The Hobart City Council is asking the federal government to stump up millions for a new basketball facility, warning that without funding, hundreds of young players and families will be left without a place to play.
The council is seeking between $9 million and $12.5 million to help deliver the $25 million New Town Bay community basketball facility.
The planned facility would be a four-court indoor complex built on council-owned land.
The state government has already committed $12.5 million, and the council says the project is “shovel-ready”, with concept designs complete and planning underway.
Acting lord mayor Zelinda Sherlock said the project was an urgent investment in community health and inclusion.
“Basketball participation in Tasmania is booming, but our infrastructure has not kept pace,” Sherlock said.
“Greater Hobart faces a serious shortage of indoor courts, and without action in this year’s federal budget, hundreds of young people and families will continue to miss out.”
Basketball participation in Tasmania is growing by around 10% a year, but planning work has identified a shortfall of 16 indoor courts across the capital.
The city currently has no compliant indoor basketball facility for community use, forcing clubs and schools to rely on private venues or travel elsewhere.
Hobart Phoenix Basketball Association’s Stewart Williamson said the shortage was holding the sport back.
“Our association supports more than a hundred teams each season, but we simply don’t have a permanent home,” he said.
“The recent closure of the Swisherr Hoops Academy in Hobart in April this year has acerbated this facility and court shortage.”
Basketball Tasmania CEO Ben Smith said it was “extraordinary that a sports club the size and scale of Hobart Phoenix could even imagine functioning without a home court or clubrooms and yet that’s what all the basketball clubs in southern Tasmania and Launceston do”.
“It’s time for that to change and this would be a great first step,” he said.
The council compared the project to Launceston’s recently opened $62.5 million Northern Suburbs Community Recreation Hub, which received $46.3 million from the state government and $15.1 million from the federal government.
Independent Elwick MLC Bec Thomas said the project deserved bipartisan support.
“This is not a ‘nice-to-have’. It’s a must-have,” Thomas said.
“Our young sports people deserve places to play. Our community clubs deserve certainty. And our growing population deserves access to the same sporting infrastructure being delivered elsewhere in the state.”
