Northern Victoria Region
Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:57): (667) My constituency question is for the Minister for Community Sport. The Shepparton Sports Stadium was originally built as a two-court facility and opened in 1972. The additional courts were added to the existing structure in 1994. Despite the increase in participation rates of sports such as basketball in Greater Shepparton over the last 30 years, no further infrastructure upgrades to increase capacity have taken place since that time. An upgrade to the stadium will allow Greater Shepparton City Council to attract additional events to the city, creating local jobs and injecting more tourism dollars into the local economy. It is estimated that an expanded stadium would create an additional $12.3 million per year in visitor spending. Just as importantly, this upgrade would provide local sporting associations with the infrastructure to cater for existing participation demand. Will the minister support the expansion of the Shepparton Sports Stadium from its existing four-court facility to help cater for the sporting needs of the Greater Shepparton community?