Wurdi Baierr Stadium seating installed but cannot be used

THE newly-installed seating at Wurdi Baierr Stadium does not meet Australian standards, is less than originally intended and cannot be used until at least the end of the month, a situation the Surfcoast Basketball Assciation (SBA) describes as extremely disappointing.

The retractable tiered seating in the stadium in Torquay North was funded by a $500,000 grant from the federal government’s investing in the community program and was expected to be complete by the end of last month.

SBA president Leon Sayers said that up until last week, he was under the impression that “things were looking pretty good”, and “at no point were we told that there was any issues, challenges or anything else”.

This changed last week in a meeting between SBA representatives and the Surf Coast Shire, where it was revealed the aisles of the seating were not wide enough to meet Australian standards and posed a fire risk, which would necessitate a reduction in seating capacity from 592 to 553.

As part of the required modifications, the seating cannot be used until at least the end of August, which is after the SBA’s finals, including the two Big V finals scheduled this weekend.

In addition, because the flooring needs to be reinforced, the seating cannot be moved as close as originally intended to court 1. Mr Sayers said it was about 15m short of where it should be.

“We’re going to have to hand out binoculars to the people in the back rows of the seating to see the basketball game.”

He said the shire had been aware of these issues since at least April and had not taken up the SBA’s offer to pay for any shortfalls in funding for the works agreed in the tender process.

“The council’s not the public face of this project; we are. We got the funds, we did all the hard work to get money from government.

“We thought we’d done everything right. We’ve waited two and a half years, for us to now have to tell our members — over 2,000 players and our Big V teams that have made finals — we’ve been telling you all year that you’re going to be able to play finals in front of a big crowd, but sorry, that’s not going to happen.”

He said the SBA, as a not-for-profit organisation, would now miss the opportunity to generate between $6,000 and $9,000 in ticket sales alone from this weekend’s games.

The shire’s general manager of community life Damian Waight said there had been “several challenges” the shire had been working to address.

“We’d hoped to have these resolved sooner but unfortunately the seats are not yet ready for use. We understand this is extremely disappointing for the Surf Coast Basketball Association and their members given the upcoming Big V finals.

“We’ve apologised to the association and acknowledged the way we have worked with them on this project could have been better. We are pushing to deliver good seating facilities that people will enjoy for many years.”

He said the shire aimed to issue a building permit to allow the seating to be used by the end of August.

“We’re also working through what is required to position the seats close to the show court, as a high priority.

“We’ll be keeping the association regularly updated.”