The Newcastle Falcons senior teams are flying in the Coles Express NBL 1 East competition with both the men and the women sitting third on their respective ladders following strong starts to the season.
Our junior rep teams are enjoying their new competitions as well with the division one players up against Sydney teams for the first time since 1995 and the division two teams playing in an expanded competition that now includes teams from Northern NSW.
WINTER RECORD
Our McDonald Jones Winter Junior Comp will be the largest the association has ever operated with more than 1700 players spread across 10 courts at three venues on Wednesday nights and eight courts at two locations on Fridays.
Basketball Manager Elyse Hicks has done an incredible job to get as many youngsters on the court as possible with 300 players that were on the waiting list now registered to a team.
In response to some inaccurate statements and ridiculous rumours that have circulated since the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel rejected our development application for Hillsborough last week, I would like to sort the fact from the fiction for you.
While disappointed our DA was rejected, we have been working on our preferred site at Glendale for about six months and there are less restrictions and constraints associated with this option.
Situated close to the Stockland Glendale shopping centre and the Hunter Sports Centre, it is an ideal location for our growing membership base.
We will continue working with the state government and Lake Macquarie City Council to get the best possible outcome for basketball and the broader sporting community.
We have a signed funding agreement with the state government to build this incredible facility that we have been accessing throughout this project and it will be owned and operated by Newcastle Basketball.
I’ll just repeat that bit. It will be owned and operated by Newcastle Basketball.
We have a commitment to lease the land at Glendale from the state government and we will have a development application lodged as quickly as we can.
Our commitment to operating two or three courts as part of the Hunter Park precinct remains but it needs to be mentioned that this project has been going for 27 years, it’s had seven different proposals, and none of them have even been costed.
Unfortunately, Newcastle council, unlike many other councils in NSW, do not build, own or operate any indoor basketball facilities and they confirmed last week that they have no plans to do so in the future.
So, we will press ahead with building our own, as we have done for the past 60+ years.
GAME CENTRE
