bristol flyers 2018/2019 BRISTOL FLYERS BECAME A PART OF THE BRISTOL SPORT GROUP IN 2014 AND WE COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF BOTH THE CLUB AND THIS SPORT IN THE UK. Formed in 2005, the Flyers have grown from an amateur basketball team competing in the nation’s fourth tier, with little to no following, to an established British Basketball League (BBL) club. Under the leadership of long-standing head coach Andreas Kapoulas, a basketball club was formed and developed to encompass a junior and development pathway, a women’s team and a community programme, all spearheaded by the professional side. The foundations were already in place and Bristol Sport were able to offer commercial and elite sport management to take the Flyers to the next level and the nation’s top-flight professional competition. The potential for basketball in the UK is huge. Second to only football in terms of UK participation, basketball transcends the boundaries of class, race and gender. Played in both arenas and in parks, basketball is one of the more established female sports, has a successful disability sports programme, experiences BME participation of 58% and is one of the more prevalent sports in community engagement. Meanwhile, at the elite level, crowds in excess of 13,000 fill venues such as The 02, Arena Birmingham and the Emirates Arena for the BBL’s various finals days, whilst fans attend league games in their thousands. Forward thinking digital broadcast deals saw games shown on BBC Sport, Freesports (Freeview), UniLAD and LiveBasketballTV,s during the 2017/18 season, with every single game available to watch live. ProgressU within the sport in recent years has been staggering but it is the future that really excites us. Nearly all BBL clubs either own, rent or are building arenas. This is the game changer for the sport in the UK as these larger capacities enable long-termith sustainability and rapidly increasing standards. It is no secret that this is also the next step for us, as a consecutive sell-out streak of over 20 games tells us we need a bigger home for our club! We believe that taking this step will not only place us amongst the elite in British basketball, but provide us with a vehicle to venture further afield and into Europe. yW We hope that you’ll join us for what will be the most exciting chapter in our journey yet. #Fl JON LANSDOWN DIRECTOR FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FLYERS1 23 PROFESSIONAL CLUBS IN THE UK THREE MAJOR FINALS PER ANNUM UK BASKETBALL Arena Birmingham 364 CLUB GAMES PER YEAR CUP FINAL - 10,000 BRITISH BASKETBALL LEAGUE GLASGOW ROCKS CLUBS THREE NEW BASKETBALL CENTRES MANCHESTER GIANTS WERE OPENED IN 2016 Emirates Arena, Glasgow 25% NEWCASTLE EAGLES TROPHY FINAL - 7000 CHESHIRE, LEICESTER, INCREASE SHEFFIELD SHARKS IN WEEKLY MANCHESTER cheshire phoenix s PARTICIPATION IN s LEICESTER RIDERS WORCESTER WOLVES U BASKETBALL THREE MORE ARE PLANNED U LONDON LIONS ND BRISTOL FLYERS O2, London ith NEWCASTLE, SHEFFIELD, ith PLAYOFF FINAL - 15,000 218,000 BRISTOL yW most popular yW LONDON CITY ROYALS sport among of basketball’s regular weekly participants 14-16 year olds OVER 50% are from black or multi-ethnic backgrounds PLYMOUTH RAIDERS SURREY SCORCHERS #Fl #Fl FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FLYERS2 FLYERS3 4 TRUST THE PROCESS s s U U ith ith yW yW #Fl #Fl 5 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FLYERS FLYERS WHO WE ARE OUR HISTORY OUR FUTURE ȫ FOUNDED IN 2005 ȫ SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS ȫ ACQUIRED BY STEVE LANSDOWN ȫ ASHTON GATE SPORTS AND CONVENTION CENTRE - NEW 4000 IN 2013 CAPACITY VENUE ȫ NATIONAL CUP CHAMPIONS: ȫ PLAYER INVESTMENT 2010 ȫ EUROPEAN BASKETBALL ȫ PROMOTED TO BBL IN 2014/15 SEASON ȫ BBL CUP SEMI-FINALISTS (2014/15 SEASON) ȫ COACH OF THE YEAR: 2014 ȫ COMMONWEALTH COACH OF s ENGLAND 2018 ȫ REACHED PLAY OFF QUARTER U FINALS 2014 & 2017 ȫ SEMI-FINALS OF BRITISH BASKETBALL ALL STARS ith CHAMPIONSHIP (2017) ȫ BBL PLAY OFF SEMI-FINALISTS (2017/18) yW #Fl FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FLYERS6 FLYERS7 WE WANT TO BUILD A CLUB THAT CAN COMPETE FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS BOTH AT HOME AND OVERSEAS. THE STEPS WE ARE TAKING NOW ARE THE FOUNDATIONS REQUIRED TO TAKE US TO THE NEXT LEVEL. In our young BBL journey, the Flyers have established themselves as a well respected, competitive club known for ‘punching above our weight’ and capable of competing with anyone on our day. After four BBL seasons, we have qualified for the BBL Play-Off quarter-finals three times, the BBL Cup semi-final once, the British Basketball All Stars semi-final once and last season, the BBL play-off semi-finals. It’s great to have adjusted to the demands of Britain’s professional league so quickly but there is also an understanding amongst everyone involved with the club that this is just the beginning. A Bristol Flyers player is more than just a talented athlete. We only recruit those we believe to also be great people, making them fully aware of what we will expect from them off the court as well as on it. Around their performance schedule, our players have a key role in delivering our extensive community programme, engaging with our partners and sponsors and assisting with the development of our younger players. Our players stay behind every home game, win or lose, to sign autographs and take pictures with fans and whilst this is a club expectation, it’s something embraced as part of a culture of humility. Whilst our journey into the BBL has seen us sign players from America, Australia and Europe, we are always striving to develop our s own British and Bristolian talent. Greg Streete is a perfect example, as our recently retired Bristol-born Captain spent s 12 years with the club, including three BBL seasons, developing through all tiers of our youth system into one of the club’s greatestU ever players. Bristol Flyers is a lot more than just a professional team; supported by our community programme, U we have a host of youth teams, a basketball academy, a development team and a women’s team. We want to inspire our communityith and create more ‘Greg Streetes’, continuing to help grow the sport in the UK. ith As our next exciting chapter looms, with the arrival of a new state of the art home for the Flyers on the horizon, the partnershipsyW we are beginning to form now will be more important than ever. Whether staff, players, volunteers, fans or yW sponsors, we hope you will join us along the way. VISION: TO INSPIRE OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH BASKETBALL EXCELLENCE #Fl ANDREAS KAPOULAS #Fl HEAD COACH FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DISCUSS FURTHER, CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL MANAGER: [email protected] / 07938 035238. FLYERS8 FLYERS9 basketball player with Bristol Flyers, Daniel has used his life experiences to become a motivational speaker, presenting COMMUNITY & ACADEMY to school children on how to triumph in adversity and gain a positive outlook on life. Daniel embraces his community delivery role and, like everyone at the club, believes Basketball in Bristol and Britain has huge potential and that we’re only just ONE OF THE THINGS THAT MAKES BRISTOL FLYERS scratching the surface of it. BASKETBALL CLUB UNIQUE, IS THE PASSION OF OUR Whilst the community programme is the first step on a young PLAYERS TO DELIVER OVER 1,200 HOURS OF COACHING IN player’s Bristol Flyers journey, the player pathway involves a SCHOOLS ACROSS THE CITY (IN 2017), PASSING ON THEIR youth basketball centre, an established junior set-up and then KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION TO for those that wish to progress to the elite levels, the SGS TAKE AN INTEREST IN BASKETBALL. Basketball Academy. The Basketball Academy has been a tremendous success since its 2004 formation, with student The Bristol Flyers Health Squad programme – combining health athletes from the age of 16 given the opportunity to combine based classroom education with basketball based exercise - is now academic study with up to 20 hours of top-level coaching active in 22 primary schools across the city, impacting the lives of every week. Comprised of three squads, the academy develops s s over 1,300 children. Last season, our workforce expanded to include players wishing to make the next step as high performance fiveU basketball specific community coaches, allowing us to drive the athletes,U with many graduates going on to play for the Flyers programme forward and increase our delivery capacity significantly. professional BBL team or to gain full athletic scholarships in the The Flyers have also introduced a new central venue league to run ith Unitedith States. alongside our many existing programmes, including: after school clubs, HUB sessions and half-term holiday camps. As a result, there are more Having a comprehensive and inclusive community offering children playing basketball in Bristol now than ever before.