Basketball Ballarat will this weekend host its first major tournament at the Ballarat Sports and Events Centre since COVID-19 hit early last year.
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The Sporting Globe Ballarat Senior Basketball Tournament will run over the Labour Day long weekend and ironically will be the associations first major event since the staging of the senior tournament this time last year.
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The weekend was able to run as planned in 2020, a week before lockdown and restrictions were implemented.
Since then, an array of events have been cancelled at the new arena, preventing Ballarat and the rest of Victoria from seeing the new stadium.
Basketball Ballarat Event Manager Mark Valentine said it's great to lock the tournament in and be able to get people through the doors at BSEC.
"From this point on last year my red pen came out and it was cancel, cancel, cancel. To get back to being able to run something like this is very, very satisfying," he said.
"We were unsure for quite sometime, we didn't make a final call until probably late January, we thought things were lining up. We know we can practice COVID safety around the venue."
The event has 56 teams registered in mens' and womens' competitions.
Male teams will compete in the premier division and A, C and social grades.
Female teams will compete in the premier division as well as C and social grades.
There will be finals for each category that will be played on Monday following the qualifying games on Saturday and Sunday.
Joshua Wood, a veteran of the tournament over the last decade, said it's great to be back playing in the brand new stadium.
"Very exciting, it's been almost 12 months since we've had a basketball tournament, domestic's come back for about two months, but it will be nice to play in the tournament again," he said.
"It's good to have everyone from all around Victoria just rock up and get together."
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