The Capitals WNBL team has welcomed a proposed scoping study into a dedicated facility for them to call home at the University of Canberra.
Federal Labor has committed to funding a feasibility study into a home court for the team at the university, should the party be elected on Saturday.
The Capitals played their home games at Canberra's National Conventional Centre Canberra (NCCC) this season but said they were left "homeless" for their finals games.
The centre became the team's home after the AIS Arena was closed in mid-2020 for repairs — a project that has now received funding but work has yet to begin.
The team's general manager, Lucille Bailie, said with the funding for an upgraded AIS Arena now assured, the proposed facility at the University of Canberra would not have to be as large, only seating between 2,000-4,000 people.
She said the election commitment by Labor to fund a scoping study was "a step in the right direction".
"The UC Capitals, particularly, as well as many other sporting groups and the local basketball organisation Basketball ACT, we've been calling for funding for additional facilities here in Canberra for a long time," she said.
She said the Capitals believed the Canberra community wanted to see their team appropriately housed.
"We've in fact outgrown the National Convention Centre Canberra," she said.
"It served a terrific purpose, but it's capped at around 1,600 - 1,700 people."
The funding pledge has also been welcomed by local basketball club the Ginninderra Rats.
"We need facilities for growth to occur," head coach Darryl Durham said.
"We've exponentially grown over the last 18 months.
He said the team did not want to be relying on schools for use of their courts, which were not reliable venues and could be booked by the school at late notice.
"We really need to be in charge of our own destiny," he said.
He described the funding announcement as showing "great, long-term initiative", but said clubs would still be struggling in the interim.
Gallagher says federal and ACT governments should work together
ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher announced this morning, that if elected, a Labor government would invest $750,000 to complete the feasibility study and progress the business case for the Sports Hub 2 facility at the University of Canberra.
Senator Gallagher said the proposal would need work before it was ready for consideration, but Labor wanted to financially support getting it prepared.
"They've got a little bit more work to do to get to get it to where it needs to go, so we want to provide the funding for the feasibility study, which is about $750,000," she said.
"[This] will fund the work that they need to do to really get the proposal ready for further consideration."
She said this funding was not a commitment to supporting the project when it was ready, but it signified the party's interest in being involved.
"I think it's probably a project that the ACT and Commonwealth governments would work together on, so this is the first step but it's a serious step. I mean, if we weren't interested, you wouldn't bother doing the feasibility in the first place."
