School facilities just a band-aid: Basketball ACT

He said even with schools there still weren't enough new courts to meet demand and the lack of ACT government regulation meant some clubs were paying through the nose to hire them.

Simpson said it was disappointing the ACT budget, delivered on Wednesday, didn't contain any facilities funding for community sport - despite there being $5 billion for an infrastructure plan.

The Canberra Times revealed the government planned to alleviate the problem by building facilities at new schools.

Simpson said on average there was one new school coming online each year, which meant there were two courts being built every year.

But that wasn't enough to keep up with basketball's demand along with everyone else who wanted to use them - futsal, netball, badminton, volleyball, table tennis, martial arts and dancing to name a few.

Basketball ACT had 170 new teams this year - 100 junior and 70 senior - which equated to an increase of 1.5 courts per year on their own.

That meant every court was prime real estate.

Despite that, Basketball ACT are looking to sell their block of land in Belconnen because they can't get any funding to build on it after paying almost $600,000 in rates over the past 10 years.

"School facilities aren't the answer. School facilities are coming on at roughly one school a year, so we're getting two new courts a year and that's not even keeping up with our personal demand - then there's the other sports on top of that," Simpson said.

"Until there's an actual investment in community facilities to take the pressure off, the schools band-aid is simply just going to be a band-aid.

"It was just so disappointing to see not only we didn't get any funding in the budget, but community sport in general really seems to have been overlooked."

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While the government regulates the cost of hiring outdoor facilities - like ovals, soccer pitches and rugby fields - there's no regulation of how much schools can charge for indoor courts.

It ranges from $35 per court per hour to more than $100, meaning some clubs are paying three times as much as others.

Plus, given the shortage of facilities, some clubs have to share courts, meaning they only have half a court to train on.

Simpson said it was driving people away from the game - at a time when there's a basketball boom fuelled by Patty Mills' and the Boomers' historic Olympic bronze medal.

Not to mention that schools had a tendency to cancel bookings at the last minute - leaving clubs in the lurch.

Simpson called on the government to step in.

"The cost of hiring school facilities is unregulated," he said.

"Some school facilities are relatively inexpensive around the $35-$40 per hour, but others are an exorbitant cost - upwards of the $100 mark.

"We have some clubs paying astronomical amounts for court hire and other clubs that have limited [costs].

"All of these things add up to schools not being the answer to the problem."