BPBA announces push for Bellarine facility

BASKETBALL on the Bellarine is in need of a new home and the region’s leading basketball association has gone public with its intention to find one.

Unprecedented growth within the Bellarine Peninsula Basketball Association (BPBA), a promotion of its senior men’s team into the third-highest national competition tier, and several finals appearances at the senior ranks last season has marked one of the organisation’s busiest years to date.

As a result, Bellarine Storm has set up a Facebook page outlining the need for a new facility on the Bellarine.

BPBA operations manager Nick Stamatopoulos said there were several growing pains being caused by the lack of available court space.

“We have 332 teams across the senior and junior domestic comp,” Stamatopolous said.

“Every division has at least one team having a bye – in some instances, two or three teams in the same division – due to not having enough courts to fit every team in. With more courts, we’ll be able to run more games every night.

“Our domestic clubs are struggling to find court space to do training. Kids are missing out on opportunities to improve their basketball. Some club teams are just playing games and not training due to not having a court to train on.”

The Bellarine region has seen population growth of 51.65 per cent over the past five years, from 41,483 in 2016 to 62,911 in 2021, taking into account towns such as Drysdale, Ocean Grove, Portarlington/St Leonards, Barwon Heads, Curlewis, Clifton Springs, Queenscliff, and Point Lonsdale.

The association said it has been in discussions with the City of Greater Geelong along with local politicians to progress steps to constructing a new multi-purpose facility.

“Many of the external facilities that we’re using for comp are single court venues which can be challenging when it comes to rostering referees and supervisors at those venues,” Stamatopolous said.

“The lack of court space also prevents the association from having more domestic clubs being formed, Drysdale and Point Lonsdale for instance, or to run any all abilities programs or competitions, impacting on more kids getting involved in a more organised setting with training opportunities provided to them.

“The other problem, apart from competition, is that due to this lack of court space, our VJBL and Big V representative teams struggle to find available court space for training needs.”

To keep up to date with the BPBA’s mission for a new facility, head to “Bellarine’s Home Court Advantage” on Facebook.