On Monday, March 4, the Shepparton Sports Stadium had its 52nd birthday.
Man, that thing is old.
As we commemorate the special day, it’s important to recognise that despite all its faults, and no matter what you think of it, you’ve got to admit, the stadium has remained consistent.
Over five decades, it basically hasn’t changed, aside from in its early 20s.
Instead of making questionable choices to express independence from its parents, the stadium gained two courts.
Let’s go back in time more than five decades and learn about the history of Shepparton’s worst major sporting facility.
Shane O’Brien can be called one of the founders of Shepparton basketball and was there for the stadium’s inception.
In 1970, he was a young teacher who had just moved to the region and was looking for a place to play ball.
A local YMCA member got organised basketball off the ground in what was then called the drill hall, right in the middle of town.
It took off, with young professionals, men and women, spending their Wednesday nights at the courts.
O’Brien said they had a very effective doorman who would track you down if you didn’t pay to enter, making the local competition quite profitable for the organisers.
The competition continued to expand, utilising courts across Shepparton to accommodate the expanding sport (sound familiar?).
They needed a new basketball stadium, and just a few years later, they had one (sound unfamiliar?).
Like today, there was much debate about what this stadium should look like and where it should be located.
O’Brien was the president of the then Shepparton Amateur Basketball Association, which has evolved into the Greater Shepparton Basketball Association today.
He said the SABA had miraculously raised $10,000 for the new stadium, 10 per cent of the total $100,000 build cost.
He credited the passion of the key members of the basketball community and how competently they ran the sport in Shepparton for their financial position.
“We quickly got the powers that be together,” O’Brien said.
“We needed somewhere else to play, so we built a stadium.
“But it needed to be in the right spot.”
O’Brien said he made the case for the stadium to be built behind Eastbank in Shepparton, but council had its heart set on the current location in Shepparton North.
Looking back and seeing how the Shepparton Sports City Complex has developed, O’Brien said council made the right decision.
In 1972, the stadium was opened, and O’Brien remembers it like it was yesterday.
To celebrate the facility and the new accessibility to the sport for all Greater Shepparton residents, a wheelchair basketball game was held.
O’Brien said each team would have at least one player who did not require a wheelchair to help facilitate the game.
This information was not served up to all spectators, so when one of the players had a nasty crash and promptly unbuckled themselves from the chair and stood up, a woman in the crowd started screaming and shouting, believing she had just seen an act of god.
Higher powers had indeed blessed the Shepparton faithful.
O’Brien said the stadium was heaven on earth for the local basketball community.
It was essentially a two-court tin shed with the same bleachers that are there today.
There were no dividing walls, so the basketballs, table tennis balls, volleyballs and shuttlecocks would often cross into other sports.
O’Brien said the plan was for the bleachers and stadium to continue to be built on the west end, which had seemingly unlimited space for expansion at the time.
Twenty years later, the Shepparton Sports Stadium’s only major upgrade left O’Brien scratching his head.
It was expanded to the north.
O’Brien acquired many fond memories throughout his decades of playing, coaching and organising basketball in Shepparton.
He was proud of Shepparton’s performances in state competitions, often punching well above our weight against much bigger towns with far more investment, such as Bendigo and Ballarat.
He said Shepparton gained a reputation for its toughness.
“We used to joke that there would be a fight, and a basketball game would break out in the middle of it,” O’Brien said.
“We’d ride around on our bus feeling like Shepparton basketball on tour.
“We felt special, and we didn’t think we could lose.”
Even back then, Shepparton hosted a handful of successful basketball tournaments, both junior and senior, that brought people from all over the country to play in national and state competitions.
O’Brien said neither council nor Basketball Australia were particularly supportive of the Shepparton basketball community, and they were left to mostly run these things on their own, under-resourced and understaffed.
But they made do and built the foundations for what is now a passionate, under-resourced and understaffed basketball community.
O’Brien has since moved from Shepparton.
He was frustrated to learn that the stadium facilities had been neglected and hadn’t grown with the basketball community.
He said he mentored current GSBA president Peter Sutherland and tried to lend his knowledge where possible.
“The GSBA has gotten Shepparton basketball out of a hole,” O’Brien said.
“I can’t give them high enough accolades, but they need support.
“You need more courts, and the GSBA needs more independence.
“You can’t knock the stadium down and have nowhere to go while building a new one.
“I’ve looked at stadiums all over Australia, and it doesn’t cost $60 million to help support local sport.”
Show your support for our campaign by signing our petition at www.change.org/p/upgrade-the-shepparton-sports-stadium
Stand For Our Stadium: The story so far
Or reach out to us and have your say:
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News journalist Jay Bryce
5820 3195
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