Netball Central is an Australian netball venue located in

Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Parramatta Council. It is commonly known as Olympic Park but officially na ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Between 2016 and 2018, due to a

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

arrangement, it was known as the Genea Netball Centre. The venue is owned by

Netball New South Wales Netball New South Wales is the governing body for netball in New South Wales. It is affiliated to Netball Australia. It is responsible for organizing and managing two elite level teams, New South Wales Swifts and Giants Netball, who compete in Su ...

. It serves as their headquarters and as the main training base for

New South Wales Swifts New South Wales Swifts are an Australian netball team based in Sydney, New South Wales. Since 2017 they have represented Netball New South Wales in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. The team was ...

and

Giants Netball Giants Netball (stylised as GIANTS Netball) are an Australian netball team based in Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales. Since 2017 they have played in Suncorp Super Netball. The team was formed in 2016 as a joint venture between Netball N ...

. It was a host venue for the 2015 Netball World Cup and the 2018 Invictus Games. As well as netball, Netball Central regularly hosts

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

tournaments and competitions.

History

Construction

In February 2011,

announced their plans to build a new ''Netball Centre of Excellence'' in

. Construction work began on the projection in 2013, with the "turning of the sod" taking place on Sunday, 17 February 2013. The architects were Scott Carver Architects and the builder was

Probuild Probuild was an Australian construction company that traded from 1987 until 2022. History Probuild was founded in 1987 by Phil Mehtren. In 2000 it was purchased by Wilson Bayly Holmes Ovcon. An attempt to sell the business to the China Commun ...

, while the

Arup Group Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

acted as consultants. Netball Central was the first sports facility to be built at the park since the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. Located on Olympic Boulevard, it was built on land in front of the

State Sports Centre The State Sports Centre (known commercially as the Quaycentre) is a multi-use indoor arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and was opened in November 1984. With a total of 3,854 fixed and retractable seats the main arena is a focal poi ...

. One of its most distinctive features is a gable-roofed portal frame of

laminated veneer lumber Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives. It is typically used for headers, beams, rimboard, and edge-forming material. LVL offers several advantages over typi ...

. The finished project cost $35m and was funded by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

, the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority and Netball New South Wales.

Opening

On Monday, 1 December 2014,

moved into Netball Central. It was officially opened on 6 February 2015 with a ceremony attended by Wendy Archer, the Netball NSW President, Carolyn Campbell, the Netball NSW CEO, Stuart Ayres, a

minister and

Craig Laundy Craig Arthur Samuel Laundy (born 16 February 1971) is a former Australian Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party politician who served as Australian House of Representatives, Member of Parliament for Division of Reid, Reid from 2013 Australia ...

, the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Reid Reid is a surname of Scottish origin. It means "red". People with the surname * Alan Reid (disambiguation) * Alex Reid (disambiguation), includes Alexander Reid * Amanda Reid, Australian Paralympic athlete * Amanda Reid (taxonomist), Australia ...

. It was originally due to be officially opened in December 2014 but was the ceremony was cancelled due to the

Lindt Cafe siege The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, ...

. During its first year open, Netball Central hosted three major netball tournaments. In February 2015

hosted the 2015 ANZ Championship Official Pre-Season Summer Shootout. The tournament featured all ten

ANZ Championship The ANZ Championship, also known as the Trans-Tasman Netball League, is a former netball league featuring teams from both Australia and New Zealand. Between 2008 and 2016, it was the top-level league in both countries. The competition was owned ...

teams. This was the first major netball tournament to be held at the venue. In April 2015, Netball Central hosted the under-17 and under-19

Australian National Netball Championships The Australian National Netball Championships are a series of annual netball tournaments, organised by Netball Australia and featuring representative teams from the states and territories of Australia. The earliest tournaments took place during ...

tournaments.

finished as under-19 champions and as under-17 runners-up. In August 2015 Netball Central was a host venue for the 2015 Netball World Cup. It was the official training venue for all sixteen participating teams. It also hosted pool matches, play-offs and placing games.

Tenants

Netball Central serves as the headquarters for

and as the main training base for

and

. Between 2015 and 2019, Netball Central regularly hosted Australian Netball League matches. Both

NNSW Waratahs Netball New South Wales Waratahs is an Australian netball team that represents Netball New South Wales in the Australian Netball League. In 2008 they were founder members of the ANL. They were ANL champions in 2011 and have been grand finalist ...

and

Canberra Giants GIANTS Netball Academy is an Australian netball team that represents Netball New South Wales in the Australian Netball League. The team was originally formed in 2016 as a partnership between Netball ACT, Netball New South Wales and Giants Netb ...

played home matches at the venue. The venue also hosted the 2016 ANL Final Series. In the grand final Waratahs lost 53–46 to

Victorian Fury Victorian Fury are an netball in Australia, Australian netball team that represents Netball Victoria in the Australian Netball League. In 2008 they were both founder members and the inaugural champions of the league. They retained the title in 20 ...

. Since 2016, Netball Central has been the host venue for the

Netball NSW Premier League The Netball NSW Premier League is a state netball league featuring teams mainly from New South Wales. The league is organised by Netball New South Wales. The Premier League was first played for during the 2016 season. It replaced the Dooleys Stat ...

. It also hosts numerous other netball competitions organised by

, including the Dooleys Metro League. In 2016, Sydney Warriors and Sydney Amazons announced that they would play their home matches for the 2016 Australian Volleyball League and Australian Women's Volleyball League seasons at Netball Central.

Facilities

Netball Central features six timber sprung courts, including a show court which seats 860.

Events hosted

Netball Central regularly hosts

tournaments.

Naming rights sponsor

References

External links

Netball Central on Facebook

Netball Central on Twitter
{{coord missing, New South Wales New South Wales Swifts Giants Netball Netball venues in New South Wales Volleyball venues in Australia Basketball venues in Australia Sports venues in Sydney Sydney Olympic Park 2014 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 2014