The next big sporting attraction for Mudgee is another step closer.
On Tuesday morning, 28 February Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders was flanked by Council Mayor Des Kennedy, Council General Manager Brad Cam and representatives from the Mudgee Dragons, Mudgee Wolves and Mudgee Touch Football groups to announce that Council will receive $5 million towards the construction of the previously announced multipurpose Centre of excellence at Glen Willow.
The centre will house 32 seperate rooms which can double to be 64 beds if needed as well as rooms for staff and trainers that travel with the teams. There will be a gymnasium, lecture theatres, seminar rooms, dining areas, commercial kitchen and laundry and an outdoor facility for ice baths and outdoor hot and cold showers.
$2,761,864 in Federal Government funding was announced for the facility in January 2022.
Council is already aiming high, with talk of not only elite sporting schools hoping to use the facility, but the NSW State of Origin side, the NSW Waratahs and Olympic Athletes could also be users of the facility.
“There’s a number of elite schools that are actually interested in training camps here… I’ve also done a pitch to Freddy Fittler when he was out here when we were finishing the work at Glen Willow to ensure that the Blues have got their new home base here in Glen Willow for training camps here in the future,” Council GM Brad Cam said.
“I showed him the plans and he was very impressed with what we were going to build.
“We consulted with all of the right officials across all sports, both male and female to ensure that we actually have built the best complex that will attract elite athletes so just to be able to have the funding now from the State Government and certainly from the State Government to be able to start construction in the next couple of months is exciting and I’m really looking forward to showcasing this complex when it’s finished.”
In its 2022/23 draft operational plan, Council budgeted $3.02 million across three stages of the facility. Construction is expected to take roughly one year.
“This is really the icing on the cake for the Glen Willow precinct, we’ve spent probably the last 12 years building the fields and grandstands… and getting it to state of the art for sporting events,” Mayor Des Kennedy said.
“So the icing on the cake is going to be this facility where we can actually attract teams to come here, and we can charge – there will be no freebies here let me tell you – so it will be a money-making stream that complements our oval.
“There has been no guesswork in this. Every set of plans has been sent to the basketball league, the rugby league, all the centres of excellence and the elite coaches and physios. All the people put all those teams on the park to see if we’ve got the facilities right for them… it will be state of the art, nothing else in regional NSW will come near it.”
Source: Benjamin Palmer, 2 March 2023, Mudgee Guardian
Link: https://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/8102418/council-has-nsw-blues-in-their-sights-for-state-of-the-art-training-facility-at-glen-willow/?cs=356#slide=1