COURTS ADD ROOM FOR MORE
BASKETBALL Geelong will be able to cater for more than 3000 junior newcomers when the new Crows Rd stadium in Belmont opens next month.
The new six-court facility will be able to cater for 3600 players a week, increasing Basketball Geelong’s ability to attract new kids to the sport.
Basketball Geelong chief executive Dean Anglin said the stadium would be ready for operation in early November.
“We'll open the stadium, the court part, for the Geelong junior tournament which happens on November 4 and 5,” he said.
“We probably won’t have it 100 per cent open, so we won’t have the canteen or office area open until two weeks later, and then we’ve got an official opening on November 25.”
Anglin said the arena would provide opportunities for the league to grow.
“I’m sure the other associations in town have got competitions that they’re running double byes in and they’re saying ‘no’ to teams in at the moment,” he said.
“Come November, we won’t have that issue anymore.
“Every court can cater for about 600 players per week. With six courts in town, it means there’s another 3600 participants who could be playing basketball if we utilised every stadium to their capacity.”
The three associations in Greater Geelong field about 7800 junior basketballers, but Anglin said they now had the ability to break past 10,000.
“Forever we’ve been in somebody else’s venue,” he said.
“So we’ve always been in council’s venue or using TryBoys stadium.
“We’ve never had the ability to say we’ve got a place that is ours.
“This gives us that forever now.
“This is one of the most exciting projects for basketball going around.”