THE Taipans will hit the boards this season with a new name, a new sponsor and a new singlet.
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THE Taipans will hit the boards this season with a new name, a new sponsor and a new singlet.
The CQUniversity Taipans were unveiled exclusively to The Cairns Post yesterday, with team management spruiking the synergies of their new sponsor.
TAIPANS IN TURMOIL
“This underpins the stability of the club,” said Taipans general manager Mark Beecroft. “What we’re trying to build with the Taipans is not just pride for the city in terms of exposure, but we’re trying to provide longevity for our players so they can have a life after basketball.”
For CQU the Taipans offer Australia-wide exposure in cities like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth where the university has CBD campuses.
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“Basketball works really well for us here in Cairns,” said CQUniversity vice chancellor Scott Bowman. “It’s the national team, it’s a community team and this town’s enthusiasm is incredible whenever the boys make the play-offs.”
Former naming rights sponsor Skytrans will stay on as a club sponsor.
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The regional aviation company’s support has been critical over the past six years, keeping the Taipans afloat as a community-owned club after it went into liquidation in 2009.
“I really want to recognise the support of Skytrans and the Wild family for helping us to get to this point, we can’t thank them enough,” said Mr Beecroft.
CQU is already naming rights partner of the Taipans’ Academy, which was revived two years ago through the sponsorship arrangement to develop the talents and potential of young athletes.
Academy graduate Shaun Bruce is the club’s poster boy for smart sportsmen.
He initially came to the Taipans club as a development player in the 2012/13 season, scoring seven points and three rebounds in the first 14 minutes against the Hawks, earning himself the inaugural Aron Baynes Award for Most Outstanding Athlete.
Now he plays in guard position while simultaneously studying a Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science with CQU.
“I have to manage my time a little better to get it done, but I’ll be able to stay in the sports industry once my career on court finishes and that’s what I love,” he said.
CQUniversity student numbers in Cairns have grown 25 per cent in the past two years. It’s spurred the university to move into Stage 2 of its expansion strategy, upgrading from its small study site on Florence St to a proper campus in the CBD.
CQU Vice-Chancellor Scott Bowman said the institution’s campuses are strategically positioned in the heart of each city to appeal to international students.
“Cairns just works beautifully well for that market with multiple English language schools and the international airport here,” he said.
CQU aims to be the “most engaged” university in Australia, another reason for sponsoring a community basketball club. The university has the highest proportion of low socio-economic students, the highest proportion of first-in-family students and double the national average of indigenous students.
“On New Year’s Eve I had to pay for seats in the back row of the Taipan’s game on the opposite side of the court from our own corporate box because we were hosting a group of high school kids involved in our Start Uni Now program,” Mr Bowman said.
“And that’s what we’re about. We’re about community engagement.”
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