Centre of Excellence - due 2021

Long overdue but welcome news:

I mean it sounds more like a long term lease than a bespoke arrangement but I guess that was always going to be the way given how tough it is to get enough land.

Macquarie University is unlikely to really impact community football teams, usually you get a handful of games a season there. Some investment would be required to build capacity to have all teams on the same site. Natural bowl suitable to put tiered seating in for NPL matches.

But looking at Moore Park West it is heavily used by locals. I know cricket, football, gaelic football and frisbee amongst usual use.

Yeah I’m sceptical about that site. I think it’s far more likely we will go a bit suburban. I wonder what could be done with the old St George stadium. It’s currently dilapidated and maybe council would be open to some redevelopment.

Sydney FC could go back to the future in their long-held ambition to build a centre of excellence after renewing a push to house their A-League, W-League, youth and NPL teams at Tempe Reserve.

Five years ago, the club was involved in a tender process to build their headquarters at the fields on the banks of the Cooks River, adjacent to Sydney airport, but withdrew their application due to a forecast cost blowout.

But the proposal appears to be back on the table after an “informal, unsolicited approach” was made by Sydney FC to the Inner West Council, according to their minutes from Tuesday night’s meeting.

Both the Tards and us definitely will always suffer more with these types of issues, despite being two of the wealthiest clubs, due to the insane cost of and demand for land in inner-city areas in both Syd and Melb. I hope we can find a resolution and set up some permanent roots, into our 15th season and still without any real location and currently without a home ground. Aside from that, basically everything about the clubs is nigh on faultless at the moment!

There’s a large swathe of land at Moore Park where the Government knocked something or other down but don’t appear to be doing anything with it. Maybe the club could buy it and build the CoE there?

There’s tons of land it’s just wasted on crap like racecourses, golf courses, parking lots and that stupid westconnex nonsense they’ve got going south of Sydney Park.

“Club sources indicate Leichhardt Oval and its surrounds had been explored as a possible base for a centre of excellence, but that idea has been shelved because Sydney FC discovered their field usage demands would have displaced local teams.”

Meanwhile, across town… :joy::+1:

From the Council meeting minutes

tem No: C1119(2) Item 7

Subject: NOTICE OF MOTION: CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE AT TEMPE SPORTS GROUND

From: The Mayor, Councillor Darcy Byrne

MOTION :

THAT Council:

1. Officers continue discussions with potential partners at Tempe Reserve, including those interested in delivering a Centre of Excellence; and

2. Recommit to the delivery of the current plan of works for Tempe Reserve, including synthetic turf, to be delivered 20/21.

Background

Council has received an informal, unsolicited approach by Sydney FC who are looking for a suitable location for a Centre of Excellence to be a home for their A-League, Women’s League, National Premier League, and Youth League sides.

The playing fields at Tempe Reserve currently have poor drainage and cannot be utilised after wet weather. A Centre of Excellence partnership could provide opportunities for additional funding to allow upgrades and hence more community access to the fields as well as premier level use.

In May 2019, Council endorsed Tempe Reserve as the preferred site for a synthetic sports surface upgrade. Community engagement has been underway on the project, with construction scheduled for summer 20-21.

Council also endorsed, in August 2019, the exploration of opportunities for partnerships for the provision of synthetic surface recreation facilities, with results of any further negotiations to be reported Council.

The Tempe Reserve Draft Plan of Management is about to go on public exhibition.

Council should be willing to consider a competitive process to select a provider to construct a Centre of Excellence at Tempe Reserve if:

· A clear community benefit can be demonstrated, with enhanced opportunities for community access to the reserve; and

· It does not impede the delivery of our synthetic pitch/s, work on which are set to commence in late 2020.

Ideally (I don’t know the area at all, just had a geez on Google maps) it would be something like 2-3 synthetic pitches that the locals could use, and a 2 grass pitches for SFC sides one with a small grandstand for 1-2-3k spectators plus an admin building and carpark. Fail to see how the council could be too upset with that. If the pedestrian access from Wolli Creek and Tempe stations could be improved, they’re only a <15min walk from the site too.

This quote tells you all you need to know about the types that will be vocally opposed.

“I think we have to be really careful as a local government area when we are engaging with corporate sport, our focus should be on our local clubs, our casual users who throw a ball, walk a dog, or throw a boomerang that should be our focus.”

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Superb news, a big step towards securing our future.

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Looks good!

where in North Ryde? Couldn’t see the article. I’m loving it at least. We’re in West Ryde, could potentially convince my wife to drive me in for games

Macquarie

damn, that’s slightly less exciting

So good to see some progress on this, it’s huge for our future.

This is good news. The current facilities at Mac Uni are pretty poor, and apart from the main field that the A-League team uses, the other fields aren’t in great shape.

In Danny’s ep on Sky Blue Stories (I think), he mentioned the club had a consultant come out and look at our facilities at Mac Uni and asked him what he thought and he said he was surprised we’d won anything with what we were training in.

So imagine how we’ll be with top drawer facilities as our home.