Lithgow Basketball Stadium is in desperate need of a long list of upgrades to bring the facility in line with national standards.
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Improvements to the indoor centre will be made possible if the project is successful in securing the $225,000 it needs from the NSW Government.
The full cost to revamp the home of the Lithgow Lazers has been estimated at $255,000.
The project was one of the key submissions Lithgow City Council made to the Stronger Country Communities Fund in September.
A total of $1.7 million was allocated specifically to Lithgow out of the Stronger Country Communities Fund initiative.
The Lithgow Basketball Stadium was built in 1981 and the same facilities including lights, scoreboards and backboards are still in place today.
“We’ve got to refurbish to get with the times,” head of Lithgow Basketball Richard Marjoram said.
“We want to get modern. We want to set it up for the future.
“Everything is expensive. It’s a big cost for all these replacements and Lithgow Basketball is not in a position to do it.”
The planned upgrades are set to include fresh seating, lighting, flooring, and specialist equipment such as clocks, scoreboards, backboards and rings to create a first class indoor sporting facility in Lithgow.
“The facilities are breaking down,” Marjoram said.
A number of the stadium’s light have gone out and are so outdated that replacement globes are no longer in production.
The same story goes for the scoreboards.
“They’re outdated… we have had failures with them and we’ve had to band-aid them.”
Marjoram said the backboards presented a safety hazard that needed to be addressed.
Current legislation requires backboards to be suspended from the steel structure in the roof and not the brick wall.
“We’re taping the bottom of the backboards to repair them and that’s trying to keep basketball alive in Lithgow.”
Basketball in Lithgow is growing but its home court is teetering on the edge of its use-by date.
A major overhaul will ensure the sport will remain relevant for future generations.
“In the last three years we’ve built this association up to big numbers,” Marjoram said.
“It’s bringing the kids off the streets where they can play basketball in a summer and winter comp indoors.”
The results of the Stronger Country Communities Fund applications are expected in December.
