Gympie council reveals latest on plans for indoor sports stadium

Progress on a long-desired indoor sports centre continues to bounce along with a potential home located, but one prominent sports leader says the issue is not being given the urgency it needs.

Progress on a long-desired indoor sports centre continues to bounce along with Mayor Glen Hartwig saying a potential home located, but one prominent sports leader says the issue is not being given the urgency it needs.

A long-awaited indoor sports centre is a step closer to reality in Gympie, but news of movement is being tempered by concerns about whether the issue is being given the urgency it needs.

On Friday, Mayor Glen Hartwig said the council was “working towards the purchase” of a mystery block of land which earlier in the week had been identified as the centre’s future home.

Calls for a new stadium to cater for the region’s growing population have been bouncing around the halls of local politics and social circles for several years now.

A feasibility report into building a stadium presented to the council in 2019 put the cost at more than $13 million.

The proposed price tag was heavily criticised.

In October Gympie’s neighbouring council at the Fraser Coast approved a $2.8 million new indoor basketball centre.

It is expected to open in 2024.

Four years after Gympie Regional Council considered a feasibility report into building a controversial $13 million indoor sports stadium, Fraser Coast Regional Council agreed to spend $2.8 million on one for its basketball clubs. Picture: Supplied

The stadium proposed at Gympie would have included tiered seating and three courts, with room for two more down the road.

At least 1.3ha of land was needed for that proposal.

“(The) council understands the pressing need for an indoor sports stadium and also future sporting field need,” Mr Hartwig said.

“Councillors have been active in evaluating suitable land to meet these needs with the view that it must facilitate future use and growth.

“Long term planning is vital if we are to get value for money.”

Gympie Netball Association president Colleen Miller, who has been among those calling loudly for the region’s sports to have a new indoor home, said fixing the issue had not been given the urgency it required.

She said the funding needed was “horrendous” and this meant it was shifted into the “too hard” basket.

Gympie Netball President Colleen Miller, whose club was displaced by the 2022 floods, said the topic of an indoor stadium seemed to be moved to the “too hard” basket and had not been given the urgency it needed.

The lack of flood-free land in Gympie meant locating where to build it was a problem too.

The region’s basketball and volleyball clubs were among the other organisations in need of room to grow, she said, especially with an apparent surge in the latter sports’ members.

It would be a boon for her own sport, too.

Gympie Netball was displaced from its regular Hyne St courts by the 2022 floods and forced to play at schools including Gympie State High.

As a result of this and bad weather Mrs Miller said the club had missed “about half our season”.

The Showgrounds at the Southside were “the obvious place for it”, she said.

Something smaller which could be expanded to meet future demand was her preferred choice, too.

A solution was still needed sooner rather than later, though.

“They’ve seriously got to look at how many sports are being impacted by this,” she said.

“We’re not the only ones suffering.”