Ribbon cut on new sports centre

THE twenty-four-million-dollar Ballarat Sports and Events Centre was opened on Sunday morning, catering to the next generation of athletes.

With six courts, including one 3000 seat show court, multipurpose learning rooms, sports medicine spaces, a café and 275 carparks, the BSEC is a state of the art base for elite basketballers from the region.

It is expected the centre will also be a regular home for netball, volleyball and badminton, and generate $50 million for the local economy. Six new jobs will be created in the first six months of operation, it’s estimated 138,000 visitors will attend the BSEC annually by the fifth year, and 2500 will visit weekly.

As the first indoor stadium to have been built in Ballarat since 1986, Basketball Ballarat CEO, Peter Eddy was excited. Over many years, he lobbied three tiers of government to make the facility a reality.

“There is a genuine need for this in Ballarat. This is for the Ballarat indoor sports community, not just basketball. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s certainly been a great journey,” he said.

“What I’m most proud of is our commitment to make this a community centre. Not just a basketball stadium, a community centre for all.”

To fund the project, the City of Ballarat contributed $5 million to the centre, the State government gave $9 million, and the Federal government, $10 million.

Recently, a further $5 million dollars was injected by the State to complete a second and final stage of works including landscaping.

Mr Eddy said this will help “complete the whole vision” over the next 12 months.

Major events already booked in for BSEC include an NBL game between Melbourne United and the Illawarra Hawks in September, the 2019 Under 14 National Club Basketball Championships, and the 2019 Basketball Australia National Coaches’ Conference.

Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison represented the Minister for Regional Development and was proud to be encouraging more people to play sport.

“Victoria is fast becoming the Basketball capital of Australia. We need to make sure we keep up with current and future needs for the sport and invest in world-class facilities like this one,” she said.

“Every dollar we put into sport saves us $4 in health, so it makes sense. This beautiful centre will attract thousands of local, national and international visitors. Basketball Ballarat is doing an amazing job going out and attracting events.”

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Samantha was pleased that the BSEC will support a “strong, healthy and fun” future, while growing a new generation of talent.

“It’s so good to give people this opportunity to be fit and healthy,” she said. “Our sporting precinct is growing. We want to make sure that we are the capital of regional Victoria.”