Australian basketball legends back Nunawading’s $100m stadium funding fight
It’s the suburban association that counts Brian Goorjian, Robyn Maher, Jenna O’Hea and Bec Allen among its greats. But the biggest basketball hub in the country has a $100 million stadium problem.
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One of the biggest basketball talent nurseries in Australia is in desperate need of a new $100 million home to continue fostering the next generation of Boomers and Opals.
And some of the game’s most prominent figures in this country have joined the groundswell of support for state and federal governments to find the funds to make it happen.
The outdated 55-year-old Nunawading Basketball Stadium no longer meets modern standards and the association has advanced plans to knock it down and start again.
Coaching legends, including Brian Goorjian and Tom Maher; and past and current Opals greats Robyn Maher, Jenna O’Hea and Bec Allen, made their mark on Nunawading’s hardcourts.
But now its roof is too low and is rusting, its evaporative cooling often forces games to be cancelled due to oppressive conditions and a now 14,000-strong playing cohort is forced to travel all over Melbourne’s east to play at any of 12 satellite locations to cope with the exploding demand.
A modernised stadium fo the home of NBL1 club Nunawading Spectres, worth north of $100 million, would double the number of courts from five to 10 and provide underground carparking.
Whitehorse City Council mayor Andrew Davenport confirmed it had committed $35 million to the project – with the expectation it would be matched at state and federal level.
A new Nunawading Indoor Sports Centre could also host Basketball Australia junior national championships and allow the expansion of what is already the largest single-association community tournament in Australia.
According to a Remplan visitor impact assessment, last year’s Spectres tournament attracted over 150,000 people over the King’s Birthday long weekend, which flushed almost $70 million into Greater Melbourne area businesses.
Officially opened in 1970, the stadium was the fruit of a union between 44 local parents who raised $96,000 to build two courts at the Burwood Highway site.
Nunawading Basketball boss Mark Hallett said the association had never used public money for capital works, funding multiple upgrades and ongoing maintenance out of its own pocket. Now, though, Hallett said it could no longer continue to “put lipstick on a pig” and desperately needed other levels of government to step up.
“We’re hopeful of a commitment from the federal level right now,” Hallett said.
A social and economic cost-benefit analysis, detailed in a council advocacy document, revealed that, over a 20-year period, for every dollar invested in the stadium, there would be $1.64 of benefit to the community.
“The return on investment from the government for the project is unquestionable,” Hallett said.
“People don’t realise how big basketball is.”
A Victorian Government spokesperson said it was yet to receive a request for funding from Whitehorse for the proposed stadium.
Federal infrastructure minister Catherine King has been asked if her government intends to commit to the project.
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Originally published as Australian basketball legends back Nunawading’s $100m stadium funding fight
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