BE joins forces with other NGBs to accelerate indoor facility openings

Basketball England has joined forces with the national governing bodies of other sports to push for access to indoor facilities.

Basketball England, Badminton England, England Netball, Volleyball England and Table Tennis England have united to put pressure on the government for financial support and to protect indoor sports halls from being sacrificed as overflow gyms.

Indoor sports have seen their playing spaces almost entirely disappear with leisure facilities using sports halls to accommodate gyms and group exercise due to social distancing. The majority of other regular venues, such as schools or universities, also remain closed.

If these practices continue it is expected that two in three indoor facilities will remain unusable into the Autumn for the 2.4 million people who play indoors sports regularly.

“We call on the Government to offer real support and and guidance to make sure basketball and other indoor sports have access to the facilities they so desperately need both in leisure centre and education sector settings,” Basketball England CEO, Stewart Kellett said.

“Around 1.2million people play our sport, many from among the most disadvantaged communities in the UK. Basketball and other indoor sports have done a huge amount of work to provide safe, well-researched Return To Play strategies and basketball’s is among those already approved by Government, but we now have another challenge – getting access to the playing venues.

“Now we need action to give venue operators the guidance and confidence to unblock access so our sport’s diverse and vibrant community of players, coaches and clubs can get back to playing.

“On behalf the nation’s second largest team sport, we urge Government to act to make sure we continue to thrive and provide opportunities to boost physical and mental health.”

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