New Basketball Stadium project for Torquay

THE Labor Party has delivered a slam dunk for sports fans on the Surf Coast, announcing it will contribute $3 million towards indoor basketball courts in Torquay North. The $13.5 million project will deliver three new courts and a multi-purpose space next to the existing stadium at Surf Coast Secondary College.

Community groups have been calling out for more court space in Torquay for years and the Surf Coast Shire has been working on a plan to add more courts for some time. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews visited the stadium on Friday with Sports Minister John Eren and several other Labor representatives to give the pre-budget announcement to a crowd of players and parents from the Surfcoast Basketball Club and the Surf Coast Suns.

Mr Andrews said there had been a conversation among his government for some time about meeting growing demand in indoor sports, particularly basketball, on the Surf Coast. “We always knew we’d have to make a further investment; that it was something you needed.

“Planning work, all that progress can begin pretty much straight after the budget, and hopefully we have this delivered as soon as possible so you can have even more teams in the best facilities possible – that’s what growing communities, proud communities are entitled to.”

Surfcoast Basketball Association president Nicole Crammond welcomed the news, saying there were about 1,000 local players that up until now had not had a home base.

“The new stadium will give us certainty over court space so we can expand the local competition and host basketballers from across the state via representative teams, tournaments and training camps – the on-spend will mean everyone in our community will benefit,” she said. She hoped the shire would be successful in its application for a federal Better Regional Communities grant towards the project.

“If we can achieve the federal government grant too, we can be certain that this stadium will be first class and contain everything we need – court space, change rooms, admin and meeting rooms and areas for our basketball community to come together.”

See page 37 for more on regional sports funding.