A lack of court space has become a major concern for the Busselton Basketball Association which is trying to run a league with 184 teams across three courts, which they access three days a week.
Following on from the Mail’s article, ‘Club grown too big for their basketball hoops’ (published April 24), Busselton Basketball Association president Gary Stokes said upgrades and improvements to courts in the region were overdue.
Mr Stokes said the association currently used courts at the Geographe Leisure Centre and sometimes had access to the courts at the Busselton Senior High School.
He said the problems with using school facilities was that the courts were not suitable for players aged more than 16 years and were not always up to current specifications.
While the association had tried using other schools facilities they were sometimes told on the day they could not access the courts because of other school uses.
The association currently run 90 games each week and have seen an increase of 70.5 per cent of participants in the last five years.
Mr Stokes said they were struggling to accommodate more children in basketball and run programs through the off season and something needed to change.
He said the need for increased facilities were so great that the Busselton Basketball Association had taken it upon themselves to find a solution.
At a meeting with the City of Busselton representatives and Vasse MP Libby Mettam it was discussed there were constraints to build more courts at the Geographe Leisure Centre because of environmental issues.
Vasse MP Libby Mettam said while it was exciting that the association had experienced growth over the last five years, it also presented a number of challenges.
Ms Mettam said additional basketball facilities within the city were needed to provide greater opportunities for existing players and new opportunities for those wishing to join the sport.
“Having attended the association’s recent presentation, I am very supportive of their bid to increase their facilities and will advocate for state government funding to contribute towards the cost of new facilities,” she said.
“While there is currently some uncertainty around Royalties for Regions spending, I hope that the new Labor government continued to invest in our regions to the same level that the former Liberal Government did.”
