Basketball in Newcastle is booming and as a result a brand new 10-court facility, which will include a 4,000 seat show court, after securing $25 million in funding through this week’s state budget.
The venue has been built with a plan to launch the regions inaugural WNBL team and possibly an NBL team back to the Hunter Valley.
The new stadium will be built in Hillsborough and with construction expected to start in 12 months it’s likely to be a few years before Newcastle has a team in either national league.
The current plan involves Newcastle Basketball firstly working with the WNBL to bring a women’s team to the area and then look towards NBL opportunities. Talks between Newcastle Basketball and the WNBL are already underway with Basketball Australia’s general manager of WNBL and competitions Paul Maley giving Newcastle his full support.
“It has a proud basketball history, Newcastle, in terms of players it has produced, male and female, plus it’s a city that obviously supports its basketball and it has the population base” Maley told the Newcastle Herald.
“I think it’s great that they’ve finally got the commitment to get that stadium built.”
Next steps for Newcastle will be to present Basketball Australia with a time frame for the stadium’s completion date and a business model that indicates it can financially sustain a team.
“We’ve been in discussions with Basketball Australia for two to three years,” Newcastle Basketball general manager Neil Goffet told the Herald newspaper.
“Those discussions will obviously ramp up now because we will have a compliant and capable facility built within two years, hopefully.”
“Newcastle is noted in the growth strategy as a city that meets certain criteria but the city that has been prioritised as next most important is Brisbane” said Maley.
Goffet was confident that as an association, Newcastle Basketball, with the help of sponsors, would be able to financially sustain a WNBL team much like similar basketball hot beds in Bendigo, Dandenong and Canberra have been able to do. He said that although fielding a team in the men’s NBL is obviously the part of the agenda it is something that would require “big bucks” and most likely a private investor to back the project.
Newcastle’s previous teams in the NBL, the Newcastle Falcons and Hunter Pirates, both folded because of financial pressures, but the investment involved with fielding a WNBL team which be significantly different.
“I think we could run a WNBL team, with community support, in regards to sponsorship’s and partnerships,” he said.
“An NBL team would need some private backing … if the WNBL team eventuates and is viable, it may put us in a position down the track to look at reviving an NBL team.”
Newcastle hope at the very least they can bring some NBL action to the area once the new stadium is built, although initially that would likely be in one off games or events like the NBL Blitz before bringing a full time team to the city.
The 4,000 seat Hillsborough stadium would also likely be too small to accommodate an NBL team, but Venues NSW has plans for a multi-purpose indoor arena in the proposed Broadmeadow sporting precinct to house the team.
“It would be fantastic to have two venues where we can play. The more courts we can get, the better, because we’re currently turning people away.” said Goffet.
Newcastle has produced some of the countries most outstanding male and female basketballers, including Australian Boomers Michael Johnson, Ben Melmeth and Scott McGregor and Opals players Suzy Batkovic, Jenni Screen and Katie-Rae Ebzery.
There is also Newcastle-raised Ben Simmons, who now stars in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“This is the biggest, most significant investment in Newcastle basketball history,” Mr Goffet said.
“It will make us one of the biggest indoor stadiums in the state, if not the biggest and will allow us to attract a lot of events that we previously haven’t been capable of hosting.”