By Mitchell Clarke
A report into basketball participation throughout the Cardinia shire has found the current number of courts doesn’t cater to the needs of the popular and growing sport.
Cardinia Shire Council passed a motion for officers to prepare a report into the state of play in November last year, with the findings released in time for February’s council meeting.
Ranges Ward councillor Brett Owen was successful in gaining support from fellow councillors to commence the planning and design of nine additional courts in the 2020/21 budget.
The “significant” project will see four new courts at Cardinia Life, four at the proposed Gin Gin Bin Reserve in Officer and an extra court at the Bunyip Auditorium.
Currently, the council owns 13 multi-purpose indoor courts at Cardinia Life, Officer Community Hub, Bunyip Auditorium and Cockatoo Stadium.
“I know the basketball community quite well and I see that we’re basically at capacity, particularly at Cardinia Life,” Cr Owen said.
“We are on an onwards slope of increased participation and without action I believe there are serious risks of people, particularly young people, being turned around and not being able to partake in this sport because of capacity.”
Currently, peak court occupancy at Cardinia Life is sitting at 88.3 percent, with a total of 631 registered stadium teams across basketball and netball for the 2019/20 summer season.
“We need to invest in this, we do very well in investing in other recreational sports; football, cricket, soccer and I think we need to do more in this space and I think that’s really great if we can start the planning,” he added.
“These facilities will cost a lot of money and by commencing the planning, we can start having conversations with other governments to hopefully get significant funding.”
Councillor Owen said the feedback from the report was “great” but didn’t provide any sort of hope to the basketball community of what further steps council intended to take.
“This alternate motion gives that hope and clear indication to them that this council is committed to commence the planning for additional courts and I think that’s a great start,” he said.
“Basketball is just a great family sport, a great team sport and it’s great for people’s physical health and mental wellbeing.”
