Association president Kerry Muston said netball officials feared a proposed new Bendigo Stadium arena would be on the courts that their 1500 members use.

“Even though they are saying there are no proposed plans, we were shown drawings of a stadium being built on our courts,” she said.

“We are not happy. We will do whatever it takes, we are not against them having more facilities, we are against them building in our areas – we don’t want them taken away.”

Bendigo Stadium chairman Brendon Goddard said the netballers were an integral part of the precinct’s future.

“You would have to make sure the netball is not disadvantaged in any way,” he said.

“Whatever number of courts they have, they would always have access to that number during construction, after construction and pre-construction.

“But they may be in a different position.”

Mr Goddard said the new arena would help the stadium attract netball tournaments and professional matches, such as a Melbourne Vixens’ practice match, to Bendigo.

He said stadium officials and the council had invited netball officials to take part in planning a master plan for the precinct.

But Ms Muston said the netball association wanted to stay in its current position.

“It is a great facility, I have got no doubt our facility is the best outside facility in central Victoria,” she said.

“We don’t want to see it built on.”

Bendigo Stadium officials have applied for 30 new poker machines to help pay for the multimillion dollar stand-alone arena.

City of Greater Bendigo councillors voted on Monday night to not support the bid.

Bendigo Stadium officials are yet to decide if they will challenge the decision.

Ms Muston said netball officials had concerns about more poker machines at Bendigo Stadium.

“We are a sporting organisation of juniors and it’s not a good idea to us to have more of these pokies where kids participate in sport,” she said.

“The kids have to walk past the (poker machine) playing area as it is.”