TWO junior sporting codes are soon to become a vital barometre for a Ballarat under pressure.
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When you think major sporting events in Ballarat, the attention tends to centre on headline acts at Mars Stadium from national league showdowns to football grand final days.
But the unassuming junior tournaments can pack a real punch and this city, for the first time, will be hit by two at once.
The most telling part will be how we, as a city, respond - especially less than three years out from the Commonwealth Games.
Double-punch
The Courier has this weekend focused on the accommodation squeeze that continues to tighten for our next long weekend, the King's Birthday holiday in June. Ballarat Basketball's 50th annual junior club tournament will share billing with soccer's Victorian country championships.
Both sports have been able to grow in this city with improved facilities, including a decade-long push for more courts and more modern facilities secured in the $24 million Selkirk Stadium. Meanwhile pitch upgrades have continued across the city.
As such, both junior sports have been able to exponentially grow. Basketball Ballarat is anticipating record entries and, the fact the city has such good soccer grounds have boosted Ballarat and District Soccer Association's chances to bid for hosting duties.
The way juniors make a big impact is with their entourage: parents, siblings tagging along, doting grandparents and other family support. Most - dare we say - transported about in hefty mum mobiles.
And families can be incredibly influential.
They will talk
Basketball Ballarat typically finds more than 95 per cent of entries to its June junior tournament are from out of town.
Being a club tournament, that equates to almost 3000 junior hoopsters many of whom do not have the chance to play in representative squads or talent pathways. This is their time to shine and individual entourages are prepared to travel in force.
They will need to get about town easily, find good food easily and, if fixtures permit, the chance to visit our tourist sites easily.
This all makes for a lot of well-connected people across the state to impress before we even factor in the soccer mums in tow.
The state government is yet to make clear a lot of the infrastructure and logistical adaptations needed to bring and move tens of thousands of people about this city for the Commonwealth Games, both in the Eureka sporting precinct for athletics and boxing and for mountain biking in Creswick.
The King's Birthday long weekend will be a taster.
We want families to have an amazing time. Amid all the early uncertainty in preparations to host the Games' biggest acts in our city, we want to be reinforcing Ballarat's great sporting reputation and our ability to pull off a big show.
We cannot expect to be perfect but two major junior tournaments colliding will offer a solid learning curve.
What happens now matters more than ever.
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