No ‘New Era’ this year

Jul 23, 2008 Sports

– LABA in ‘limbo’

By Edison Jefford
Political mischief has seemingly forced the Executives of the second most popular private basketball promotions group, New Era Entertainment (NEE) to cancel their 2008 episode of the annual super eight knockout tournament.

Kaieteur Sport understands that the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) has refused to sanction the tournament this year owing to monetary demands, which NEE claims it cannot meet at this time.

One of the Directors of NEE, Bobby Noel told this paper yesterday that they cannot pay the 10 percent of their gross profits that LABA requested plus 16 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) and other major cost to run the tournament.

“They wanted 10 percent of our gross when we have to pay 16 percent VAT, bear the cost for meals for players, transportation for Georgetown teams and pay officials on a nightly basis,” Noel informed.

In the initial negotiations to stage the event, LABA had told NEE that they can no longer independently approach the association to sanction the tournament but rather they must go through a club, which the group did eventually.

According to Noel, the promotion group that is second to Georgetown–based Next Level Entertainment (NLE) in terms of magnitude, decided to use Kashif and Shanghai Kings to obtain the necessary sanction from the LABA.

However, when they re–approached the association at a subsequent meeting they were met with more ‘red tapes’. Noel said that the LABA requested tournament rules despite knowing that FIBA regulations govern the competition.

Because the LABA is a subsidiary of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) all tournaments held under the aegis of either association must adopt FIBA (International Basketball Federation [in English]) rules.
The GABF is affiliated to FIBA. Andrew Major and Shareef Major are the other Directors of the NEE Promotion Group.

“Kings wrote them asking to sanction the tournament and they wanted to see rules when they know that the tournament is governed by FIBA rules. How can we furnish rules when the tournament is not even sanctioned,” Noel asked.

Last year NEE paid the LABA $4,000 per night instead of the now requested 10 percent to ratify the entire first division tournament; NEE offered up to $7,000 per night for the 2008 tourney but the LABA refused the deal.

“We went in and talked with them (LABA) initially about $5,000 per night, which we raised to $7,000 but they asked for more and we told them that we can’t pay that, so the tournament is off!” the NEE Executive emphatically stated.

The championship was scheduled to run until August 9 at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) basketball court with the first place team taking home $200,000 – $50,000 more than the top prize last year.

Only the NLE tournament, which was also cancelled this year, has a larger cash prize for first place with $250,000. The NLE competition is a nationwide event and is usually held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Both tournaments are still in their infancy. The NEE competition has been in existence for three years now while NLE came into being in 2006.

LABA limbo
As a result of the issues surrounding the sanctioning of the NEE tournament, Kaieteur Sport understands that there was a ‘fallout’ between LABA President, Uborn Smith and General Secretary Joe Chapman.

The controversy ultimately led to a no–confidence vote against Smith, which he lost 3–2 but was subsequently re–instated.

“The Executive voted 3–2 in favour of a no– confidence vote over financial irregularities” a source said.
Smith, who came to power two years ago, is President of Wismar Pistons Basketball Club in Linden. After leading his club’s protest against Collin Aaron’s administration in 2006, it seems as though Smith is fighting to save his own.

Efforts to contact Smith and Chapman yesterday for a comment proved futile.

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