WITH a new season of basketball underway, some local clubs are echoing the need for more courts to meet growing demand, especially across Springfield.
Megan Low, secretary of the Springfield Brumbies basketball club, said they are really limited and were currently resorting to turning away prospective players — particularly because Ipswich is the fastest growing region in Queensland.
“We are the largest club in Ipswich, and we can’t grow any more than we are because we literally just don’t have the spaces to train [more] teams — especially in the boys age groups.”
The Brumbies mainly play at JBS Arena in Booval, Ipswich Basketball’s indoor venue, which has just two full-size courts and two undersize courts, and at Woodcrest State College, which now also hosts Greater Springfield’s Pioneers.
She compared that with the Seahawks on the Gold Coast and the Wizards in north Brisbane who both enjoy massive government-built facilities of around 10 to 16 courts.
“To have something like that in Greater Springfield — one of faster growing corridors in South East Queensland — or down through Ripley, would be incredible for our sport.”
Jordan MP Charis Mullen said the lack of indoor spaces for such a popular sport meant clubs currently have to make use of school venues. “We have two fantastic local clubs — the Brumbies and Pioneers — who are seeing significant growth in participation for all ages and genders,” Ms Mullen said.
“Indoor basketball facilities are somewhat limited in our region and have been mainly provided through the use of our school halls.
“Finding suitable land for these facilities continues to be the key challenge, particularly in Greater Springfield [where] the land is mostly privately owned.” One outcome of the Council’s recently released ‘Leveraging 2032:
Our Roadmap to the Olympic and Paralympic Games’ is a proposed new indoor-outdoor sporting complex to address an “acute shortfall in sporting infrastructure”.
It also plans to audit existing facilities to “identify the gaps which exist across Ipswich … for required investment into indoor and outdoor sporting complexes”, collaborating with master developer Springfield City Group in the process — but the expected number of new indoor courts and an overall timeframe are unknown.
