Halfway through the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s (GABA) league, Banks DIH by way of its Powerade hydration drink and an undisclosed sum of money pledged its support to boost the league yesterday at Banks DIH headquarters, Thirst Park.
At the press conference, GABA President David Carto updated media representatives on the league’s progress while underscoring its objectives.
“The main intention for us having the league was for us to bring back some sort of vibrancy to basketball in Georgetown and secondly to have seedings for the teams in Georgetown.
“So far the tournament which started sometime in February is half way through and is good right now with verbal commitments from other sponsors,” Carto stated.
The league, which consists of 15 teams, 13 from Georgetown and two from West Demerara, are playing in a round-robin format which will end in May, according to Carto.
Seeding will then be given to the top eight teams which will then face off in a seven-game playoffs with the winner taking home $250,000.
Second place will receive $125,000 while third place will receive $60,000.
Marketing and Sales Executive of Banks DIH Carlton Joao was also at the press conference and he indicated his pleasure at coming on board with the GABA league.
“We are happy to come on board with the Powerade brand which will play a role in hydrating the players during the games and we hope that with this it will lead to other great things in basketball,” Joao said.
Joao, however, expressed his displeasure at the numbers in attendance at games but assured that a better marketing strategy will be applied to up the turnout.
“One of the things we are not happy about is the attendance and I guess it is because of the type of publicity the league has been getting but we need to change this and we will do various ads to advertise where games will be played and when,” Joao disclosed.
The league is also set to get better with various promotions from Banks DIH, according to Joao. “Well coming on to the end look forward for more things from Banks,” Joao stated.
GABA is still in the process of setting up their scholarship programme where players from less fortunate teams can advance their studies at a tertiary institution in Guyana, namely the University of Guyana and the Government Technical Institute, Carto said.
“We are still in the planning stage of the scholarship programme and we will definitely be looking to get it running soon because there are persons who want to further their studies but cannot do so because of financial reasons,” Carto explained.
Meanwhile games in the GABA league will continue this coming weekend at the Burnham Hard Courts from 16:00hrs this Saturday.
