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 in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Between 2016 and 2018, due to a

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

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 and

Giants Netball Giants Netball (stylised as GIANTS Netball) are an Australian professional 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 bet ...

. It was a host venue for the 2015 Netball World Cup and the

2018 Invictus Games The 2018 Invictus Games was an adaptive multi-sport event for wounded, injured and ill veteran and active defence personnel, held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The fourth Invictus Games, an event founded in 2014 by Prince Harry, Duke of ...

. As well as netball, Netball Central regularly hosts

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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) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

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 (appro ...

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 Commu ...

, while the

Arup Group Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that 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, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. 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 point ...

. 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 or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

, the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

, the

Sydney Olympic Park Authority 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 ...

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 Stuart Laurence Ayres (born 24 November 1980) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 19 June 2010 to 25 March 2023, representing the electorate of Electoral district of Penrith, Penrith as ...

, a

minister and Craig Laundy, the Member of Parliament for Reid. It was originally due to be officially opened in December 2014 but was the ceremony was cancelled due to the Lindt Cafe siege. During its first year open, Netball Central hosted three major netball tournaments. In February 2015 New South Wales Swifts 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 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 New South Wales Swifts and

. Between 2015 and 2019, Netball Central regularly hosted Australian Netball League matches. Both NNSW Waratahs and Canberra Giants 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. Since 2016, Netball Central has been the host venue for the Netball NSW Premier League. 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