Sam Neter 💸🏀

💰 Exploring the court from a different angle
📦 Unpacking the game behind the game
🏀 Life's work @Hoopsfix / @HoopsfixFdn
👁 Building in public

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

You can be all for the culture but if your business no longer exists, you can't do anything for the culture.

Got to find a model that works to pay you and your bills.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

First ever homegrown British guard to make the W, btw.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

She chose coming home to play in the WBBL over Oregon and has now made the WNBA.

Unbelievable story.

Congrats @hollywinterburn 👏

[Hoopsfix Women @HoopsfixWomen]

✅ @hollywinterburn makes the @AtlantaDream roster ahead of a rookie season in the @WNBA!

📷 Dale Zanine

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Big day- signed a year lease on our first office/studio space in East London…

Won’t just be our home - the aim is for it to become a hub for the London basketball creator community 🇬🇧🏀

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Great to hear @denk_tweets talk at Google HQ this morning on the future of media & journalism 👌

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Another one 🇬🇧

[Hoopsfix @Hoopsfix]

Amari Williams gets upgraded to a multi-year deal with Boston! 👏 👏👏🇬🇧🏀☘️

Via @TheSteinLine

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

I remember that version of the website in 2000, and leaving 3mb clips downloading while I ate breakfast to go back and watch when I’d finished.

Insane how far technology has come.

[Ballislife.com @Ballislife]

The NBA website in the 90s

800 x 600 resolution
Blue hyperlinks
WAV & Real audio clips
Tiny AVI & MOV videos
Chat rooms & transcripts
The Global section
Penny’s mom's meatloaf recipe

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

This interview was a whole 14 years ago - just three years in to Hoopsfix and I was describing it as a long journey already …little did I know 🫠

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

PlayZones are the exact opposite of everything a basketball player would want.

And I'd argue are the opposite of what most kids would want - no-one wants locked, bookable spaces in public parks, let alone ones that are MUGAs.

Awful initiative & huge waste of money.

[Tom Webster @tommydoubleyoo]

@markbritball @SamNeter One of their funded programmes (PlayZones) is multi-use games areas which can include tarmac surfacing and basketball markings and hoops/backboards (also netball, cricket, hockey with different surfaces)

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Forget about national league for the vast majority of junior clubs - I mean, do people REALLY wanna be travelling for hours to play a game? Build that local infrastructure so you can get competitive games within your area and save national league for the actual elite. 🧱🇬🇧🏀

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

@markbritball Why does it say "in a new boost for grassroots sport facilities by the Government" and is announced on government website?

Editors notes says it will be delivered through the Football Foundation?

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

£85million committed to football facilities by the government.

"To ensure broader participation beyond football, at least 40% of funded projects must have a multi-sport offer. This approach will give more people access to a wider variety of sports and activities, such as rugby, cricket, and basketball."

I can tell you now, it will not improve access to basketball.

https://t.co/0Dawa0RleQ

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Funding applications in England (£68.35 million of total pot) now open via the Football Foundation.

Attached is their funding page under 'What We Fund'...

(https://t.co/OCb19Ya1Yu)

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Exactly this.

A lot of things being done at the moment to make it appear as though basketball is being helped, without actually doing what basketball really needs.

[Daniel Routledge @dan_routledge]

@SamNeter But, importantly, a box is ticked ✔️

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Very weird argument. History is not contingent on success, history is history.

And British basketball has plenty of it.

[AceofGamesUK @AceofGamesUK]

@SamNeter Well history of any sport has to start with the national team, and quite frankly… Britain doesn’t have those moments (apart from last eurobasket)

Other than losing by 1 point to Spain in 2012, going winless for over a decade and being the also ran of Europe, what history?

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Let's hear em...

[Chris Bigley @cbiglegal]

@SamNeter Im not convinced the BCB is good for British basketball full stop to be honest. Not sure that's a popular opinion but I have legit reasons.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

@sportinghistory @HoopsfixFdn Done.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

We’ve (@hoopsfixfdn) submitted a funding application a couple of times with bi-partisan support from all Home Countries + the BBF + the pro league + the archive at Uni of Worcester to build a https://t.co/7uhkZwO8Zm style database of British bball but it keeps getting rejected 😭

[Ball in Europe @ballineurope]

@SamNeter This screams of something that would be a great collab between a university and you.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

Because the fund was for anything that helps preserve British history and they were keen for more sporting applications?

Why does the Football Foundation receive £68m in government funding when the Premier League is making billions?

You could make the argument for why x should fund x if they can afford x, about anything.

[Sam Neter 💸🏀 @SamNeter]

I’ve spent an increasing amount of my time over the last few years looking at basketball facility options.

Gone past this empty warehouse a few times and decided to give them a call to find out the cost. £800k rent per year plus £300k business rates (with rates relief for leisure spaces I think this would go down to £190k). lol.

I ended up having a good chat with the lettings manager, who has been doing his job 20 years. He said he’s had an increasing number of calls about industrial spaces for sport, particularly padel, but it’s near impossible to make these spaces work for leisure in London.

Aside from planning issues around switching industrial space to leisure, he said the costs are completely prohibitive. Might have a better chance outside of London.

He said the only real chance in the capital is to find a council who owns property/land to support/subsidise.

Not sure why I’m sharing other than to spotlight just how difficult it is to overcome the facilities problem that basketball faces, and the only way in the long term we’re gonna get close is with governmental support or very deep pocketed investors who don’t need a return any time soon. 💭🇬🇧🏀