”, with the hold up leaving a cloud hanging over the country’s premier women’s basketball league and contributing to delays in a new collective bargaining agreement, which have forced its free agency window to be pushed back by over a month.

The Boomers had asked BA for time to find a way to keep the team in Melbourne but, with all avenues exhausted, the club has conceded Geelong is the best option.

Multiple sources told this masthead BA boss Matt Scriven had given an undertaking to provide an answer by Friday but, as of Saturday afternoon, it’s understood the decision was yet to be conveyed to clubs or the Geelong bidder.

Losing a team out of the lucrative Melbourne market and shifting it regional has the potential for great impact on the league’s commercial and broadcast health and comes at a crucial time for BA, which is attempting to attract investors and sell off part of the WNBL in a bid to restructure and revitalise.

Basketball Australia CEO, Matt Scriven, has defended the organisation’s handling if the sale. Picture: Getty Images

Geelong is in prime position to take over the Boomers with strong financial support from a group of high-powered investors, including Belgravia Group and Geelong United Basketball Association. Independent assessments have backed the Geelong proposal, which is aided by a growing population and a plan to initially play out of its home in North Geelong, before a move to a new stadium mooted for Waurn Ponds.

Clubs fear the delay threatens to undermine the health of the already ailing competition, with the Boomers’ current ownership confirming it would not continue next season, after it was required to fund a $1.5 million shortfall over the past eight years.

What does the future of the Boomers look like? Picture: Getty Images

Some sources expressed concern the league could be forced to operate with seven teams next season but Scriven quashed that, guaranteeing there would be eight clubs in WNBL25, as BA goes through its due diligence on the Geelong bid.

If BA does knock back the Geelong proposal, it does have powers to issue a licence in other markets, with the Brisbane Bullets among interested parties.

This masthead can reveal the Geelong consortium is already in talks with several big-name players and is ready and waiting to launch, but is still without an answer from BA, amid growing frustration with the national body’s administration.

Keely Froling is an Australian Basketball Players’ Association delegate and Boomers player. Picture: Getty Images

Opal Keely Froling, who is an Australian Basketball Players’ Association delegate, said the uncertainty had been hard on players — she captained the Boomers to the semi-finals last season after relocating from Sydney.

“It’s just the unknown,” she said.

“I love the Boomers, though, and I loved Melbourne, so, you know, I would stay there — hopefully I still can stay there.

“You find a place where you feel this is really great and then it’s like ‘oh, s**t’.

“So, once again, we just wait and see, we don’t know enough or anything, really, to be honest.

“You can’t blame (owners) for coming in and out, because they lose so much money.”

Originally published as Clubs want BA to step aside and let the Boomers move to Geelong, so why hasn’t it happened yet?