Warrnambool's stadium upgrade needed as basketball turns away players

The lack of space at the ageing facility has prompted renewed calls for The Arc to be upgraded.

It has been 22 years since the new stadium was opened on Caramut Road and users say little has changed.

Cr Otha Akoch and basketball association general manager Jack Huxtable say it's time for something bigger.

Mr Huxtable said many of their squad teams don't even train at The Arc and use school facilities instead simply because they can't get access to the stadium.

He said it was "definitely" time for an upgrade of the outdated facility. "We definitely need upgrades," Mr Huxtable said.

"We're growing at a fast rate as well where we're now actually turning away players and participants simply because we don't have the room."

Players in the Big V competition were having to change out on the back courts or in the netball foyer.

Mr Huxtable said he'd love to host a Victorian country championships or national events but he said Warrnambool just doesn't have "adequate" changing rooms and doesn't have enough court space.

"Twenty years ago this was an absolutely fantastic facility. Twenty years is a long time in sport where so much has changed," he said.

In upcoming junior domestic competition they have 703 registered players in Warrnambool - 240 females and 463 males.

The senior domestic comp had 227 men and 44 women during the traditionally quieter winter season.

Games are played late with the last game on a Monday starting at 8pm. On Wednesday it's 9.30pm and on Tuesday the nine and 10 year olds are having to play until 7.30pm.

Mr Huxtable said they were having to run a bye in every comp in every division simply because they don't have the court space.

He said every junior team had eight players on it, and increasing it to 10 players meant the kids wouldn't get enough court time and there weren't enough courts to make more teams.

"We've got a waiting list because we just can't accept more players," he said.

"We'd love to keep people playing basketball and send kids to college and get them overseas and get them playing professional. But at the moment we just don't have the facilities to do that."

Mr Huxtable said the NBL had gone ahead leaps and bounds, and Australians making an impact in the NBA had put basketball on the map.

"Basketball is massively on the rise," he said.

Warrnambool is set to host its annual Seaside Classic tournament on October 28-29 but organisers are scrambling to find enough courts for games and are having to look outside the municipality.

"I'm in the process of calling Port Fairy, Terang, Koroit. That's how far out we've got to branch to see if we can use those stadiums," Mr Huxtable said.

In 2022, the comp attracted 110 teams with 1200 participants. This year it has grown to 136 teams so far with more registrations to come in.

Cr Otha Akoch said he had been advocating for a stadium upgrade since he was elected to council. "I have been talking about it for three years now," he said.

Cr Akoch said he had even raised the issue with state MPs.

He said Warrnambool deserved a better sport facility.

Warrnambool was a growing city, he said, but that meant many kids were being turned away because there was no space for them at The Arc.

Cr Akoch, who regularly travels the state for basketball events, said he'd noticed there were towns smaller than Warrnambool that had better facilities.

He said Warrnambool had produced players who were now at state and national level, but other kids were missing out on the chance to aspire to that because there was no space for them.

Cr Akoch said that now that the saleyards had been closed next door there was an opportunity to extend the stadium.

With the number of users at The Arc hitting record levels, the council told The Standard last month that there were no current plans to expand the stadium.

"Council will look to complete master planning of the site in the next few years, after a review of the Active Warrnambool Strategy to identify the city's changing and growing needs," the council said.

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