ACT government's $7.4 million injection can help revive Netball ACT courts

Netball ACT chief executive Sally Clark said some associations have had to close off courts due to concerns about playing surfaces.

Now the ACT government will pour $7.4 million into upgrades to netball courts in Lyneham, Calwell, Deakin, Charnwood and Stirling.

The funding was announced as part of the ACT budget and is aimed at the replacement of playing surfaces, pavement repair and stormwater management improvements.

Clark said the funding was crucial to Netball ACT's five associations - Canberra, Belconnen, Arawang, Tuggeranong and South Canberra - as they attempt to lure players back to the game.

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"It's really important because we're one of the biggest participation sports, especially for girls, here in Canberra," Clark said.

"We rely on these associations to run our Saturday competitions. At the moment, some associations can't use all their courts so it actually restricts the ability to have as many teams participating. It's very important we can maximise the number of courts we're using, and that we're using them all.

"Unfortunately because they are outdoors, it's not like we can run into evening, it's pretty hard to run this into the evening for young people on a Saturday.

"It's not like basketball, who I know have got their funding issues as well and they're being programmed to 11 o'clock at night, and you certainly don't want that. It would make it very challenging to take on more teams without [adequate] facilities.

"The project is to remediate all the courts across the five districts here in Canberra. It's resurfacing, it's doing drainwork to ensure the issues that cause them to deteriorate don't occur again."

Basketball ACT bosses are in negotiations with the ACT government to settle on a dollar figure for an extension to the Belconnen Basketball Stadium, with three new courts to be built on a vacant block.

Officials had called for a $30 million investment with projections suggesting skyrocketing participation numbers will continue to grow after a record 7067 players registered for Basketball ACT's winter competitions this year.

Clark said participation levels across senior, junior and kids netball programs reached about 6000 last year.

Now Clark is hopeful participation figures will continue to grow after dwindling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced competitions to be cancelled.

"It certainly took a dive in COVID, and there has been a bit of a lag as people have been getting back to organised sport," Clark said.

"We have seen a steady increase, but we're not quite back at our pre-COVID levels yet. It's really important once again to enhance participation in netball in the ACT."

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