New courts ready soon for hoops and healing

‘Our London Family Courts,’ a legacy project supported by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment ($250K), is scheduled to open this fall.

Construction takes place on Our London Family Courts, a two-court basketball facility with seating for spectators that is scheduled to open this fall. (Photo: Jason Winders).

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Excitement is building as tipoff nears for a basketball court project designed to leverage the power of sport to help a city heal in the aftermath of tragedy.

Construction has begun on Our London Family Courts, located in West Lions Park, 20 Granville St., with plans to open the facility this fall. Supported by a $250,000 investment from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the project was announced last fall as part of a larger weekend of activities, which included a Toronto Raptors open practice and a Toronto Maple Leafs Alumni game.

“Everyone has been excited to have these courts built for the community,” said Scott Stafford, London’s Managing Director of Parks and Forestry.

On June 6, 2021, the nation was shocked by the planned killing of five members of a London family out for an evening walk in Hyde Park. Salman Afzaal, 46; Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter, Yumna, 15; and grandmother, Talat Afzaal, 74, died in the attack. The couple’s son, Fayez, 9, was left seriously injured.

Earlier this summer, the city commemorated the tragedy with a march and unveiling of a mural in Hyde Park at the site of the attack.

The basketball court project was designed “to show support for London and the Muslim community following the tragic events this past summer and use our teams’ voices to stand against hate, violence, and racism,” said Teri Dennis-Davies, Senior Vice-President of People & Inclusion at MLSE.

MLSE has conducted numerous facility refurbishments over the last decade, working with communities across the country to imagine, design, and construct new sporting facilities.

“West Lions is a great park, a great location,” Stafford said, further explaining that the courts will fit in nicely with existing park amenities, like a spray pad, playground, and baseball diamond.

Several sites were considered for the new courts, but after consulting with Muslim community leaders, the West Lions site was chosen not only for its proximity to the London Muslim Mosque on Oxford Street, but also the size of the park that could handle a facility of this size.

(Photo: Jason Winders)

Our London Family Courts will include two full-sized courts on the site, with seating areas between the two for spectators. The asphalt courts will include a coloured acrylic surface, along with glass backboards on larger posts, making both courts ideal for play at the highest level.

“These are high-end courts – the nicest outdoor courts in the city,” Stafford continued. “It’s such a fantastic project. The people we talk to about it are so excited to see it happen.”

With their 2019 NBA championship, the Raptors have been widely credited with tipping off the popularity of the sport of basketball in Canada. National player development has hit new heights, with the women’s national team among the global elite, the men’s national team on the rise, and Canadians peppering NCAA and international league rosters. There have never been more Canadian players in the NBA and WNBA, including Bridget Carleton, a former London Rambler and current Minnesota Lynx. (Shaedon Sharpe, a Londoner, was recently chosen in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers).

The NBA is the most popular sports league among new Canadians, except among those with South Asian backgrounds, where it is tied for the top spot with the NHL. Specifically, 56% of newcomers follow the NBA, while the NHL is followed by 41% of new Canadians overall, according to Solutions Research Group’s Newcomers to Canada 2021 survey.

Perhaps more importantly, basketball was the second most popular participation sport for newcomers, after swimming and ahead of soccer, badminton, and hockey.

The Forest City is no different, with the popularity of hoops hitting new heights, thanks, in part, to the London Lightning, who claimed their fifth NBL Canada title this spring, and Sharpe, selected No. 7 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, who has Londoners excited about his career ahead.

“You see a lot of hoops in driveways all over the city. The City of London gets a lot of requests for basketball facilities at our parks – far more than we have historically,” Stafford said. “Basketball courts are one of the more popular features to ask for; it is actually one of the more affordable, as well. A lot of ‘bang for the buck’ when you think of how much they cost versus how many people get to use them.”

Currently, London has 52 outdoor basketball courts in the city – 32 full and 20 half courts. That number continues to grow with a couple added every year. On average, a standard full-court project costs around $35,000 each.