'Critical step': The four key sport projects in the ACT budget

Several sports quietly celebrated budget news on Tuesday, with millions of dollars to be plunged into basketball, rugby league and union, soccer, tennis and cricket facilities over the coming years.

The long-awaited Belconnen Basketball Stadium expansion has been given a $938,000 boost for planning and design as Basketball ACT edges closer to what it hopes will be a new $30 million facility.

There's $1.2 million in funding to build new community sport fields at Stromlo Forest Park, Phillip Oval is getting $1.7 million in additional funding and Manuka Oval will get $50,000 in upgrades as well as a study to evaluate options for a new eastern grandstand.

But all the work does come at a cost. Phillip Oval has been earmarked for upgrade work since 2021 and was supposed to be finished this year. Work will start at the end of July, but the venue will be closed for league, union and cricket until mid to late 2025.

Stromlo has been waiting for its community fields since it was part of an election promise in 2020, and the Home of Football continues to be a pain for government officials.

After initially announcing a joint $24.5 million project in the 2019-20 budget, with a timeline of being complete by 2023, the Home of Football has been plagued by problems. Capital Football withdrew its $4.5 million earlier this year.

The decision left the government to pay $29 million (due to increased costs) for new community fields at Throsby. The completion date was pushed back in the budget again this week, with hopes now it will be complete by mid to late 2026.

The government is still committed to building fields in the Gungahlin region to cater for the capital's biggest participation sport.

Capital Football's withdrawal from the project due to financial constraints on the organisation has only cast doubt over the high-performance element of the Home of Football, which was initially pitched as a new office for Capital Football and a training and playing base for Canberra United.

A new A-League consortium is investigating training base options at the AIS and other locations around Canberra.

"We're reviewing the scope [of the plan] and it's now looking at what can be delivered on that site with the budget we have," a government spokesperson said.

"We'd been looking at what partnership options remain open for Capital Football in the future. There's a lot of decisions to be made around this, the primary need in Gungahlin is playing fields."

The news, however, was overall pretty good for community sports, who have been crying out for both upgraded and new facilities as Canberra's population, and with it participation numbers, continue to grow.

Basketball ACT has been turning away players for several years, unable to cater for demand on its four courts at Belconnen and five courts at Tuggeranong.

The government has previously pointed to new school gyms as basketball options, but they are viewed as training bases instead of competition venues.

Basketball ACT has already undertaken a feasibility study to use vacant land next to the basketball stadium and the almost $1 million in new funding is a massive step forward.

The funding is viewed as a "critical step" forward for the project. Basketball ACT has paid more than $500,000 in rates on the empty plot of land in the hope of one day developing it for more courts.

The overall project is expected to cost about $30 million, but that could change with increasing building costs.

"This is the critical step to inform design and associated costs before we move to seeking formal construction funding that will be needed to deliver it," a spokesperson said.

The Royals rugby union side, the Woden Valley Rams rugby league club and Weston Creek Molonglo will be the main beneficiaries from the redevelopment of Phillip Enclosed Oval.

The project was delayed to split the works into different phases and to secure additional funding for new pavilion, grand stand and function room facilities.

The ground will be closed at the end of July until sometime next year, but Sport and Recreation will assist affected teams find suitable venues for their community sport during the shutdown.