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Australian Rugby Development Centre

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R

Redsfan

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Adrian Proszenko in the SMH, was reporting that Wests Tigers may move to TG Milner for training. I can only see that happening if this upgrade goes through.
 
Lindommer

Lindommer

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
Concord Oval's going to resemble a bomb-site when the WestConnex construction gets going, the Wests Tigers are planning for when they can't get access to the ground for training.

West Harbour have advised their members and supporters Concord Oval may not be available for matches for about two years and have to start thinking about alternatives.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Who actually owns Concord these days? Didn't NSWRU own it at one stage?
 
Lindommer

Lindommer

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
Concord Council (now Canada Bay Council after merging with Drummoyne Council) owns Concord Oval, always has. NSWRU leased it from some time in the 80s to about 2000, they never owned it.

The reason local rugby followers feel so strongly about Concord Oval is because rugby made the ground what it is. Western Suburbs RFC built the initial stands many years ago (there're some old struts still extant in the northern end of the western stand if you know where to look) before major developments in the 80s leading up to RWC87. This lot was instigated by the scurrilous Ken Elphick and cost the NSWRU about $20m, and was the major reason for the union's financial difficulties shortly afterwards. The new GM, Gary Pearse, together with some very generous support from David Clarke of Macquarie Bank fame negotiated a deal with Westpac where $15m was effectively written off. Concord Council have contributed nothing to the development of Concord Oval, they're even quite parsimonious about minor upkeep, worn out pumps, etc., are begrudgingly replaced, if ever. And yet the council wants Concord Oval used by the local soccer clubs as well as schoolboy league teams and doesn't put enough effort in keeping the grass up to scratch; that's why the surface looks so worn at the end of the rugby season. In the last 15 years the council's even let Concord Oval for rodeos and baseball games.
 
wamberal

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
From memory, David Clarke, who was chairman of Macquarie Bank at the time, gave the NSWRU $5 mill or so to bail them out.
 
RugbyFuture

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
why wouldn't wests leagues just move back to leichardt for training? in fact why don't west harbour move there while concord is turned into a scrapheap?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
 
T

TOCC

Guest
RugbyFuture said:
compared to concords 20 year old unkempt facilities.
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Yes well that's the whole point of looking for a new facility, to get somewhere better..


It could give the ARU some income from the facility for the part of the season that the Wallabies aren't playing..

Tigers would probably require it Jan - Sep, Wallabies are going to only really need it Jun/Jul and Sep-Oct..

The 7's squads will obviously need it year round as well but given the squads are only around 15 players it shouldn't be too resource intensive.


Reds co-tenant at Ballymore with the Roar pretty well by all accounts, no real reasons the ARU/Tigers couldn't do it either.
 
Crashy

Crashy

Nev Cottrell (35)
Does anyone have a link to proposed plans and what the Development Centre will look like. Struggling to get an update though a chum of mine in the Woodies fraternity tells me that they need to bail out North Ryde RSL to the tune of a bar or so.
 
wamberal

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
Crashy said:
Does anyone have a link to proposed plans and what the Development Centre will look like. Struggling to get an update though a chum of mine in the Woodies fraternity tells me that they need to bail out North Ryde RSL to the tune of a bar or so.
Click to expand...


"Repay" would be a more appropriate word to use, than "bail out". North Ryde RSL were the ones who did the bailing out, presumably they will have some kind of ownership of the licensed club as a result.

I would guess that planning is at a very early stage.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Queensland Premier has thrown his weight behind the concept of a high performance centre at Ballymore..

Parlimentary Friends of Rugby is an interesting concept, its going to be chaired by the Queensland treasurer Tim Nicholls so potentially some very strong connections to leverage state funding in the future.

What is the actual mandate of the ARU High Performance Centre at Eastwood, is it to encompass all National Teams or is it aimed at the Wallabies and 7's teams... The key to receiving any kind of federal funding for Ballymore would be to push the concept as offering something which isn't offered at Eastwood, whether its aimed more at the national junior rep teams(U20, U17 etc) or rather just as state rugby centre...



QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has declared it is time for a rugby centre of excellence to be established at Ballymore, indicating his government would support the Australian and Queensland rugby unions in securing federal funding for the project.
Speaking at the inaugural gathering of the Parliamentary Friends of Rugby on Wednesday night, Newman described Ballymore, rugby’s Brisbane stadium, as “unfinished business”, a reference to the work he did as lord mayor of Brisbane with then QRU chairman Peter Lewis to redevelop Queensland’s rugby headquarters.
The work came to nothing when the promise of a grant of $25 million by then prime minister John Howard was rescinded by the incoming Rudd government.
“There’s a great opportunity to revisit some of those plans from about seven years ago that sadly haven’t been progressed,” Newman said.
“Ballymore is the home of rugby in this state and I think if it’s approached in the right way with the local community, with the council, with the state member Rob Cavalluci, I think we then should go together to the federal government to try to get this happening.”
The Premier’s support will further turn the spotlight on to Ballymore, Australian rugby’s only tangible asset, at a time when the game is getting itself back on its feet financially and maximising its resources.
A planned restructure leading to the creation of a super-franchise combining Queensland, NSW and Melbourne to be run out of Ballymore – a process attacked as virtually a Queensland takeover – is effectively dead because Queensland has withdrawn its support.
Reds boss Jim Carmichael, a likely head of this super-franchise, told The Australian yesterday that Queensland had withdrawn its support for the restructure because there wasn’t any real buy-in from the stakeholders and because it wasn’t confident the process wouldn’t harm its own plans.
But it is also becoming evident the QRU has lost confidence in the ARU’s understanding of what the process would entail.
While the planned restructure would have entailed some consolidation of functions duplicated by the Super Rugby teams, it also would have required the ARU to subject its own operations to the same scrutiny it was asking of the franchises. Instead, it appeared the ARU was heading down the path of greater centralisation.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...-stadium-upgrade/story-e6frg7o6-1226847392362
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wamberal

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
It's all a bit confusing. I suspect this is just Newman posturing a bit, because there is a state election in a year, and he is not looking all that safe, particularly in his own seat.

The Eastwood project will probably be all the Federal money we get for the forseeable future. Ballymore would have to be State money, I assume.
 
Bowside

Bowside

Peter Johnson (47)
wamberal said:
It's all a bit confusing. I suspect this is just Newman posturing a bit, because there is a state election in a year, and he is not looking all that safe, particularly in his own seat.

The Eastwood project will probably be all the Federal money we get for the forseeable future. Ballymore would have to be State money, I assume.
Click to expand...


Yep. The LNP will win the election but Newman might lose his seat of Ashgrove, which is a big rugby area. So expect a bit of this sort of stuff in the lead up.
 
boyo

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
The idea of the ARDC seems to have been put on the back-burner.

Perhaps the powers-that-be want it to die a quiet death.
 
wamberal

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
Crashy said:
I hear there are some problems with North Ryde RSL or something demanding an early termination payment of >$1 million.
Agree that it has gone very quiet but I did hear an interview with Link mid year where he spent considerable time providing input to the layout of the centre.
Looks like the Australian Sports commission is putting $500k as well.

http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/526154/Investment_Allocation_fact_sheet.pdf
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North Ryde RSL bailed Eastwood out some years ago, it was about a million or so.


I assume that they have some sort of lien over the property.
 
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