Popular basketball tournament brings boost to Ballarat

The competition brings together 400 teams across five venues over three days, with more than 3000 athletes hitting the courts.

Stuart Paice, a parent of one player from the Westgate Basketball club, said they usually try to participate in the tournament each year as well as picking some activities to do while in the city.

Their weekend in Ballarat included laser tag and a group dinner.

"It makes it fun for the girls, it is a competition but at the same they're only juniors so it's about having fun and building team spirit," he said.

Mr Paice said the quality of the facilities were also a key part of why the team likes to participate.

"It is one of the biggest comps we do all year and the facilities are amazing," he said.

"Compared to what we have in the West it's amazing here, we're so short of courts where we are.

"When you look at the facilities you have been able to build, there are good courts every time, not run down. The girls love it."

CHECK OUT 40+ ACTION PICTURES OF THE TOURNAMENT HERE

Michelle Papageorge from the Mornington Peninsula was attending with her 17-year-old son who was playing in the tournament for the first time.

Ms Papageorge said they were warned to book accommodation as soon as they had confirmed they would be attending as venues were known to book out quickly.

She said it was a good experience to get the team practicing together over a longer period and against teams they had not played before.

Bacchus Marsh coach Ben Keim said clubs had to be on the ball to register teams, with spots usually filling up a week after opening up.

"My wife and I run a business in Bacchus Marsh and the opportunity to get hundreds and hundreds of people over a two day period would be brilliant," he said.

"Ballarat is a really nice place to visit, there's stuff to do with the kids."

He said the team will sometimes stay for dinner or stay the night depending on their game schedule.

Basketball Ballarat chief executive Neville Ivey said the event was highly successful for another year.

He said it was encouraging to walk around town on Saturday night and see many hospitality venues full.

"The tournament has been going for more than 50 years now so it's embedded into the broader Victorian basketball community," Mr Ivey said.

When you add the athletes and their families it means there is 10,000 participants, making the tournament a major event on the Ballarat calendar.

"It's probably a shining light across the sports at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if those other sports really had a focus in future years on creating tournaments of this size and nature," Mr Ivey said.

City of Ballarat mayor Des Hudson said the council works to bring a combination of events to the tourism calendar.

"This is a fantastic tournament that Ballarat basketball has been doing for a long time," he said.

"It is just a hive of activity, the flow of that over into the economic benefit for the city is significant."

The event follows the successful Ballarat White Night which attracted 65,000 people to the city.

"We're known for our great venues, so where there are those [other] opportunities we tend to have our radar up," Cr Hudson said.

"We're looking for where we can complement and attract new events."

The basketball tournament will wrap up on Monday.