Surge in basketball interest leaves local league without playing space

The Toronto Raptors' historic championship run has put the national spotlight on basketball, and the head of a Kitchener-Waterloo league says that will likely help boost interest in local leagues.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Basketball Association has seen growing interest in the sport over the last few years, according to executive administrator Mike Quigley.

He says the association has added ten house league teams and 14 rep teams in just five years. With around 12 players on each team, that works out to nearly 240 new people.

Quigley expects the trend to continue thanks to the Raptors' success, but he also attributes the growth to being in the right place at the right time.

"We've had a lot of growth in the area and a lot of the growth is with young families ,and so they are looking for affordable activities, and basketball still is one of the ones that's affordable in terms of not needing a lot of equipment," Quigley said.

The association has also been able to add more teams for girls and young women, he said.

While Quigley is excited to see more young people getting into basketball, the sudden growth has also led to challenges for the organization.

"For the past two years, we've actually had waiting lists for our house league teams, and we've had to end up turning away people, simply because we don't have the gym space," he said.

The association relies on school gymnasiums to host games and practices and that means competing with other recreational sports and community groups that also rent the space.

Quigley said he hopes to be able to find a solution that will help the association keep up with the demand going forward.