Basketball SA appoints MEGAPRO Marketing

MEGAPRO Marketing has been appointed to handle marketing and sponsorship affairs for Basketball South Africa, the federation that looks after South Africa's second largest growing team sport.

Appointed for a five year term, MEGAPRO, South Africa's premier sports marketing organisation will act as the sole commercial agent and manager for related properties pertaining to the organisation as well as the sport in general.

"We are obviously delighted with our appointment and are proud to be associated with a sport such as Basketball that has an infinitely promising future in this country," says Monde Tabata, managing director of MEGAPRO. "For the past 18 years we have focused predominantly on the "Big Three" viz rugby, cricket and soccer, however we recently took a conscious decision to embrace other popular and growing sports."

"Basketball is a hugely popular sport amongst the black youth, with 61% of its supporters from an age group of between 18 to 34 years," says Tabata.

The international Basketball stage is rapidly changing and in the future it will no longer be taken for granted that gold is pegged for the USA. In fact Africa is preparing for its first gold medal in world Basketball and South Africa is amongst the few countries that carries that African Dream.

"Considering our unification process was completed in 1992, we have covered enormous ground in a very short time," says Sabata Thekiso, media manager Basketball SA. "Preparations are already underway to send both the Men and Women's teams to Beijing in 2008."

"We aim to be the leading indoor sport in the country soon and are currently assessing our facilities nationwide in conjunction with relevant stakeholders, comments Thekiso. "Also, the re-launch of the Professional League will boost our development programme and will form a good foundation for the future of this game in S.A."

With Basketball South Africa firmly behind the sport and MEGAPRO firmly behind Basketball South Africa, the future stage is set for the sport in this country. "Basketball is more than just a sport, it's a culture, a lifestyle," says Thekiso.