Amedeo Bernardi always stated the new CANOR Molson Sand Centre will become more than just beach volleyball.
Now, it includes 3 x 3 Basketball.
It’s all part of a beach volleyball and basketball event called the Sunshine Games which will take place on the last weekend of August (27th and 28th).
The event will include athletes participating in the Volleyball Canada Senior Nationals and a Canada Basketball 3 x 3 tournament.
The event came together thanks to partnerships between Volleyball Canada, Basketball Canada, Nipissing University Athletics, the City of North Bay and Vision Sports and Entertainment.
VSE President Amedeo Bernardi says the basketball will be played next to the downtown volleyball courts.
“It will be played next to the museum on the pavement, the hope is we will be able to pave the centre area between courts one and five and have that as the feature court but we will still need the parking areas around North Bay to compete," he said.
Bernardi says it has been his “Vision” to bring other sports to the venue.
“We are non-for-profit but we have to be a business in a sense that we have to make it sustainable and we want to attract as many youth to the facility so whether it’s 3 on 3 basketball, whether it’s beach volleyball, bocci, beach tennis, we want to keep working to grow it so it’s going to be sustainable,” he said.
Bryan Crawford, the Senior Director of Canada Basketball was at the Sunshine Games press conference Thursday morning. He says 3 x 3 Basketball is a growing sport and regional events like this can feed to the FIBA 3 x 3 World Tour.
He believes North Bay is a great centre to have this event.
“Obviously there is a wonderful facility here for volleyball that is really second to none here in Canada,” said Crawford.
“I think it’s a fantastic destination here in the summer time, you know Cottage country, you can promote it as an opportunity for people to have a getaway and participate in a sport and we looked at a lot of other sports that have fantastic high levels or participate.”
