President Cathie Weidemann said the association needed a minimum of six outdoor courts to run its weekly competition.

“We currently have seven usable courts down at Central Park and every Saturday morning during the season they are all full,” she said.

“From a general netball preservative, with anything less than a six-court facility means we can’t host events like the state championships as well as high-level netball.”

The proposed stadium incorporates five outdoor and three indoor courts at the site of the current basketball stadium in McPherson Street.

Mrs Weidemann said there had not been much contact between the council and the association during the planning process.

“Former president Grenville Short had been the main point of contact for the limited discussions they had had with us,” she said.

“It would be of no use to us.

“There would be plenty of use for social netball but Horsham Lanes and Games already provides that.

“We need that minimum of six outdoor courts with lighting so that we can bring those elite events to town as well.”

The Horsham City Netball Association provides opportunities for young netballers in the Wimmera to get their start within a friendly environment.

Mrs Weidemann said she was concerned some girls might not meet their potential if they needed to travel to play netball.

“There has so many players from the Wimmera who have gone on to be part of the Sovereigns squads (in Ballarat),” she said.

“We continually get players who go through to state and elite levels, so we should be encouraging them as much as we can. At the moment Horsham is missing out and that’s really unfortunate.”

While the Central Park courts have been used to host Wimmera-Mallee tournaments in the past, their current conditions fail to meet Netball Victoria standards.

“We’ve also been working to upgrade the back bay of courts at Central Park and we need to know what stage things are at for that as well,” she said.

“The money was approved two years ago but the plans keep changing and that money needs to be spent by the end of December.”