The owner of a Halls Head sports centre has been left thousands of dollars out of pocket after NBA Hall of Famer James Worthy cancelled his trip Down Under last month.
The basketball great had been set to make his Australian debut at Shoot Zone on September 23, but a last-minute cancellation left fans disappointed.
The Los Angles Lakers legend was scheduled to make appearances at two basketball camps and a meet-and-greet with fans while visiting Australia.
But to the shock of Shoot Zone owner Russell Halls, the NBA legend’s camp cancelled at a late stage because of lower-than-expected ticket sales.
Mr Halls said while the camps went well, it was disappointing to have Worthy pull out at late notice.
“On the Tuesday we had sent through ticket numbers, and at that point, we had sold about 99 tickets and he was supposed to be here on a Thursday,” he said.
“Basically we were told he wasn’t coming out for 100 people … we had an agreement that we would pay a certain amount and he would be here regardless of how many tickets sold.
“To make it worthwhile he was expecting more than that, we probably wanted to sell 300 to 400 tickets.”
Mr Halls said despite him having paid a deposit of around $US20,000, Worthy’s camp pulled the plug on all scheduled appearances.
“We had sleepless nights over this and we just think the support within the local community could have been better,” he said.
“We host these events for the community, we’re not doing it for ourselves. We’re just hoping to get the support of the kids and the families for future events.”
According to Mr Halls, there were a few disappointed fans from Perth who had booked accommodation for the event.
“It was disappointing because it was such a last-minute cancellation,” he said.
“We offered full refunds or the option to change into the Trevor Gleeson camp, which most were happy to do.”
Shoot Zone is a relatively new business, having opened less than a year ago, and Mr Halls said he had taken the experience as something to learn from. But it has not put him off continuing to call in the big guns from the US.
“We’re still keen to host more events and we’ve got Tim Hardaway coming, which is another NBA player,” he said.
“He’s already coming to Australia so there’s no visa costs and he will be coming exclusively to us on November 17.”
Hardaway, who is now 57, was a star in the 1990s when NBA basketballers became household names to a new legion of Australian hoops fans.
The five-time all star started with Golden State Warriors and was a popular player choice in the video arcade game NBA Jam, lining up alongside his streak-shooting Golden State teammate Chris Mullin.
His NBA career also took in stops at Miami, Dallas, Denver and Indiana and propoelled him into the gold-medal winning USA team at the 2000 Olympic Games played in Sydney.