An online survey specifically aimed at the pre-election environment has surprised Basketball Geelong officials.

The survey, conducted over a one week period concluding last Friday (Oct 15), produced a large number of responses and indicated significant uncertainty in voting intentions concerning the upcoming state election.

Over 500 people responded to the survey, a fact which has Basketball Geelong Vice President Aaron Green excited about the influence of the organisation.

“We have over 3000 members, and we emailed 2000 to alert them to the survey. The response rate of over 25% in itself was staggering, as most online campaigns might expect a response of less than 10%”: Green said.

The big news however came from two questions which finished the survey. Respondents were asked whether a state government announcement of a new indoor sports stadium south of the City would change or sway their voting intentions. Over 58% of members who responded said it would.

A further question sought feed back as to whether Basketball Geelong members had made up their mind who they would vote for at the coming election – and nearly 76% of respondents indicated they were undecided.

Green said the Board of Basketball Geelong was buoyed by the results of the survey, which supported recent discussions with State Government for the development of a new facility.

“We’ve been meeting with government, both local and state, for some time now. This should take these discussions to a new level. The bulk of our membership comes from the two seats of South Barwon and Geelong, and we influence close to 4000 across both when you take into account parents, players and supporters.”

“While we would much rather the decision to build a new facility was based on good planning and policy, it’s clear from recent announcements that it will be a political decision – we’ll be keeping our members up to date between now and the election on the result of our discussions – they’ve told us very clearly they will vote accordingly”.

Basketball Geelong has already taken a costed proposal to State Government and COGG, which could see a funded facility established within 12-18 months, and has already identified a site for the development – and would see a new indoor facility built for under $10 million, one third of the cost of the new Leisurelink facility.

Some other responses to come from the survey were:

• Over 80% of respondents indicated that the region did not have enough venues for playing or training, Green said this validated internal Basketball Geelong club surveys showing clubs were struggling to get access to internal courts for even local weekly training, 
  
• 48% of respondents indicated any new venue should be in the Waurn Ponds area, with a further 29% supporting new facility developments close to the Arena
  
• 66% of respondents chose improved change room facilities when given three options for further development of the Arena Annex facility. Adding a function area with a view of the courts also ranked highly while respondents were less concerned with improving access to canteen facilities