THE Baird government will spend $5 million upgrading the Newcastle Basketball Stadium, making the arena “compliant” with NBL and WNBL standards.
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Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald announced the funding on Monday, the latest allocation from the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund.
The upgrade will include three new courts in an additional building on the vacant land between the existing stadium and neighbouring fast food restaurants.
A new “show court” will include retractable seating to hold up to 2000 people.
Newcastle Basketball General Manager Neil Goffet said the upgrade – which is DA approved and could be finished in nine months – would make the stadium compliant with International Basketball Federation standards.
“Any NBL or WNBL teams who want to play games at the stadium [now can],” he said.
Mr Goffet would not be drawn on whether there were plans to bid for a NBL or WNBL franchise, but David Reid, one of the board of directors from Basketball Australia said that while there were “nothing specific on the horizon”, the upgrade created “an opportunity”.
“What you do is create the opportunity and this town hasn’t had the opportunity for a long, long time,” he said.
“This is a significant area for basketball in the whole of Australia.
“To have the additional space in such a big town in which basketball is so very popular, we’ll be very focused on ensuring large events where possible come here.”
Mr Goffet said the community had been “crying out” for more courts.
“We’ve been hiring space out at Hunter Sports High four and five nights a week for over 12 months so we expect to build the three courts as soon as they’re open,” he said.
“We need to grow and to meet the demand coming from the increased population here and from the Lake Macquarie area. It’s an exciting time for us.”
The latest announcement means the government has allocated $43 million of the remaining $50 million in the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund.
Mr MacDonald said there were still two remaining announcements to be made.
“This is the largest multipurpose facility in the Hunter, so it;s vital the Newcastle Basketball Stadium get the high-quality upgrade it deserves,” he said.
