The final buzzer has sounded on the hopes of Ballarat's prestigious junior basketball tournament going ahead this year, with Ballarat Basketball cancelling the event for the second year in a row in the wake of Wednesday's announcement of an extended Melbourne lockdown.
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Held every Queen's Birthday long weekend and attracting more than 300 teams and 2000 players, the tournament is a boon for local businesses, bringing in an estimated $4.5 million of economic benefit to the city.
With about 80 per cent of teams coming from metropolitan Melbourne, Ballarat Basketball chief executive Neville Ivey said there was no other option but to cancel the tournament.
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"We understand the state government's position and keeping Victorians safe and all of those things but, unfortunately, this is the second year in a row that it's had to be cancelled due to COVID reasons," he said.
"The prestige of the tournament that's been going for 49 years, held here in Ballarat, is such that there's really good, healthy competition and it attracts the best junior players across the state and we just can't maintain that if we have only 20 per cent of the teams available to play."
Mr Ivey said while the cancellation would have a financial impact on the club, the effects were bigger than basketball.
"The registration fees are an important part of our operating budget, so certainly Ballarat Basketball has taken a hit as a result of it but so has the broader community," he said.
"When we think of the tourism and hospitality sectors that have all been hurting for the last 12 months or so, this is just another blow because the whole town was booked out as we understand and these cancellations are just not great timing.
"It's everything from visitations at Sovereign Hill, it's cafes, it's restaurants and it's accommodation as well, so it's something like a $4.5 million economic benefit to Ballarat having this tournament so it's quite significant and the implications are not just for basketball, it's actually for the broader community as well."
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