Timms urges WNBL clubs to turn pro Australian basketball legend Michele Timms believes WNBL clubs need more professional administrators to reduce demands on volunteers. Timms, who until last season was a paid assistant coach and volunteer sponsorship manager for the then Bulleen Boomers, said her experience in sponsorship was "stressful" and believed it had become too great for volunteers. The former Australian Opal is now an assistant, under former Boomers coach Tom Maher, with the Chinese women's team which is touring Victoria. Timms' former club, which changed its name to Melbourne Boomers during the off-season, is now in the hands of several Melbourne basketball associations and this season will play in purple and gold, instead of Bulleen's trademark blue and gold. Timms advocates the Diamond Valley, Ringwood and Eltham associations join Bulleen in running the Boomers which will play its home games at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South. "The WNBL has become too big and too financially stressful for one club to carry on its back," Timms said. I used to lay awake at night wondering where the next dollar was going to come from. I told the club in December last year I couldn't do it any more. Robyn Maher was the club convener and I did the sponsorship. We didn't get paid but we did it because, if we didn't, there wouldn't be a team. WNBL club Logan Thunder almost dropped out of the league last week after its committee told Basketball Australia it had not found a major sponsor and was $150,000 short of its budget. A 48-hour appeal led by coach Jason Chainey and his players saved the club, but the experience showed how timely the changes at the Boomers are. The bigger Dandenong Rangers run their WNBL club in-house but have marketing and management staff who run the WNBL team as part of their full-time association roles. The Boomers still largely use volunteers but now receive expertise from the four associations. China played Dandenong at Dandenong on Sunday night, carding its first win of the tour in beating an understrength Rangers 79-64.