Port Douglas Basketball Club shares their view that local basketball needs an indoor stadium and that the broader community needs an indoor sports and entertainment centre.
The Club is calling for all local residents to respond to Douglas Shire Council’s draft proposal for the Port Douglas Sports Complex and Coronation Park Master Plan. Douglas Shire Council has adopted and released for further consultation, its Port Douglas Sports Complex and Coronation Park Master Plan.
Port Douglas Basketball Club has been involved in the development of the Master Plan, as a potential user of the Port Douglas Sports Complex. Approximately 165 people participate in basketball with the Port Douglas Basketball Club. Our officials are well connected at national levels of basketball, and the Club enjoys strong support from Cairns Basketball and Basketball Queensland. We have potential to increase visitation to Port Douglas via tournaments and exhibition matches. We are restricted in our ability to grow our sport and to encourage multi-club tournaments and exhibition matches, by the fact we have only limited access to one court.
We are keen to promote the establishment of an indoor sports and entertainment centre, as envisaged by the Master Plan. The Master Plan identifies the potential to grow sports and other tourism in Port Douglas through infrastructure development.
“The indoor sports and entertainment centre would provide an air-conditioned, all weather venue not currently available in Port Douglas. Opportunities for existing and emerging sports such as basketball and futsal to be located in the centre would provide the community with a wider range of sport and recreation activities that can be played indoors, avoiding heat and weather conditions. The centre would also fill the need for a major entertainment venue in Port Douglas, providing opportunities for a wider range of events that have not previously been held due to a lack of appropriate venues”.
We see it as an opportunity to create a large indoor all-weather venue that could be used for events, concerts, markets, cinema, exhibitions, school camps etc.
Unfortunately, the Master Plan has rated the indoor sports and entertainment centre as a low priority. We are advised this is because, in the first community survey, although basketball was identified as a very high participation level; it was not included in the suggested ‘improvements’ for the sports complex. We feel this was a result of confusion over the survey question. We now have an opportunity to change that priority listing.
Council has embarked on a further round of community consultation before it adopts the final Master Plan in August 2020. The consultation process is through an electronic survey. We encourage everyone to complete the survey and suggest the following comments:
What do you like about the draft Master Plan?
The inclusion of an indoor sports and entertainment centre, which would be widely used by our community for growing sports, particularly basketball; and for other community events. We do not have a large all-weather multi-purpose venue in Port Douglas, and we can see lots of opportunity for entertainment, exhibitions, concerts and cinema – to name a few.
Is there anything you’d like to see added or changed in the draft Master Plan?
Higher priority should be given to establishing a multi-purpose indoor sports and entertainment centre at Port Douglas Sports Complex, at least within five years. The complex should be at least the size of two full basketball courts, and should include shared clubhouse area, canteen, amenities, change rooms and storage.
Any other comments?
Basketball is a very popular growing sport that has strong history of success in Far North Queensland. Port Douglas Basketball Club has developed junior players who compete at regional and State level. The Port Douglas Basketball Club has a stable talented volunteer pool and good connections within the game at a national and State level. An indoor sports and entertainment complex would be a huge boost to the sport and to the town. In the shorter term, a large construction project like this would provide ongoing employment for local tradespersons.
The survey is open until 22 July 2020, and can be accessed here. Survey
You can read about the process for developing the Port Douglas Sports Complex and Coronation Park Master Plan here. Douglas Shire Council info page.
Comment submitted by PORT DOUGLAS BASKETBALL CLUB
