Basketball Stadium Launch

Friday January 29 2010

1,555 people packed the brand new basketball stadium as it opened to the public for the very first time. The Wheelcats

will forever have the honour of playing the first ever game at the stadium as they kicked off proceedings with a very

classy demo.

The stadium, located on Underwood drive, next to the WA Athletics Stadium and Challenge Stadium will become the

home of State Basketball in WA with a seating capacity of 2000 on the main show court. All together the stadium includes

8 basketball courts, function rooms and is accessible for wheelchair athletes.

The $48 million stadium includes over 5000 square meters of court space with a fully equipped cafe and glassed off

function rooms overlooking the show court, has been touted as the finest training facility in Australia.

The Wheelcats christened the show court with an intra-club demonstration game. Officiated by our very own Blaine

Krapljanov and Rod Hislop, the Wheelcats lined up in Red and White Jerseys and played the game as intensely as ever.

Following the demo the players were given access to courtside seats for the ‘Legends’ game which captured the

attention of Basketball fans young and old with the likes of Mike Ellis, Cal Bruton and Aaron Trahair winding back the

clock and suiting up for the game. Other Wildcats Legends like Ricki Grace and Andrew Vlahos were also in attendance

but weren’t game enough to lace up for one last time.

While the Wheelcats will still call Herb Graham (the Cage) home for 2010 and the foreseeable future, we were very proud

 to be able to have opened the stadium with some real basketball and go down in history as the first ever team to have

played at the WA Basketball Centre.