Staff Writer Isabella Steiner writes on the Women’s Basketball team’s financial struggles.
For the past three years, The King’s College London Women’s Basketball team has enjoyed their victory against University College London’s women’s team. However, their ability to bring it home again remains subject of uncertainty.
This is owed to the financial struggles the team has faced during the 2025-2026 academic year, an issue which has not allowed the team to receive sufficient professional training to perform at the highest level.
President of the society, Samantha Mark described the year as a “very difficult” one for the team. The society faced withdrawals from their 2025/2026 sponsors, the Bexley Tigers basketball club early into the academic season.
“Within two weeks of the season, I got a text [from the sponsors] saying ‘sorry we can no longer do this'”.
The Bexley Tigers, a community-based basketball club that offers competitive NBL/local league teams, faced financial hardships themselves. They were unable to pay their own coaches and had their women’s team collapse because of their business mismanagement.
The training that they were supposed to provide was free in exchange for building a relationship with a university club.
“When we were searching for new coaches, they offered to provide coaching for the team free of charge for the year”. However, this arrangement failed to materialise, leaving the team without any consistent coaching support
Last season, their head coach was worth £28 per hour, which “reflected his seniority”. However, as their head coach retired and their sponsors withdrew, it left the team in a situation where they had to “scratch and fight” to find coaches. Their current coach is now worth £18 pounds an hour, representing a 36% drop in investment into the team and standard.
“She has only coached 14 to 15-year-olds”, said the president, expressing how her coaching expertise does not reflect the level that the KCL Women’s Basketball is at. She further expressed how this financial support received previously allowed the team to successfully win during varsity season.
This support allowed the team to have more frequent opportunities to practice. During the 2024/2025 academic year, the team used to receive three practices a week, whereas during this academic year, they only received four hours a week of training.
“This made a significant difference, especially in a sport like basketball, where it’s not very dominant in the UK.”
Current Division of the Team
The Women’s basketball team currently sits in the top division, but is soon to be relegated to division one, which the president considers the “best thing” that could have happened to them.
This is due to higher divisions demanding more hourly commitment from the team and a higher professional environment.
“A lot of players are masters and PhD [students] who cannot afford to take 9-10 hours of their day” to play somewhere else. Currently, King’s does not have a basketball court, which limits the number of times they can practice.
Being in a higher division also increases costs for the team. According to the president, for a higher division, it costs around £200 pounds to run a game according to regulations. However, for division one the cost sits around £60 pounds. This change in division represents approximately a 70% reduction in match-related costs. This year alone, they have had five home games, totalling £1,000 over this academic year.
Support From the Student Union
The King’s College Student Union (KCLSU) were eventually able to give the team £800 pounds in financial support after “many requests”. The president also highlights how that was not initially offered to the team.
“We got that money from the SU because they realised there were exceptional circumstances as to why we needed money”.
KCLSU offers several funding opportunities, such as the ‘coaches and instructors funding,’ which aids sports teams in receiving specialist training via qualified coaches and instructors. However, the basketball team were unable to meet the deadline as the withdrawal of their sponsor was unprecedented.
The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS), the governing body for sport in higher education, requires university teams to have qualified trainers. KCLSU, therefore, had to comply with the rule to ensure that King’s sports teams are all upholding the standard.
However, the team’s president stressed how the “SU has limited [financial] capacity”, so the sports teams are ultimately responsible for finding solutions to their own struggles, even when it comes to funding quality coaches.
Roar asked the president how she would expect the Student Union to help the women’s basketball society in future years. She answered by stating:
“The SU says they want us to be in the premier league, but to do that we have to have more practices, gym sessions and scholarship players to be able to compete with schools like Essex and Cardiff Met. If they cannot provide these financial services, it is not fair for them to push us into this league.”
Hopes for the Varsity Season
The Women’s Basketball team has managed to enlist one of the men’s basketball coaches to train them amid the varsity season. According to the president of the society, the coach has been helping them “for free” to raise the intensity to a level which they haven’t had “all season.”
As a result, there is some optimism within the team as they gear up for the game today. Despite their recent financial challenges, their consecutive victories over the past three years offer some confidence for this varsity season. We look forward to a great showing by the team at City University Sports Centre later!
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