Ex-Taipan slams MP over delay
RETIRED Taipans legend Alex Loughton has taken aim at the Queensland Minister for Sport over the handling of the Cairns Convention Centre crisis, which could force the NBL franchise on the road.
“The attitude is dismissive from Mick de Brenni,” Loughton said. “I don’t like that there’s been barely any fight.
“The whole management of this project since it was first announced three years ago has been a shemozzle.”
De Brenni was in Cairns last week to tour the venue, when he announced a 65-day delay to the $176 million upgrade, which now won’t be completed until early February.
That coincides with more than half of the Taipans’ NBL21 campaign.
Loughton scoffed at De Brenni’s suggestion of playing out of the Fish Tank, saying the home of Cairns Basketball was simply not up to standard for NBL games.
The retired power forward said Townsville and other regional centres weren’t appropriate long-term solutions.
Instead, he said, it could put Cairns further back if they were forced out of town long-term.
“The Fish Tank isn’t suitable for broadcast, the court isn’t NBL size, you can only fit about 600 fans – less than 10 per cent of the convention centre – and there’s not much you can do for your sponsors and clients,” Loughton said when comparing the venues. “What brings the finances to sustain the club for another year?
“This could push the club so far behind the pack, it’s not funny.”
Cairns Basketball officials, while willing to help the Taipans as much as possible, have already declared significant funding would be required to bring the venue to standard for NBL fixtures.
Funding for the convention centre project was first announced in 2017, with a view for work to start after the 2018 Commonwealth Games, before another announcement of plans in August last year.
This delay has been blamed on a manufacturing shutdown in Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Loughton wasn’t sold.
“It’s been delayed three times,” he said. “There was no COVID in 2017, 2018, or most of 2019.”