Federal government to inject $76 million toward new home for Canadian basketball

There’s a new court for Canadian basketball — six of them, in fact.

The federal government is set to announce a $76-million investment into a new national basketball facility later Wednesday, sources told CBC Sports.

Located in Etobicoke, Ont., at Humber Polytechnic’s North Campus, a state-of-the-art community centre will serve as Canada’s home of basketball, featuring six gyms to be used for provincial, national and international competition as well as a high-performance training centre. It will break ground next year and also house Canada Basketball’s national operations.

Meanwhile, the federal government is committing to 32,000 hours of community use annually at what it is calling “The Hub.”

Rounding out funding for the new site, Canada Basketball will team with Humber to launch a private donor campaign with opportunities for naming rights, while Humber Capital and student fee allocations will contribute, too. The provincial government could also get involved.

For the feds, the facility marks the latest in a string of investments which also include $9.8 million to planning a Canada Soccer national facility as well as $33.6 million toward the rehab of Calgary’s Olympic oval, a Canada Snowboard national training centre and a national alpine centre. Those commitments came out of the Build Communities Strong Fund (BCSF), a 10-year, $51-billion initiative toward Canadian infrastructure.

The investment in Canada Basketball will likewise come out of the BCSF.

On Friday, the government announced $2.77 million in supplemental funding to Alpine Canada, its first — and, to date, only — allocation of a $660 million bump in core funding for national sport organizations that was announced in April.

A spokesperson for secretary of