Netball Centre of Excellence takes shape

Friday, March 23, 2012

Planning is well underway for the Netball Centre of Excellence, which will provide a new home for netball in NSW in Sydney Olympic Park.

“It will give us an absolute focus and home. It will be a brand new building and I think that a lot of people will be keen to come and visit it and to focus on it being the new headquarters of netball,” Netball NSW CEO Carolyn Campbell said.

“There has been a lot of work undertaken to establish the footprint of the building at site 107 in Sydney Olympic Park. Now that that has been completed, the concept drawings and costing have been developed.

“So where we are sitting right now is that we have a very strong concept and budget around the building and we’re ready to take the next step which is the technical drawings which need to be submitted for approval.”

The bringing together of the past and future of netball in NSW is a key element of the new centre says Campbell.

“It is absolutely critical for us to remember and honour our past. What has been laid before us is so strong and powerful and has allowed us to leap to greater heights. Without that we wouldn’t be where we are – so for all of those things there must be a way of capturing that history, and more importantly than that, the people that have made the game and developed the game to where it is today,” Campbell said.

“I often say that we are entrusted with the sport and it’s about leaving it in a better place than where we found it and that’s about taking what has already been done and putting another layer on top of that.”

When the Netball Centre of Excellence is complete, netball will join a sporting family of 47 sports who already call Sydney Olympic Park home; a home that will open up many opportunities as well as provide a great platform to showcase the sport.

“For a non-Olympic sport to have a key address in the precinct is a pretty big coup.”