Basketball NZ boss outlines urgent need for Tūparikino hub
The state of New Plymouth’s basketball facilities has been labelled inadequate by the sport’s top official, who says children are blocked from competing because there are not enough courts to play on.
That message was delivered to the New Plymouth District Council yesterday as submission hearings for the council’s draft Long-term Plan entered a second week.
Basketball New Zealand chief executive Dillon Boucher became the latest national sports administrator, following Sport NZ boss Raelene Castle, to address the council and plead for the proposed Tūparikino Active Community Hub to be given the green light.
“For us, it’s a no-brainer. But what I’d like to express today is the major concerns for our sport because we are struggling to keep up with the numbers, which are exploding,” he said.
“We are seeing kids who want to play basketball unable to step onto a court and play. If they are able to play, then they are playing at ridiculous times of the night.”
Boucher gave the council an example in New Plymouth of an intermediate school grade not starting league games until 8.30pm.
“My own children at that age were in bed asleep at that time,” he added.
The hub was originally proposed as a $91 million multi-sport venue that would include in-field facilities, sports fields, pavilions and artificial turfs inside the New Plymouth racecourse, as well as a new sixcourt indoor stadium.
However, the first stage of the project had been flipped around because of budget blowouts and a lack of funding. It was now proposed that the six-court indoor stadium would be built next to the existing TSB Stadium. The council had already committed $35m three years ago but had now decided to make the project one of its “big calls” in this year’s draft Long-term Plan to gauge public support for the facility.
New Plymouth Basketball Association spokesperson John Carley further outlined the desperate need for the hub.
“In our junior leagues, we are having to turn teams away,” he said.
“We are having to tell schools they are only allowed to enter one team. It’s hard to do that, but we’ve got no option.”
Carley said it was “not right” to be asking young children to play at the times they were.
“As a member of the New Plymouth Basketball Association, I’m embarrassed.”
Adding to the repeated calls for the hub to be built was Sport Taranaki chief executive Michael Carr, who echoed earlier submitters by saying it was decades overdue.
While the economic climate had become substantially more challenging since the council approved the project three years ago, the demand and the need for the hub had also grown, he said.
Carr pointed out that towns right around the region were well served by sports hubs yet New Plymouth, with an overwhelming majority of the population, was not.
“There are a whole lot of people who are lacking the facilities they need,” he said.