A BOLD move to bring the world’s best basketballers to battle in Australia could involve a Ballarat play.
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Basketball Australia chief executive Anthony Moore has flagged this city as a potential host candidate for tournaments like the FIBA Asian Cup and a regional roadshow for national teams the Boomers and Opals.
This is all part of an ambitious 10-year strategy by the game’s national body to try and lure the FIBA World Cup, which would feature high-profile American players, to Australia in 2027. BA is looking to also target the 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup and 2021 FIBA Asian Cup as part of wide approach.
Mr Moore told New Limited that, if successful, both Melbourne and regional Victoria economies would benefit greatly. He said the 16-team Asian Cup could be as big as its soccer equivalent, but as a state rather than national venture.
“If you look at an Asian Cup in Victoria there is an opportunity to obviously do it in CBD Melbourne because we’ve got three venues,’’ Mr Moore said.
“But it could go to Geelong, it could go to Bendigo, Ballarat. We have enough stadia here so that Victoria could actually host it in its own right.’’
Ballarat hosted Bahrain national soccer team for a pre-Asian Cup camp and practice match against Jordan in 2015.
Basketball Ballarat chief executive Peter Eddy said the model BA was considering would be similar to the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Regional venues, like the Minerdome in Ballarat, hosted preliminary matches and finals were played in Melbourne.
Only, the Minerdome is now out-of-date for hosting elite matches, including national men’s and women’s league in-season matches and international hit-outs.
Instead the focus would be on the Ballarat Sports and Entertainment Centre redevelopment, with works scheduled to start later this year. Stage one upgrades feature a 1500-seat showcourt as Wendouree Indoor Sports Group continues to lobby for further funding to create a 3000-seat arena.
Mr Eddy said there also more elite hosting opportunities could arise with three-on-three street-style basketball declared an Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020.
“Victoria is the home of basketball,” Mr Eddy said. “We’ve just got to retain our competitiveness against other regional cities like Bendigo and Geelong, which have bigger stadiums.”
