{"id":595398,"date":"2026-04-09T09:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595398\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:58:14","slug":"sydney-basketball-court-shortage-in-spotlight-after-kings-nbl-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595398\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney basketball court shortage in spotlight after Kings’ NBL victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney basketball coaches are warning that a shortage of courts will dull a boom in interest in the sport following the Sydney Kings’ NBL finals victory that drew record crowds.<\/p>\n

There are around 10,000 players on waiting lists to join basketball clubs in the state, the majority of which are in Sydney, according to Basketball NSW.<\/p>\n

Basketball NSW interim CEO David Simpson said many of these potential players miss out because associations do not have enough courts for them to play on.<\/p>\n

Mr Simpson said the state needs 330 additional indoor courts over the next decade, with 115 of those needed in the state capital.<\/p>\n

“Across Greater Sydney, facilities are at capacity,” Mr Simpson said.<\/p>\n

“Basketball’s had a real resurgence, New South Wales has seen around of 50 per cent growth since 2021-2022.”<\/p>\n

The NBL finals series drew 70,269 fans in the five games played in Sydney and Adelaide, which included four sell-outs and set new attendance records.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Sydney basketball associations are keen to capitalise on the interest created by the Kings’ win. (AAP: Robbie Stephenson)<\/p>\n

Mr Simpson said it was the greatest advertisement for the sport, but an opportunity to capitalise was being lost.<\/p>\n

“People will be excited, interested, wanting to play basketball, but the challenge is then where they can go to play.<\/p>\n

“There will be a lost opportunity, given we know people are on waiting lists all around Sydney.”<\/p>\n

Mr Simpson admitted that the cost of building a new indoor facility was prohibitive, and often land was not available in areas like Sydney’s east.<\/p>\n

He also said the sport faced competition for indoor court use from other sports like volleyball and futsal.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Basketball NSW says there needs to be 300 new indoor courts made in the next decade.\u00a0 (ABC Riverland: Sam Bradbrook\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Facility availability is hurting growth areas<\/p>\n

Penrith in Sydney’s west is considered a growth area for the sport, but one local association says it has to spread its competition across seven courts, including those of local schools.<\/p>\n

The Penrith District Basketball Association said having a central location would help them be able to meet demand and reduce their waitlist.<\/p>\n

“Currently, around 50 junior boys are eager to play, but due to unsuitable game times and the location of available courts, they are unable to be accommodated,” a spokesperson for the association told 702 ABC Sydney.<\/p>\n

“Following the Kings’ nailbiting grand final win, we’ve seen increased activity across our new website and social media channels.<\/p>\n

“We’re hopeful this momentum will translate into new registrations once the school holidays conclude.”<\/p>\n

Duane Jordan, who manages the Manly Warriagah Basketball Association, said associations were dealing with a surge of interest but do not have the space to hold competitions.<\/p>\n

“We’re operating off a minimum course space to not maximise people’s enthusiasm.”<\/p>\n

Minister’s office questions previous use of activity vouchers<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for NSW Minister for Sport Steve Kamper said the government had committed $32 million to basketball or multi-use venues that include basketball since being elected in March 2023.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson pointed out that $570 million had been spent on Active Kids vouchers by the previous Coalition government, which took the form of $50 vouchers to be used twice a year on activities such as sport.<\/p>\n

“We understand that more money is needed to address the backlog in community infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The NSW government has also backed major basketball projects, such as the Bathurst Indoor Stadium and Newcastle Basketball Stadium, which will include a number of courts for community use.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the Labor government had increased funding for grassroots sports through the Organisational Support Program from $2.4 million, before coming into office, to $5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney basketball coaches are warning that a shortage of courts will dull a boom in interest in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,290656,290655,290657,85,290652,290659,290654,290653,290658],"class_list":{"0":"post-595398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-basketball-court-shortfall","12":"tag-basketball-courts-nsw","13":"tag-basketball-nsw-waitlist","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sydney-basketball-courts","16":"tag-sydney-basketball-nsw","17":"tag-sydney-court-shortage","18":"tag-sydney-kings-basketball","19":"tag-wait-list-basketball-sydney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}