BASKETBALL Australia will consider moving the WNBL season to winter by 2017 as part of an overhaul of the nation's premier women's competition.
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The schedule change was just one of 53 wide-ranging recommendations contained in an Australian Sports Commission report into the future of the league that was released this week.
Among other suggestions were a shorter regular season, expanded finals series, and rules governing the location of clubs such as a minimum population of 500,000.
The report called on Basketball Australia to develop strategies and policies that would secure the viability of the WNBL and its clubs.
It came just days after Bendigo Spirit chairman Greg Bickley said the club was "fighting for survival" and "just hanging on" financially.
The proposed switch to winter would clash with the WNBA season and affect US imports like popular Spirit superstar Kelsey Griffin, while Bendigo would not come close to meeting the 500,000-plus population rule.
But BA spokeswoman Jane Aubrey stressed the report did not mean another axe was hanging over the Spirit, or that the winter move would go ahead.
"Absolutely not," she said. "These are only recommendations, not a blueprint, and we are treating them as that."
Aubrey said a BA working party comprising representatives from the WNBL Commission, clubs and players would carefully evaluate all the suggestions before any decisions were made.
The working party is due to meet for the first time next week.
BA has already appointed a general manager responsible for the WNBL - a key recommendation of the report - and former NBL player Paul Maley takes up that post later this month.
The report, authored by Suiko Consulting’s Eugenie Buckley, found there were significant financial issues affecting the league's sustainability, despite basketball being Australia's second-highest team participation sport.
The number of WNBL teams fell from 10 to eight in recent years, with Adelaide Lightning's future under a cloud.
But the report said that with appropriate resourcing, the league could be a world leader in women's sport.
It devised an "optimal competition model" to create long-term sustainability and growth, urging BA to make the WNBL a higher priority and implement better marketing and promotional strategies.
Other areas that were reviewed included operations and resources, the high-performance pathway, player contract regulations, cost structures, participation alignment and club and competition structure.
The full report can be read here.