By Chloe Booker
A basketball club battling a group of dog walkers over a western suburbs reserve it wants to be the site of a proposed indoor sports stadium has scored the support of teenage Australian NBA player Josh Giddey.
Westgate Basketball Association president Jules Griffith says a new stadium is needed to provide basketball courts for a growing numbers of young players.Credit: Paul Jeffers
The 19-year-old, who was drafted to Oklahoma City Thunder last year, wrote to Maribyrnong City Council offering his help to get the proposed six-court arena on Yarraville’s McIvor Reserve “over the line”.
“On my recent trip to Melbourne, my family told me about [the] council’s latest plans for McIvor,” wrote Giddey, who grew up a few houses from the reserve.
“As someone who spent their childhood at McIvor kicking a footy, playing cricket, and walking our family dog around the park, I wanted to write to you and offer my full support to [the] council for this exciting project.”
The council has informed households that it is investigating future upgrades to the park, including the possibility of a stadium, and is due to deliver a proposed master plan next month.
Giddey’s letter was sent after community group Friends of McIvor Reserve told The Sunday Age a stadium on the 17-hectare reserve, used for recreational sport, dog walking and as a playground, would cut down public land in an area already suffering a dearth of green space.
Their main concern is that an off-leash dog exercise area on the park’s western boundary could be chosen as its location.
Josh Giddey, in action for the Oklahoma City Thunder, used to play in Yarraville.Credit: AP
However, the not-for-profit Westgate Basketball Association, located in neighbouring Footscray and Braybrook, has shot back at the comments, arguing young people, including disadvantaged youth, would be the ones to miss out if more courts weren’t provided for the area.
“We’re at capacity, there’s nowhere to grow,” president Jules Griffith said. “We’re knocking back kids who are really keen to play, but our stadiums are full.”
The association’s roughly 3000 members play for eight clubs in under-10 to senior competitions and include children from about 1000 inner-west families. It is supported by up to 200 volunteers.
Yarraville residents fear an off-leash dog exercise area in the McIvor Reserve will be chosen by Maribyrnong City Council as the preferred location for an indoor sports stadium.Credit: Luis Ascui
Griffith said if a new stadium wasn’t built soon, basketball, futsal, volleyball and netball players would need to leave the inner-west to play youth sport or not play at all.
In 2018, the council identified a need for up to 12 new indoor courts by 2036 to satisfy the needs of a growing population that is expected to double to 30,000 people by 2041.
“The game is growing, especially in the western suburbs of Melbourne,” Giddey, who last year signed a four-year contract with Oklahoma City Thunder worth $US27.2 million ($38.18 million), told The Sunday Age.
“[And] the western suburbs are probably the one part of the city that doesn’t have [as many] stadiums as the other side of the city has. Having a big arena right there in the west is such an important thing for kids.”
Giddey said the parkland was big enough to accommodate dog walkers and a stadium.
On Saturday morning, Westgate’s Braybrook courts were teeming with young basketball players, dribbling, passing and sinking shots.
For many of them it’s an escape from the troubles of teenage life or difficulties at home.
Thirteen-year-old Gen Giles Knopp, who plays for the Westside under 16s, said basketball could lift her spirits in a way that nothing much else could.
“I’m a very sad person,” she said. “It just it makes me very happy to be able to go to places and try to play basketball.”
Statement from Josh Giddey about the proposed McIvor Reserve Indoor Stadium
Youth organisation the Les Twentyman Foundation runs the 96ers basketball club. Youth worker Tekani Perry said many of the children came from families with financial issues, domestic violence or other stresses.
Juliz Stephenson, a 17-year-old who plays for the 96ers under 19s, said basketball was the most important thing in her life.
“I don’t have to think about all the other things going on, but I can just focus on this thing and get away from everything else,” she said.
The council has stated in its material that a dog park will be included in any new plans for the reserve.
It previously said that an indoor stadium at McIvor Reserve was only “an idea, not a proposal” and that it was gathering feedback from people who use the park before making any further decisions.
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