A new multi-purpose facility could be the answer to Launceston's basketball facility woes, says Tornadoes chairman Neil Grose.
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Stakeholders in the North have been pleading for more facilities for a number of years, with second-year Tornadoes coach Sarah Veale taking up the baton earlier this week.
Veale said her players faced 6am starts to train at the crowded four-court centre at Elphin and were often required to train away from their home base.
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Grose said the increasingly likely arrival of a Tasmanian AFL team in the coming years presented the perfect opportunity to create a new basketball hub and take the strain off Elphin.
"If there's going to be money spent on a facility to cope with an AFL team in Launceston or Tasmania and a training facility and a ground that will cope with AFL football, why don't we combine other sports with that as well?" Grose said.
"So [we'd] have a centre of excellence which covers all sorts of sports, whether it be football, netball or basketball."
Grose, who was voted in as chairman in January this year, also backed in Veale as the obvious choice for head coach in season 2021.
"She has the great connection with the community from under-10 girls all the way through, so it was just a natural choice," he said.
"We've got one of the greatest coaches we think in Australia right here on our doorstep."
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