City of Parramatta Councillors have voted to get the ball rolling on developing a new large, multipurpose indoor sport and recreation centre.
Parramatta is working towards its dream of becoming the home of festivals, sports and entertainment by 2050, with the local Council now investigating the possibility of building a large, multipurpose indoor sport and recreation centre within the Local Government Area (LGA).
Council said the facility would cater for a multitude of indoor sports and recreational activities, with the potential to include community meeting or conference spaces.
The Council report also said it could house aquatic facilities like an indoor pool, as well as host community programs such as the PCYC Parramatta ‘Fit for life’ program, following the closure of its Parramatta branch earlier this year.
With so many surrounding Council areas already having access to large indoor sporting facilities or in the process of developing one, Councillor Sameer Pandey said it’s important Parramatta has one of its own too.
“Indoor facilities; we know the advantage of them, we know that we do not have enough, in fact we don’t have any of this scale in the city of Parramatta,” he said.
“One of the visions that we have in the 2050 document [‘Parramatta 2050’] is to be the home of festivals, sports and entertainment.
“I think it’s really important that we invest in indoor sporting facilities, it’s also one of the things that will climate-proof our sports and festivals.”
However, if an indoor sport facility were to be built in Parramatta, Council said it would be reliant on securing significant funding from State or Federal Government grant programs. Finding a suitable site has also been identified as an issue, with the Council report stating the only landholdings capable of accommodating a large-scale facility are existing sports grounds.
But Pandey said concerns of funding and finding the right space shouldn’t stop the Council from investigating the possibility of a large indoor sport facility.
“We don’t need hectares of land, we have Billbergia’s sporting centre which is just right here… we’ll find this land, if we have the will we’ll find it and if we have the appetite to be the global city that we want to be we should also invest in indoor facilities,” he added.
“There’ll be a number of mechanisms through which we can construct something like this, but it should be something we should be considering seriously.
“I think we have to see the cost of not doing something, instead of the cost of doing something like this. So, in the long-term I think it’s worthwhile.”
Supported unanimously by the Chamber, City of Parramatta will now prepare a report detailing the existing provisions for indoor sporting centres, as well as possible funding sources, operating costs and construction costs for the facility.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.