North City president Peter Carey says he is happy the council opted against building a third netball court after his club requested it re-assess the original plan.

Instead, the club now hopes the third court will be developed closer to its existing facilities by the start of the 2016 Ballarat Football Netball League season.

The two courts that were built over the off-season will be used for the first time on Saturday when Lake Wendouree holds its 20th anniversary.

Carey said the club would just have to wait for its courts, but insisted it was better to have them built in the best location.

North City originally agreed to have the three courts built together, before it was felt a proposed redevelopment of its secondary oval could interfere with a new court.

The ambition to redevelop the second oval only came to being once it was revealed AFL games could be played in Ballarat by 2017.

“We’re happy they (council) have postponed the development to look at other options,” Carey said.

“You’ve got to look at the long-term viability of it. We want it done, but we want it done with a bit of forward-thinking.”

Carey said one court was not enough to cater for the masses when North City hosted dual-gate games (seniors and juniors) at the same time, with his club forced onto the Lakers’ courts.

He said it also made it difficult to conduct training as the netball competition continued to expand.

Designs for another court are expected to be prepared in the coming weeks.

Three out of the six Ballarat-based BFNL clubs currently have three netball courts – Sebastopol, Lake Wendouree and Ballarat – while Redan, East Point and North City have one each.