Basketball ACT says Canberra needs an indoor venue audit after being forced to postpone games to accommodate WNBL finals fixtures at Tuggeranong.
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The Canberra Capitals have locked in the only available option for finals at Tuggeranong Stadium after the closure of the AIS Arena and booking clashes at the National Convention Centre left them homeless.
But the impact of playing at Tuggeranong will mean Basketball ACT, which is already facing a venues shortage of its own, is pausing its junior and senior competitions.
Basketball ACT chief executive David Simpson said they would not have had to postpone community games if the Capitals had an appropriate venue, as indoor venues fail to keep up with demand and force sports to turn to school courts.
The organisation has been trying secure funding from the ACT government to address the issue by building new courts at Belconnen on vacant land to keep up with the sport's growing demand.
"It highlights the frailty of the whole indoor system where just one small interruption at any level disrupts everything, right down to community sport," he said.
"We are absolutely happy to support the Capitals, and that's why we agreed to it but the issue we have is that we'll have to postpone whole rounds of games. So we're talking 20-30 games on any given day because we can't just shift to another venue, because there are no other venues to go to."
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The Capitals' search for a suitable venue for their finals series reached Sydney and Wollongong. Before venue unavailability also ruled those options out and they returned to their old home at Tuggeranong after lighting upgrades to broadcast the game were agreed upon.
Coach Paul Goriss said it was disappointing the Capitals did not have a home, and even more so that their finals crowd numbers would be limited to a max of 1300. He said, however, the team was grateful they would be playing in front of a home crowd.
"It's hypocritical ... to be honest with you, it's bullshit. [The government] want to be able to wave the flag of these females being great role models and what they do, both on and off the court, and how much they sacrifice but they don't show anything in regards to their actions or money being put back into this sport," he said.
"The male dominated sports keep getting the money. We're still playing out of a 30-year-old University of Canberra stadium that we get to practice in and have a part-time home that we don't even get to train in.
"It's just very disappointing that ... they roll out the women in sport and use females as the role models, but then when it comes to actually putting actions in place and putting money behind anything, they shy away.
"Werribee can have an 18 court stadium, Ballarat and Bendigo can have an eight court stadium with a show court, those smaller regional towns ... can get more than Canberra can."
Capitals capital Kelsey Griffin understands both sides of the coins, with a lack of courts creating problems for community sport, and the lack of a stadium to host them adding more stress.
"I know court availability in Canberra is very slim pickings. I have some under 19 teams that are finishing up at 10-11 o'clock at night. So I feel like the courts wouldn't just benefit us, but it would also benefit a lot of the juniors," she said.