'Pretty demoralising': Basketball ACT hopes new petition will revive sport

ACT Greens MLA Emma Davidson brought the petition started by Woden Valley Community Council, which carried more than 2000 signatures from members of the public.

Topping the list of supporters was Basketball ACT chief David Simpson, who said his sport was so severely affected by a lack of suitable facilities, junior players were being turned away by clubs which are already at maximum capacity.

The tabling of the petition is the first step in what Simpson hoped would lead to a facility being built in Woden. ACT Sports minister Yvette Berry is expected to now look over the petition, before reporting back to the Legislative Assembly early in the new year.

Woden has been lacking in suitable facilities since its indoor stadium was approved for demolition in 2016. A February, 2019 proposal by Woden Valley Community Council suggested building a a multi-purpose sports hall wedged between Phillip Oval, Melrose Drive and Yamba Drive.

Since the demolition of Woden's indoor basketball facilities, Canberra has been left with just two major centres of multi-purpose indoor sport - the Southern Cross Stadium in Tuggeranong, and the Belconnen Basketball Stadium.

"We're all competing for very, very scarce resources that are community indoor facilities, and to be able to put a multi-sport facility in place in an area like Woden where there is very high demand will go a long way towards easing some of the issues that we're facing," Simpson said.

"It puts a fairly considerable chunk of new courts onto the market that we can start to utilise, which will allow our sport to grow as well as other sports.

"It's pretty demoralising for us as a sport to know that people are being turned away, simply because we can't accommodate them.

"We do everything we can to get hold of courts. The last thing we want to do is give them a bad experience where they have to train on one court with three other teams, all on one court which is not in great condition which we know is happening in some areas of our basketball community.

"Anyone that's worked in sport knows how hard it is to get someone off the couch and committed enough to reach out to a club. The last thing you want to be doing is putting them on a waiting list or turning them away once they've finally made that massive big step to step out of their comfort zone."

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

The shortage of indoor sports facilities in the capital was largely ignored in the October budget, with the majority of funding being distributed to the problematic new Home of Football in Throsby, and a proposed tennis centre in Gungahlin.

"There's been no funding allocated to this at this point in time," Simpson said.

"This is the first step in making the community aware. It's the first step towards having some facilities in that area, you've got to start somewhere.

"The timeframe is as soon as possible, realistically there's no facilities on the market now, we can't meet our demand and I know other sports can't meet their demand, they're contacting me, we're doing the horse trading over facilities that are around, we're all having the same issues.

"Best case scenario is a large multi-court facility. What that looks like will depend on the available land, the funding available. Something around the four to six courts would be a good starting point."

Basketball ACT was the only major sport in Canberra to salvage its winter competitions despite Canberra's lengthy lockdown.

It will host finals next week, before shutting down over the festive period and beginning its shortened summer competitions in the new year.