Ballarat Sport Events Centre, commercially named "Selkirk Stadium", is an indoor multi-use sports complex located in the Eureka Sports Precinct at

Wendouree Wendouree () is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. It is the second most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 10,376 inhabitants at the . It is named af ...

, an outer suburb north of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

in Australia.

History

The facility was established in 1986 as a two-court indoor community netball stadium known as the Wendouree Netball Centre. During the early 2000s the popularity of Basketball, Netball and Badminton in the Ballarat region had significantly outgrown the capacity of existing stadia built during the 1970s at the nearby Hollioake Park sports complex. Heavy pressure from local sports competition and community demand at the ageing but well maintained and modernised Hollioake Park venues including the

Ballarat Minerdome The Ballarat Minerdome (also known as MARS Minerdome under a naming rights agreement with Mars Chocolate Australia) is a sports stadium located in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It hosts the South East Australian Basketball League teams Ballarat ...

Basketball Stadium and the 'Ken Kay' Badminton Stadium limited Ballarat's capacity to bid for and accommodate major indoor sports competitions. This prompted combined local councils and indoor sporting associations to collectively advocate for funding to re-develop and expand the Wendouree Netball Centre into a major regional indoor multi-use sporting complex. After several years of lobbying for funding assistance, in 2015 the

Victorian State government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

granted $9 million financial support in addition to the Ballarat Council's commitment of $5 million to ensure that some $14 million (AUD) would jointly fund the first stage of a new Ballarat Sports and Events Centre project as a strategic component of th
Ballarat Major Events Precinct Master Plan
(Released in June 2015). The Master Plan being a formal document outlining a 10 year strategic plan for the development of the Eureka Sports Precinct including construction and development of the nearby

Mars Stadium Eureka Stadium, known commercially as Mars Stadium, is an oval shaped sports stadium located in the Eureka Sports Precinct of Wendouree, north of the CBD of the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. History The first permanent oval used by t ...

outdoor sports stadium as well as adjacent cricket ovals, pavilions and netball facilities. Under the joint local council and State funding arrangement, a partial stadium complex would be designed and built connecting to the existing Wendouree Netball Centre that would add four new indoor courts and include a 1500-seat main arena. This design was to make provision for future expansion as an eight court facility expanding the main arena to 3000 capacity once additional funding could be secured. Several months later, before construction commenced, the Australian Commonwealth Government granted $10 million (AUD) under its 'Regional Development Fund' enabling full completion of the complex. During the 2018 Victorian State election the

committed a final grant of $5.2 million to modernise and re-skin the adjoining older Wendouree Netball Centre to integrate its design to complement the new facility. These monies also funding construction of outdoor three-on-three courts for community use, new sports clinic and strength and conditioning facilities. In January 2022 a five-year sponsorship and naming rights agreement for the centre was struck with Ballarat's Selkirk brickworks. On Friday 8th July 2022 the State Government confirmed that the main arena will be configured as a 4000 seat boxing venue for the 2026 Commonwealth Games to be conducted in Victoria, Australia from the 17th - 29th March 2026.

Facilities

The complex today consists of: * 8 Indoor basketball/netball courts * 1 Centre show court with 3000 seats and video screens * 3 Outdoor 3 on 3 basketball courts * Strength and conditioning gymnasium with an indoor running track * Conference centre * Café / licensed bar * Retail store * 300 space car park.

Basketball and Netball venue

Since officially opening in July 2019, the venue has hosted a number of premier games including

National Basketball League (Australia) The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's Professional sports#Basketball, professional basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australasia, currently composed of 10 teams: 9 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand. It is the premier ...

friendly games as well as

NBL1 NBL1 is a semi-professional basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australia, consisting of NBL1 South, South, NBL1 North, North, NBL1 Central, Central, NBL1 West, West and NBL1 East, East Conferences with both men's and women's compet ...

competition games. The venue successfully managed significant other regional and national competitions throughout 2020-21 despite public gathering restrictions imposed due to the COVID pandemic. However with high vaccination rates having been adopted across Australia throughout 2021, significant events at the centre have been announced or are in planning for 2022 and beyond.

References

External links

*
Selkirk Stadium Ballarat website

Ballarat Basketball

Commonwealth Games - Greater Victoria
{{Coord, 37, 32, 06.6, S, 143, 50, 34.8, E, display=title, type:landmark_region:AU Sports venues in Victoria (Australia) Buildings and structures in Ballarat Sport in Ballarat Sports complexes in Australia