Page 52 - Tropic Magazine Issue 13

TAIPANS 20 TH SEASON ANNIVERSARY

most notably being placed into
voluntary administration in late-
2008. Those troubled times forced
the untimely exit of coach Alan Black
and imports Larry Abney and Dave
Thomas, while the remaining players
agreed to a 45% pay cut for the rest of
the season. If it wasn’t for the backing
of Cairns Regional Council and
Basketball Australia at the time, the
Taipans would not be here today.
Amid the excitement of this upcoming

The club has done Cairns
proud, year after year.
As a leading light in local media and exponentially. Despite those growing
- Mark Beecroft business circles during the club’s pains, it’s testament to the club in its
formative years, Cairns Councillor many iterations of how well they’ve
Linda Cooper remains a passionate performed in the league, both on the
20th season, it is also important to Taipans supporter. court and in the community.”
reflect on those key figures who aren’t “When the club was first launched, Mark Beecroft has lived and breathed
around to help celebrate it. Some of the everyone was really excited about the Cairns Taipans for as much as
club’s founding mothers and fathers having our first national sporting team anybody over the past 20 years. He sums
are no longer here cheering the team but it took a little while for the city up the club in typically succinct fashion.
on from the sidelines, but we’re sure to really get behind the Taipans,” Cr “The Taipans have survived two
they’re keeping a close eye on the action Cooper told Tropic. “For the first couple changes in club ownership, three
from the great stadium in the sky. of seasons, crowd numbers were very changes in league ownership and have
We should pay tribute to these local low, around 1500 people or so. We continually put Far North
legends, integral figures like Charles weren’t really known as a basketball Queensland on the national sporting
Woodward, Chas Bolton, Nick Sinodoli, city back then, because rugby league map. The club has done Cairns proud,
Dave Andrews, Tanya Roneberg and Jeff was such a dominant sport in North year after year.”
Hopgood (and their families) for the role Queensland. But as the team developed Congratulations to the Cairns
they all played in the establishment of and became more competitive Taipans. Here’s to another amazing
the club. in the league, the support grew 20 years ahead.

CORPORATE SUPPORT / Paying tribute with some of the Taipan’s key backers

Warren Entsch MP Professor Scott Bowman, CQUniversity
I have been a massive supporter of the Cairns Taipans since It gave me great pride to recently announce that CQUniversity
their establishment two decades ago. The Taipans are our will continue on as naming right sponsor of the Cairns Taipans
national team and one the entire community is immensely for a further five years. It all started over six years ago in 2012,
proud of. Basketball has come a long way over recent years when CQUni became naming rights partner of the Taipans’
and is now one of the top sports in our community. I was Academy, reviving the program to develop the potential of
extremely proud to have secured $1.5 million in federal young athletes, which it continues to do with such success. In
funding to ensure recent upgrades to the Cairns Basketball 2014, we proudly became the club’s naming right sponsors.
Association became a reality. Not only will this upgrade While that sponsorship offers CQUni fantastic exposure on a
get more people out on the court, it will also help reinstate local, national and international level, the partnership extends
vital community programs, such as the successful Midnight far beyond branding. Not only does our partnership deliver
Basketball program for at-risk youth. Through basketball, wonderful community engagement opportunities - a value
the project can promote life skills including teamwork and that is proudly engrained within our uni - it also allows us to
other social skills within communities in a non-contact work with the team to turn game day data into valuable sources
environment. Basketball also promotes friendly competition of information for research. The sponsorship deal also allows
and other life skills, which makes this upgrade an important CQUni to continue to give back to Cairns, a community that has
investment for the Cairns community. supported us greatly through our growth in this wonderful city.
I want to congratulate the Cairns Taipans on their first 20 CQUni is really proud of this partnership and we can’t wait for
years and all the best for the next 20 years! the 2018/19 season to tip off – go Snakes and happy 20th!

52 • Tropic • Issue 14