Canberra Gunners' success exposes indoor venue 'nightmare' facing region's sport, with 11pm tip-offs a reality

The Gunners' NBL1 East win on Sunday was a cause for celebration, the region's first men's championship since 2019, achieved by a team made of home grown talent, off to make their mark on the national stage.

But it also meant a logistical nightmare for Basketball ACT on Monday, as two more weeks of Gunners' training exposed the cracks of Canberra's indoor venue crisis.

"I don't think anyone truly grasps the gravity of it," Basketball ACT chief executive David Simpson said.

"We've got to move competitions around now to fit training sessions. That's how tight it is with the courts, so we'll be back playing at 11 o'clock at night for a couple of weeks.

"We already have kids playing at 10 o'clock at night. It's absolutely stopped our growth, but we can only do so much because we literally have nowhere to put these programs or to roll things out. It's a nightmare."

The same thing happened when the WNBL finals came knocking in March. The only option for the Canberra Capitals was Tuggeranong Stadium, forcing community competitions to be paused.

The sport has reached its "absolute capacity".

It has been unable to capitalise on the Olympics success of the Boomers last year to grow, or the interest in the upcoming FIBA Women's World Cup next month.

And the weekend's success of the Gunners in NBL1, or the Canberra Nationals Academy in Waratah Women, or the Gunners' runners-up in the Waratah Wheelchair, will be no different.

A stalemate on discussions for government funding over the last decade has left a block of land - earmarked to ease some pressure - next to the Belconnen Basketball Stadium vacant.

The line from the ACT government on solving the crisis continues to be: schools are the answer.

But as every sport battles for time slots in school halls - many not fit for purpose - Simpson said it was not working.

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"There's no plan for facilities and infrastructures in Canberra. There's no outlook, so there's no light at the end of the tunnel, and it's almost as if we're just waiting for a miracle," he said.

"We're at a point where we can't take any more players on. We can't expand. We can't grow.

"Our only real opportunity is to continue to lobby. We have our fingers crossed but at the moment we're treading water. There's no real significant signs that we're going to get additional courts in the near future."

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