A recent funding boost has allowed for significant improvements to be made to basketball facilities at Sport Aberdeen’s Beach Leisure Centre.

A total of £10,000 has been secured by two local sports organisations from the National Lottery and Nexen, to carry out transformational work to the Granite City’s home of basketball.

Over the past 18 months, volunteers from Grampian Flyers Basketball Club and Basketball Grampian have worked to secure the funding and have since purchased four new height adjustable baskets for junior wheelchair basketball, four new full height competition backboards with protective padding and two sets of 24 second shot clocks.

This has led to a three-year partnership agreement between sport Aberdeen and Basketball Grampian, who relocated their senior local league to the central Aberdeen venue, turning the Beach Leisure Centre into a hub for basketball in the region.

Grant Wilson, Chairman of Basketball Grampian and coach of Grampian Flyers Wheelchair Basketball Team, said:

“This joint project from the national league club and local governing body has created a platform to take basketball to the next level in Aberdeen.

“There has always been a high quality of basketball in the area, however this has been an underground world, where if you knew where to go and when to be there you would see excellent basketball. This will pull our competitions together and hopefully lead to creating a closer basketball community.

“We cater for everyone with male and female senior leagues, a senior and a junior wheelchair team, we even have a Lithuanian team, a Polish team and a Filipino team who all compete in our leagues.

“I hope that this will now pull everyone together to work collaboratively with Sport Aberdeen to increase participation, improve competition and strive for excellence in performance.”

The Beach Leisure Centre already hosts a number of Aberdeen based basketball clubs including the only wheelchair basketball team in Aberdeen, and will now be able to host a full spectrum of youth, senior and wheelchair pathways from local, national and international competitions. We hope the new facilities will also attract Basketball Scotland events and competitions, including local youth leagues, senior cup games and international matches.

Graham McEvoy, Operations Manager at Beach Leisure Centre, said: 

“We are delighted with the partnership with Basketball Grampian and Grampian Flyers which has allowed us to upgrade our basketball facilities.

“This funding has transformed the Beach Leisure Centre into a ‘home’ for basketball in the region and brings the centre up to national standards which will allow us to continue to attract teams from all levels of the sport.”