Why Launceston basketball boss thinks critical courts are ‘years’ away

A number of infrastructure proposals are being funded to help fix the problem, but Launceston’s basketball boss believes the courts they need to solve the shortage crisis could be “four years” away.

Logan Gibson is one of Launceston’s best young talents. Picture: Simon Sturzaker Photography

Launceston Basketball Association president Craig Gibson believes the devil is in the detail of facilities promised to address the court shortage crisis, and doesn’t expect Elphin Sports Centre to be expanded “for another four years”.

He’s also adamant another venue with six to eight courts needs to be found long term to cater to the overwhelming demand the sport is currently unable to meet.

Basketball Tasmania stepped up its aggressive approach for facilities to be upgraded to help cater for an explosion of interest in the game, partly due to the JackJumpers’ immediate NBL success, by unveiling their State Facilities Strategy for the next decade on Tuesday.

Gibson spoke of the sport’s frustration of operating without a dedicated home for the sport, with Elphin Sports Centre currently used by a number of different sports.

The facility currently has four courts, but $22 million of federal funding has been allocated to build a further three.

Three courts at a new facility currently under construction, the Mowbray-based Northern Suburbs Hub will also help.

The State Facilities Strategy stated nine of the 31 more courts required across the state to meet demand are needed in the north.

Gibson has strong doubts the time frames initially allocated for works to be completed on the projects will be met.

“The indications they’ve give us are the (Elphin) courts are potentially online in the next two years, but I find that hard to believe,” Gibson said.

“It’s a $22 million development with three courts, with all the other infrastructure that’s been promised around the state, I reckon we’ll be lucky to see them in four years.

“It’s a start. There needs to be another venue identified with at least the same size as Elphin - six to eight courts to sustain and achieve what we want to do.”

The Northern Suburbs Hub is a multi-sport seven court facility that will be the new home of netball.

There will be four dedicated netball courts and three ‘multi-lined’ courts.

“I believe the multi-use courts are supposed to be online at the end of this year but I don’t trust that either. It might be mid to late next year,” Gibson said.

“They are hanging their hat on there’ll be three courts there (Mowbray) and three at Elphin, so that’s six more for basketball. No, it’s not.

“There’s six new courts, but ultimately the end result is we’ll end up with three more courts in the rotation we can access.

NBL stalwart Adam Gibson puts some youngsters through their paces at a basketball clinic in Launceston. Picture: Jon Tuxworth

“There’s another three at Mowbray, but our understanding if they’re going to be managed by the PCYC, so my belief is we won’t get a great deal of use out of them.

“They’re multi use and used by other sports, and they’re not compliant with FIBA regulations with how they’re built. They’re a substandard floor - yes it’s a competition floor but not one that would be considered a basketball court basically.

“Don’t get me wrong the courts at Mowbray will be usable and we’ll utilise them and every hour they give us we’ll use because we don’t have a choice.

“I can see where we’re headed with it. Basketball will get maybe 30 hours a week, we’re going to charge you an absolute motza to get on them and the other sports will get access to it and be sustainable, because we’re basically propping up the building.”

Gibson was adamant basketball doesn’t want to grow at the expense of other sports also desperate for facility growth.

But he believes the Northern Suburbs Hub can help basketball gain more access to the Elphin facility.

“If they do it right and they move the other sports like badminton, pickleball, wrestling (who use Elphin) and move them out to Mowbray, they’ll be better suited to those courts because they need less room than basketball does,” he said.

“Elphin is a government building and it’s been leased to a management group and they fulfil what the constitution says which is it’s a multipurpose venue.

“They do achieve that, but they don’t do it very well for a sport like us.

“Badminton, pickleball, table tennis, wrestling, jui-jitsu and UFC fighting. On top of all that it’s leased out to a food and beverage show and a gem and minerals show.”

On the eve of the JackJumpers’grand final series against Melbourne last year, Basketball Tasmania boss Ben Smith used the opportunity to pen an open letter pleading for government to address their facilities crisis.

“It’s the devil in the detail and we’re not the only sport who has had no investment in infrastructure. There’s opportunity to make changes to make it better for all sports,” Gibson said.

“The one thing I don’t like is how loud basketball has to be for our sport, we don’t want to disadvantage other sports.”

Gibson said demand had already forced them to shorten games, with some players not getting home from mid week matches until around midnight.

“A normal timeslot for a proper game is one-and-a-half to two hours, we’re running junior games through in 50 minutes,” Gibson said.

“These kids are missing out on actual playing time because we’ve had to corrupt and bastardise the game rules.

“Quite often the middle of the week (the latest match finish time) is 11.30 at night. That’s senior games, generally juniors is maybe 10.30 as the latest finish, but even that’s not ideal.

“Launceston is the highest hourly court hire rate in the state because we’re critically short. “We already get complaints about the cost of basketball and how much we have to charge. If you want to kick a football you can rock onto an oval whenever you like, but it’s a bit harder with a court sport played inside.

“In the gym world they’re all now 24 hours a day, there’s no reason whatsoever you can’t do that with a basketball facility.

“If you had basketball actually managing these buildings, we could use the space far better by opening the floors up to members 24 hours a day.”