It’s 5pm on a Thursday, and excited kids are tumbling out of cars queuing outside a basketball stadium in Melbourne’s west.They hurry inside after their parents drop them off, snaking past a rotten outdoor deck, a big red-lettered “reception” stand – a relic of the ’90s – and grimy bathrooms (the men’s, tonight, is splattered with fresh blood).Glass doors open directly onto the slippery gymnasium floor, while parents sit on a steep, perilous grandstand and long metal benches. This is the west’s “show court” at RecWest Braybrook – and these kids are the lucky ones, the Westgate Basketball Association says.They haven’t been turned away, or relegated to long wait lists that others endure.“The single biggest frustration and cap on our participation is facilities,” association vice president Llewellyn Rees says. “Training schedules are cooked, playing schedules are all the way into the night.”The battle for a new stadium in Maribyrnong is heating up, with Westgate Basketball Association members (pictured) demanding budget action from the local council.Jason SouthPresident Glenn Casement gestures up at a piece of plywood plugging a crack in the stadium wall. “Our kids deserve a better experience at their home stadium.”The long-winded and fraught battle for a new stadium in Melbourne’s west is expected to escalate on Monday night, when the association demands Maribyrnong Council “put their money where their mouth is” and commit to funding the project at a meeting about the council’s draft budget.For three years the council has backed the plan for a new six-court indoor sports stadium at Yarraville as part of $60 million upgrades to McIvor Reserve.But the association says it is out of patience and time, and only a formal budget commitment, contingent on state and federal funding, and setting aside money, will do.“We’ve been waiting for all the goodwill and promises to crystallise,” Rees says.Maribyrnong Council has committed $2.5 million to designing the stadium, and is lobbying the Victorian and federal governments to build it at McIvor Reserve as a priority. A submission co-signed by Labor MPs Katie Hall and Melissa Horne was shot down in the recent state budget.Westgate Basketball Association president Glenn Casement (left) and vice president Llewellyn Rees. Jason South“We recognise there is a chronic shortage of indoor sporting facilities across Melbourne’s inner west, which is placing significant pressure on community access, participation and local sporting clubs,” Maribyrnong Mayor Mohamed Semra said.“However, we can’t meet demand for the stadium alone.”Maribyrnong needs up to another 12 courts to satisfy local demand, according to a 2018 council-commissioned report. But the association claims it would immediately outgrow that dozen, with more than 200 players on wait lists, and hundreds more waiting in the wings.Another two courts at RecWest Footscray, due to be completed in December 2027, will barely make a dent in current demand.On paper, Maribyrnong has 17 indoor courts, but only eight are realistically accessible for local competitions, due to their mixed use and private ownership.Four of those eight are at RecWest Braybrook, which is in a state of decay, the association claims. Those courts were already at 93 per cent weekend capacity back in 2018, and the association is asking the council to fund an immediate upgrade.Tam Bower said her 12-year-old son recently broke his arm after catching his leg on padded netball rings affixed to the wall of the court, rather than being secured away from it.“We love this club and this community, and we want it to be a safe place for everyone,” Bower says.Some in the community, led by the Friends of McIvor Reserve, staunchly oppose the proposal for the park. They say the stadium shouldn’t come at the expense of green space two blocks from Yarraville West Primary School.The group instead wants the state government to buy a “brownfield” site where they can build the stadium.“Regrettably, council and state government place a higher commercial value on land that can be sold to developers to fill their coffers, rather than reserving it for community amenity,” the group’s spokesman, Miles Parnall-Gilbert, said.Back at RecWest in Braybrook, parents are stretching uncomfortably on the dusty grandstand while sitting on their phones. The association heads almost have to yell over the sound of the kids who pack the courts, as they recall a time a gap appeared between the floor and court wall, leading some parents to have to fish out their dropped phones.For all the frustration, though, the kids are beaming – running, dribbling, yelling out to friends at the other side of the court.For now, they’re still the lucky ones.Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.