By Laura Michell
Broadmeadows has been named as the home of one of Basketball Victoria’s seven high-performance hubs.
The hubs, which are backed by the state government, will offer an elite development program for talented basketballers to prepare them to represent Australia and gain selection to play in the NBL, WNBL and the USA college basketball system.
The government included $5 million for the hubs in the 2019-20 state budget.
The north-west Melbourne hub will be hosted by the Broadmeadows Basketball Association.
The other hubs will be built at Geelong Arena, Werribee’s Eagle Stadium, Ballarat’s Sports and Entertainment Centre, the Bendigo Schweppes Centre, Shepparton Basketball Stadium and Traralgon Basketball Stadium.
Basketball Victoria will also establish three independent hubs at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna, Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre at Albert Park and Casey Stadium.
A full-time high performance coach will oversee the training program, while a coach will be appointed to run each of the hubs.
Tourism, Sports and Major Events Minister Martin Pakula, who visited Broadmeadows today to make the announcement, said the hubs would help unearth the next generation of Boomers and Opals.
“With record numbers of Victorians signing up to play basketball, we’re making sure communities like Broadmeadows have the best facilities and programs to develop the next Ben Simmons and Liz Cambage,” he said.
“These new hubs will be real winners for their local areas, working side-by-side with local competitions that are so important in promoting health and fitness across the community.”
Broadmeadows MP Frank McGuire said there was no better time to be involved in basketball, with the sport growing in popularity across the state.
“With just under 8000 people hitting the basketball courts each week in the Hume region, Broadmeadows is at the forefront of a health and fitness revolution,” he said.
