Efforts to expand Basketball Ballarat's footprint are underway, with the association revealing plans to capitalise on the city's growth out west.
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The association hopes to form new competition clubs to service the growing population in the Sebastopol, Delacombe and Miners Rest communities.
It comes as schools in all three areas prepare to build competition-standard courts from 2021.
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Basketball Ballarat chief executive Peter Eddy said the association based its expansion plans around three schools - Delacombe primary school, Miners Rest primary and Phoenix P-12 College.
"What we do see is real value and getting a club based in some of these areas to take pressure off existing clubs. A lot are nearly at capacity with the number of teams we've got," he said.
"Schools offer the best base to grow because kids don't have to leave school, they can go straight to the gym, and out of that, you can create teams to compete in competitions."
Engagement is well underway at Phoenix P-12 College, in preparation of two extra competition courts set to be constructed this year.
Since 2017 Basketball Ballarat has been running indoor programs at the school to boost participation rates.
Ballarat Miners player Ross Weightman runs mentoring clinics, while Miners under-18 representative coach Joel Anderson has helped establish a high-performance sports program.
Wildcats basketball club have also been running an under-10s satellite program.
Once completed, the four-court complex at Phoenix College will offer the same services as the Minerdome and the Ballarat Sports and Events Centre. It will host junior and senior organised games, offering Basketball Ballarat maximum flexibility.
"This will be the first time we've organically tried to grow clubs from a new facility and it's really capturing opportunity new growth areas in Ballarat are giving us," Eddy said.
We need to take sport to where the community is and not have the community come to us.
- Peter Eddy
"We need to take sport to where the community is and not have the community come to us."
Eddy said Basketball Ballarat would keep an open mind with the new clubs, and didn't rule out attaching a school's name to their identity.
"In some ways it would be good to have a school name attached because we think it would give pride to the kids," he said.
Eddy said ultimately, expansion was a win-win for both the association and local communities.
"Schools will be able to generate revenue through court hire which, helps them with maintenance costs," he said.
"It is also a chance for kids to have extra health and well-being opportunities in a safe environment."
