Liberals promise $3 million for Murray Bridge sporting hub
Liberal MP Tony Pasin has made a major election promise to basketballers at Murray Bridge Showground.
A re-elected Coalition government would spend an extra $3 million on an indoor sports facility in Murray Bridge.
Liberal MP Tony Pasin, who will be up for election on May 21, made the promise when he visited Murray Bridge Basketball Association’s east side courts on Monday.
The federal government had already committed $1.9 million to a new show court at Murray Bridge Showground.
The extra $3 million would go towards a second, future stage of development:
- Three more “NBL-level” basketball courts, with spectator seating
- Facilities for other indoor sports such as gymnastics, table tennis, futsal, volleyball and badminton
- More change rooms
- A function centre
“Not only will this create jobs during construction and boost the ongoing Murraylands tourism offering, it will improve the health, wellbeing and social cohesion of the Murraylands community,” Mr Pasin said.
“It’s all part of our plan to make Murray Bridge and the Murraylands an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”
More than 500 people play basketball in Murray Bridge every week, but the sport’s growth has been hampered by a lack of suitable facilities.
A 2020 master plan identified the need for a “community and sporting hub” to be built in Murray Bridge in the long term.
Depending on the election result, that vision could wind up becoming a reality more quickly than the plan’s authors - the Murray Bridge council and Country Basketball SA - might have anticipated.
Almost 30 years have passed since the Murray Bridge Bullets competed in the grand final of the second-tier national competition, the Continental Basketball Association.
The semi-professional team merged with Mount Lofty to form the Eastern Mavericks, now based at Mount Barker, two years later.
But perhaps an equally bright future lies ahead.
When will the new show court be built?
It will be some months, at least, before construction of the new show court envisioned in stage one can begin.
Its design is still being finalised, and will have to go through a development approval process after that.
It is due to be completed by mid-2024.
Disclosure: The author took home two of the “0” balloons for his daughters.
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