Junior tournament ready for bounce back

AFTER a year off, Ballarat Basketball are preparing to host its annual McDonald’s Junior Basketball Tournament over Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend.

With over 250 teams from across the state expected to take part, organisers are anticipating the event will generate over $4 million in economic input benefitting Ballarat businesses.

“This another great annual event for Ballarat which will see many Basketball participants from many locations and backgrounds visit our region,” City of Ballarat mayor Councillor Daniel Moloney said.

“The event itself will provide an estimated direct expenditure of $2.41 million in Ballarat and with a flow-on effect contributing to over $4.51 million in economic output locally.”

With higher rates of participation interest than before, Basketball Ballarat CEO Neville Ivey said the annual event is vital to the local economy, particularly after an unfavourable year for business.

“Having that amount of teams with mums and dad, coaches and supporters coming along as well, we would envision around 7500 visitors will attend the event,” Mr Ivey said.

“With COVID restrictions, we were unable to go ahead with it last year, we’re excited to go ahead with it and we’re looking forward to a big 50 next year and growing on a year of no sport.

“We continue to work closely with the State Government around the event to ensure we provide a COVID safe environment for all participants and are excited to host a successful tournament.”

Ballarat Sports and Events Centre operations manager Mark Valentine said this tournament will be a great way for metro and regional teams to break in the new sports centre.

“Whilst having the six new courts here is fantastic and it means we can centralise the event between here and the Minerdome,” he said.

“Because of the numbers of teams and some of the COVID restrictions, it’s likely we will still use three or four of the schools.

“These are the things that this event centre was built for and we want to have them every year, as often as we can.”