Parramatta Eels centre of excellence: $40m training ground announced in Kellyville
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The Parramatta Eels will move away from their North Parramatta training base to a new $40 million high-performance rugby league facility in Sydney’s north west.
Plans for a NRL centre of excellence, to be built at Kellyville Park, were unveiled by the Federal Government today.
The facility will include a 5000sq m community and high-performance centre and an NRL-standard match venue with a 1000 seat grandstand.
It will also be home to junior rugby league, touch football and league tag teams, the Canterbury Cup and host elite women’s rugby league fixtures.
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The Hills Shire Times can announce stage one of the project will see the club transfer its elite programs to a modular training facility in December 2019, while the construction of the match venue will commence within 18 to 24 months.
The construction of the community and high-performance facility will commence following the completion of the Memorial Ave widening project.
Parramatta Eels Club chief executive Bernie Gurr said the announcement was a landmark day for the club.
“This project will provide a world-class sporting facility that will enable our NRL team and our youth academy programs to be housed in one state-of-the-art venue and enhance our capacity to give back to the community,” he said.
Mr Gurr said the facility would support community groups including Wheelchair Rugby League, Try Time and Physical Disability Rugby League, as well as NRL School to Work program.
“Through our discussions with The Hills Shire Council it quickly became clear that we had an opportunity to build something really special, a place that could cater to the changing needs of one of the fast-growing regions in Australia and increase participation in Rugby League and Touch Football from grassroots all the way up to NRL and NRLW level.”
A total of $15 million worth of Federal Government funding has been secured by Mitchell federal Liberal MP Alex Hawke.
Mr Hawke said the allocated funding was the largest Federal Government commitment The Hills had ever seen.
“One of the biggest issues for The Hills is the lack of sporting social infrastructure, this is the number one issue for families in our electorate,” he said. “I have been working on this with the Eels for several years and the reason the government has funded the initiative is because of the opportunities it will bring with the youth academy and disability programs.”
It is understood Mr Hawke worked heavily with the Opposition to ensure that the initiative received bipartisan support.
“I am grateful to the opposition for coming on board and knowing it will go ahead with whoever wins government,” he said.
The Parramatta Eels are finalising the proposal for the first stage of the project, which will be submitted to The Hills Shire Council for assessment.
A total of $5 million in funding has been secured from The Hills Shire Council towards the creation of the sports field, while the Eels have also requested approximately $15 million in funding from the NSW State Government.
Up to $5 million in fudning will be provided from the Eels Foundation.
Replies
This is fantastic news for the club and pulls us well and truly into the modern day when it comes to our development pathways and elite development. A dedicated high performance centre and training ground is the mark of a real, elite team and is something seen across the sporting world as the industry standard.
The Salesyards have done their job in that they've provided us a place to train and prepare but that's really only benefited the NRL, Flegg and to a lesser extent our feeder side. Having everything under the one roof is ideal and providing a proper home for our off-field operations has been a long time coming.
Here's the full release from the club:
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The Parramatta Eels today announced that it has secured a $15 million funding commitment from the Federal Government to commence building the largest Community Rugby League facility in Australia.
The proposed $40 million complex in Sydney’s north-west will be a community based facility that will include a minimum four international rugby league fields, an elite standard match venue and a 5000 square metre state of the art Community Facility that will also house a High Performance Centre for the Parramatta Eels.
This historic development will now be supported by $15 million from the Federal Government with the Parramatta Eels and The Hills Shire Council currently finalising designs/proposal for the first stage of the project.
The Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke said the Federal funding was a fantastic investment in our local sporting community from the Morrison Government. “Northwest Sydney has been one of Australia’s fastest growth corridors for decades now and this Federal investment in more playing fields, better sports facilities is vitally needed.
Not only will the Eels programs be right here in Kellyville, but touch teams, women’s team, young people and disability teams. This is a huge win for the Hills District and Western Sydney” Mr Hawke said.
Mr Hawke also acknowledged that the funding in the recent Federal Budget is not contingent upon the outcome of the upcoming Federal election. This important community development has bipartisan support, with the Federal opposition also providing its support for the project.
Mayor of The Hills Shire, Dr Michelle Byrne said, “Council have been working collaboratively with the Parramatta Eels on the vision for a Community and a High Performance Centre that will provide opportunities for our residents to play sport at the highest levels and ensure grassroots rugby league receives the highest standard facilities.
“We look forward to finalising the designs of the project together and working with all the relevant parties in delivering this great vision,” Mayor Byrne added.
The Federal Member for Parramatta, Julie Owens said, “This will be a great project for the whole community, with better facilities for kids playing footy, and we congratulate the club.”
The State Member for Baulkham Hills, David Elliott said, “I’m supportive of the proposal and we are committed to working with the Club to provide this first class facility.”
Parramatta Eels Club CEO, Bernie Gurr thanked the Federal Government for its strong support of Rugby League and said the facility would focus strongly on driving engagement with the Parramatta Eels and the wider community across the Hills District and Western Sydney.
“Today’s announcement is a landmark day for our Club. This project will provide a world-class sporting facility that will enable our NRL team and youth academy programs to be housed in one state of the art venue and enhance our capacity to give back to the community.
“Through our discussions with The Hills Shire Council it quickly became clear that we had an opportunity to build something really special, a place that could cater to the changing needs of one of the fast-growing regions in Australia and increase participation in Rugby League and Touch Football from grassroots all the way up to NRL and NRLW level,” said Mr Gurr.
The new facility will support various community groups such as Wheelchair Rugby League, Try Time and Physical Disability Rugby League, as well as NRL School to Work program which aims to assist Indigenous students with their education and employment outcomes. The new hub will also deliver benefits to multi-cultural communities with a focus on social cohesion and diversity.
Stage 1
Club will transfer its elite programs including the NRL team and the Club’s administration to a new modular training facility.
Stage 2
Completion of an elite match venue to host our current junior representative games and elite women’s rugby league fixtures. Within this venue we will also commence building a 1000 seat grandstand.
Stage 3
Construction of a 5000 square metre Community and High Performance Centre to house state of the art training facilities for Parramatta Eels NRL Men and Women’s teams, Canterbury Cup and Eels Youth Academy for NRL, Touch Football and League Tag teams. The Club will also provide new state of the art facilities for disability, wheelchair and our Try Time Rugby League programs.
The Parramatta Eels and Hills Council have been working closely on ensuring that the proposed facility will significantly increase the number of community users, guarantee that there are enhanced facilities for the local junior league Clubs and that the surrounding residents will benefit from more parklands and free play spaces.
The multi-stage project will promote equality and social inclusion while facilitating greater outcomes for the community and stronger interaction between the Parramatta Eels Club and its community partners.
a world class stadium and a centre of excellence - all we need is a worthy team.
Axel, Now that is witty and insightful! Like a great joke, it is funny because it is true.
15kms from BankWest Stadium
It's in the heart of the Eels junior territory though. Finding this amount of available land near Parramatta would be very problematic.
Great news
Absolutely outstanding. Well done to all involved.
This is outstanding news and long overdue, Kellyville is a good spot, 40m is huge, sounds amazing, fantastic news for the club and our future.
There was zero future at old sales yards, this is a huge boost to the club.
Well done all, well done Alan Hawke and well done Bernie and board, finally delivered something that will hopefully really help the club.
Love the timing though, reckon Bern was frantically getting this announcement ready early after the 60 pt flogging lol
I think it’s more to do with the fact that the federal government would want the positive press news during election week
Lots of people doing everything they can to make Parramatta a strong team.
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