MUCH like the Mildura Heat’s players and coaches, I have a soft spot for the Hothouse.
However, the five-decade-old stadium’s days of hosting top-flight basketball are set to come to an end this year.
The new stadium at the $45 million Mildura Sporting Precinct is highly likely to be the Heat’s home beyond 2022, presuming some design kinks can be ironed out before the 2023 Big V season.
But serious questions remain about how the new stadium will shape up as a top-class basketball venue.
The show-court design, in my opinion, has been botched.
Planners are now scrambling to fix the flaws, particularly around the absence of full-court permanent seating, which is commonplace at basketball stadiums.
Right now, it just looks like one of the other courts in the stadium with some elevated seating on the Deakin Avenue side, where a small section may not even get a full view of the court.
I know there was a focus on how the new stadium could benefit local participants in sports such as basketball and volleyball. This is admirable, and there’s already been a spike in numbers for both sports after local competitions made the move out to MSP in the past six months.
But if you want to host elite sport, the infrastructure needs to be suitable for it.
Perhaps the planners should have gone with one less court to accommodate a proper show court. Anyway, that ship has sailed and the council has bought temporary retractable seating for the show court and plans more.
The Hothouse, meanwhile, will continue to do the job for the Mildura Heat women’s and men’s teams as they swing into the second half of the Big V season.
It means there’s only likely to be a handful more nights for spectators to soak up the wonderful relic of the 1960s, where the atmosphere is spine-tingling when the Heat teams are firing.
Women’s coach James Madigan has coached more games at the Hothouse than he’s had baked dinners.
“The Hothouse means Mildura basketball for me. It’s an institution for the town,” Madigan said this week. “I’m a traditionalist and love these old stadiums. The Hothouse is where I’ve always coached. It’ll be a sad day when we finish up there.”
Men’s coach Calvin Henry feels the same way. “It means home to me. I’ve played most of my pro career at the Hothouse. There have been a lot of great memories and close bonds that have been forged there,” he said.
In terms of the future of the Hothouse, which sits on college-lease land, Mildura
Basketball Association president Leigh Anderson this week said it would remain as a training venue for local clubs.
Anderson also said he was confident the concerns around MSP becoming a suitable new Heat home would be remedied before next year. “It will look awesome,” he said.
I hope he’s right, and that ratepayers are not continually forking out to fix problems that should never have existed.
For now, though, there’s a big double-header to enjoy tonight at the Hothouse. Go Heat!
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Netty’s good sports
A shout out to all the A-grade netball coaches and players for being so accommodating on game day when Sunraysia Daily’s footy writers are questioning them about their team’s performance.
Each of us are learning more about the sport as we try to improve the coverage of the top-flight SFNL netball fixtures.
Sunraysia Daily and Mildura Golf Resort
are also co-sponsoring a new A Grade netballer-of-the-round award for $100 this season. An independent panel of umpires makes the call on each week’s winner.
The winners so far have been Steph White (Merbein), Christie Becker (Wentworth), Katelyn Challis (Mildura), Morna Naquto (South Mildura), Amanda Edwards (Wentworth) and Ava Zadow (Mildura).
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Double delight
WHAT a magic day for Sunraysia footy on Wednesday when Josh Carmichael and Oskar Faulkhead’s lives changed forever with an AFL call-up.
This is a great reward for hard work by the pair. Carmichael will be back in the black and white at Collingwood, while Faulkhead is linking up with the Gold Coast Suns.
