Basketballers outraged as Gympie council doubles Pavilion hire fees

“This action is coming across as a victimisation of our sport. Nobody talked to the club. You could increase the fees gradually, say 10 per cent per year to allow the club to increase our fees by a reasonable amount so participation numbers were not affected.”

The Gympie Regional Basketball Association is up in arms after the local council reportedly doubled court hire fees at the Pavilion as of July 1. Photo: Miguel Galy

Gympie sporting administrators have been left outraged after the Gympie Regional Council reportedly doubled court hire fees at the Pavilion for the new financial year.

Documents obtained by The Gympie Times revealed the council notified the Gympie Amateur Basketball Association on June 15, that it had endorsed an increase to $55 per hour to hire out the Pavilion as of July 1.

The council told the GABA it had raised the fees to cover staffing “for the duration of the hire” because the current fee was not covering those costs, according to the documents.

Gympie Basketball primary school grand finals – Lara Jenkin tries to shoot over MVP Caitlin Killian. Photo: Miguel Galy

The council said it had based the new fees on “benchmarking with other nearby regional indoor sports facilities offering hire of basketball courts”, and called the new figure “very comparable”.

In his response letter to the council, also dated June 15, GABA president Justin Brown said the “dramatic increase” was a cruel blow to the Gympie basketballing community.

“This will put extreme financial pressure on our sport and would mean the club would need to increase the average membership fees of our members by $51.56 … a 36% increase,” Mr Brown’s letter said.

“This could cause a loss in numbers. Your fees will be directly responsible for stopping local ratepayers from playing sport.

“Reason given is that current fees are not covering costs. Does this mean that the council covers costs on all of its facilities, for example, council covers cost for soccer, touch, the swimming pool, cricket, AFL. You know you don't. So by this logic you must be doubling the fees for every sport that doesn’t cover costs.

Gympie Basketball – Ashlyn Steele blows past defender, Joshua Devereaux.

“This action is coming across as a victimisation of our sport. Nobody talked to the club. You could increase the fees gradually say 10 per cent per year, to allow the club to increase our fees by a reasonable amount so participation numbers were not affected.

“We ask that you reconsider this action and come to a solution that will not harm our sport. We are available for a meeting and hope to hear from you very soon as registrations for the next season are already underway.”

Division 1 councillor Jess Milne replied to Mr Brown’s letter, claiming she had submitted feedback to the council about potential effects of the increased fees on local sporting groups like GABA.

GABA president Justin Brown (far right) says the council’s court fee hike is a crippling blow to the local basketball league.

“I was of the impression that hiring data had been considered when recommending the increase as there is a flat rate of $150 for up to 6hr hire for sports fixtures which is only $25 per hour,” Ms Milne’s response to Mr Brown said.

Mr Brown thanked Ms Milne for responding but said the $25 flat rate figure was off the mark, and the new hourly fee of $55 would cost the association “an additional cost of over $10,000 per year for court hire”.

Mr Brown said no other councillor had responded to his attempts at communication.

He said the issues extended to the notorious “sporting squeeze” in the Gympie region, which was stretching to breaking point for the GABA.

He said the only room left for growth in the league without more facilities was to add more players to existing squads, meaning having nine to ten players per team in an “unfair” result for them.

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The council was preparing a response on the issue at the time of publication.