New BNT CEO promises a bright future, possibly a new stadium

JOHN Mitchell brings a wealth of Territory sport administration experience to his position as the new CEO of Basketball NT.He also brings plenty of optimism to the role, saying a new stadium at Palmerston and a Territory team in the NBL1 competition are possibilities.NT News deputy sport editor Josh Spasaro caught up with Mitchell for a wide-ranging discussion.

New Basketball NT CEO John Mitchell in his office at MarraraPicture: KERI MEGELUS

JOHN Mitchell brings a wealth of Territory sport administration experience to his position as the new CEO of Basketball NT.

His previous role was the executive officer of Swimming NT.

Before that, he was general manager of NRL NT for almost five years, worked in commercial operations at the Darwin Turf Club and did four Darwin Cup Carnivals.

And before that he worked at AFLNT as the commercial operations manager.

Mitchell has some big goals he wants to achieve as the Territory’s new head of basketball.

They include a new stadium possibly at Palmerston, and he will look into the formation of an NT team which could participate at NBL1 level.

NT News deputy sport editor Josh Spasaro caught up with Mitchell for a wide-ranging discussion.

How excited are you about this new role?

Really excited. It’s a fantastic sport to be involved in.

There are really good people involved and it has a very positive feel. Everyone wants to work together and get basketball well and truly on track.

Why did you put your hand up for it?

I was involved in swimming. The opportunity came up, and basketball is one of those sports in the Northern Territory which is a traditional sport.

It’s a very high-profile team sport, which I’m attracted to. I know quite a few people involved over many years.

It’s like basketball has had a resurgence in popularity. In Australia it’s just going from strength to strength.

You must be confident with what you can bring to the position with your past admin roles ...

It gives me a lot of experience and knowledge of local people, but you’d be lost without the volunteers.

We’ve got to work with them in improving the sport right across the board.

Basketball seems like it’s in a good place in NT, particularly after the success of 3x3 at the Arafura Games and the recent Australian Junior Championship in Darwin …

We were blown away by how popular basketball was at the Arafura Games.

We’ve got a 1200-seat capacity venue here – a fantastic venue owned by the Darwin Basketball Association.

But when you have 500 people waiting outside to get into one of our fixtures we need to do something about that.

We need a bigger venue and I’ll be working with the Northern Territory Government to see if we can secure something bigger, or do something within the venues we already have.

We’re very supportive of the Arafura Games going forward, so it’s important we have the facilities for people to come and watch.

With the Palmerston rural area growing so rapidly there’s an opportunity out at Palmerston for a new facility.

We’re blessed with the facilities we have in the Northern Territory, but perhaps we could look at a new venue there.

Is there a time you’d like to have a new stadium built by?

Sports administrators should always be looking at venue improvements.

It’ll certainly be high on the agenda for any strategic planning we’ll be doing.

I’ll be talking to the board about that.

Do you see potential for a Territory NBL1 team?

There’s a great opportunity for the Northern Territory to get into the NBL1. That would create a lot of ownership from the Northern Territory.

We’ve got the Territory Thunder and we’ve got the Mosquitoes rugby union team.

I’ve got no doubt that after the obvious popularity from the Arafura Games it would be supported.

We may have to have teams come here more often than not. It would give all of our Northern Territory kids another opportunity to play at a higher level.

There’s no shortage of talent across NT isn’t there …

There is a lot of talent to work with. We do remote programs and we’ve got two development officers out at Milingimbi at the moment.

The kids just come out of the woodwork to play basketball.

We all know how influential the AFL is, but basketball is very close behind in a lot of these communities.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to get these kids playing basketball on a competitive basis.

We spread our guys pretty thin, so how good would it be if we had more resources and more finances?

I’ll be talking to the Northern Territory Government, federal government and Basketball Australia as well.

Would you say one of your strongest points is communication, and your ability to talk to government people, and people from all walks of life?

I’d like to think I’m able to speak to all people at all levels. That’s held me in good stead in the past.

I’m not about to change. The idea is to get our associations on board and make basketball as strong as we can.