Murray Bridge basketball stadium will get $1.7 million upgrade
The state government and Murray Bridge council have agreed to fund improvements to local sporting facilities, three years after plans for a new venue fell through.
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Murray Bridge’s basketballers will benefit from $1.7 million worth of improvements to their home courts, three years after plans for a new venue fell through.
On Monday night, the city’s councillors approved a plan to refurbish the facilities at Murray Bridge Showground.
Over the next six months, basketballers will get:
- New change rooms and toilets for players and umpires, including a parents’ room
- Air conditioning across all three courts, making the venue safe to use in hot weather
- New bench seating for courts one and two
- A covered walkway to court three, with better disability access
- Better lighting on court three
Many of those upgrades were envisioned back in a 2020 master plan for the venue.
MBBA vice president Daniel Hocking welcomed the much-needed upgrades.
“There’s a real importance around kids and youth participating in some sort of (physical) activity,” he said.
“There’s so many benefits: participation gets them out of the house, off devices, gives them an outlet (in) an environment that’s conducive to positive learning.
“For some of them it’s an escape, as well, (from) situations at school and home … even if it is just once a week.”
The new facilities will be used by more than 260 players and their families over the summer season, plus hundreds more regular participants in junior Aussie Hoops, the Murray Bridge Bullets representative team and other programs.
Murray Bridge’s basketball facilities were also at their maximum capacity every October long weekend, when an annual tournament involved more than 200 games being played across the showground and Unity College.
“That’s a lot of people in town, and they all stay here, they have teas here – it’s a lot of income for Murray Bridge, just that weekend,” Mr Hocking said.
Upgrades come as consolation after scrapped court four project
Murray Bridge Basketball Association had long been lobbying for at least one extra court to be built at the showground to reduce the need for use of the “chicken sheds”, courts one and two.
The need was still there, Mr Hocking said – the courts were fully booked on several nights each week over the summer, with sessions starting as early as 3.45pm.
“With the size of Murray Bridge and the growth happening … a sports hub would still be amazing,” he said.
Between 2021 and 2022, the federal and state governments and the council agreed to chip in a combined $3.9 million for a new show court.
But fast-rising construction costs forced the project to be abandoned in 2023 – a decision the MBBA described at the time as “extremely disappointing”.
Fortunately, the state Office for Sport, Recreation and Racing agreed to hold onto its $1.5 million funding allocation while talks continued about alternative ways forward.
Those talks eventually led to this week’s announcement.
In fact, the state government will even increase its allocation by $225,000 to account for the interest earned on the original grant money over the past three years.
The council considered other uses for the grant funding, but the state government insisted that Murray Bridge’s basketball facilities had been funded for a reason.
At a council meeting on Monday night, Mayor Wayne Thorley described the works as a welcome addition to the city’s indoor sporting facilities.
“It’s not a $20 million investment, but it’ll make a functioning facility even better,” he said.
The upgrades will be completed by the end of March 2027.
