By Taylah Eastwell
The City of Knox is set to become the basketball capital of Australia following a recent funding announcement by state and local governments for an expansion to the Knox State Basketball Centre.
The expansion will see Australia’s newest National Basketball League (NBL) team established, with its headquarters to be based locally at the centre. Courts at the site will also be increased from 10 to 16 and professional training facilities and administration spaces will also be added.
The expansion is funded by $22 million in state revenue that was set aside for the centre in the 2020/21 Victorian Budget, taking the state governments investment to $105 million.
Knox City Council is also contributing a further $25 million towards the expansion, having already contributed $13.27 million to the first phase of the Knox Regional Sports park development, which opened in 2012.
Knox City Council mayor Cr Lisa Cooper said council is “proud to see Knox maintain its reputation as the heartland of basketball and provide more people with the opportunity to participate in their favourite sports.”
But President of Knox Ratepayers Association, Frank Sullivan, fears Knox City Council have been “secretive” in fronting the $25 million dollar bill.
Mr Sullivan says the first he heard about the funding was when members of the Knox Ratepayers Association saw a social media post about Knox City Council contributing $25 million to the State Basketball Complex upgrade and began to ask questions.
“We then asked Knox City Council where this $25 million had been allocated and what the process was and in what meeting it was discussed, and we hit a brick wall,” he said.
“We didn’t pursue it too greatly at that point, we asked Mr Doyle at what meeting this $25 million was allocated and basically got told ‘oh not sure’, they would not answer of course, this is $25 million dollars mind you,” he said.
Mr Sullivan said “alarm bells started going off” when he went to a council meeting on December 21 last year.
Item 13.1 of the 21 December meeting agenda was titled ‘Knox Basketball Inc – Request for Extension to Financial Assistance (Confidential)’
“That set the alarm bells off. Why was it bloody confidential?,” Mr Sullivan said.
“I fully respect it is the democratic right of an elected councillor to make these decisions, but it is also the right of a ratepayer to know where their hard-earned money has been spent,” Mr Sullivan said.
“Why are we hitting brick walls everywhere with this. We have asked a pretty simple question.
A Knox City Council spokesperson said “the confidential item considered in December last year was unrelated. This item contained private commercial information and as such was appropriately considered in camera,” the spokesperson said.
Knox ratepayer Anthony Searle said he thinks the State Basketball Centre is “beautiful facility” but believes council should “be transparent about its actions”.
“I think its beautiful, but why are Knox ratepayers paying for part of this if it is a state centre?,” he said.
Mr Searle is concerned the funding decision may result in “upward pressure” on Knox City Council residential and business rates.
Mr Sullivan said his job as president of the Knox Ratepayers Association is to protect the hard-earned funds of ratepayers and ensure they are spent wisely and in their interests.
“Three weeks ago we wrote to Council and said due to the millions we are pouring into this, we want to see a profit and loss of the operations of that state basketball competition,” he said.
Knox City Council said the $25 million was budgeted over two financial years, with $12.5 million listed in the 2020-21 Budget under the ‘Capital Works Program’ at Section 4.5.
