AFL’s Crows reveal plans to replace Adelaide Aquatic Centre with new training base

After almost three decades based at the city’s West Lakes, the AFL’s Adelaide Crows have presented plans for a $65 million training facility that will replace the Adelaide Aquatic Centre.

The Crows previously confidential plans to replace the ageing Adelaide Aquatic Centre were presented to Adelaide City Council and the public for the first time on Monday night and will now go out to public consultation.

Crows have presented plans for a new administration and training base in North Adelaide include a two-storey building with a gym and swimming pool, along with an upgraded oval in the Adelaide Park Lands on Barton Terrace West.

The swimming pool would be open to the public, and the oval would be unfenced.

With the Council facing a potential $21 million bill over the next 10 years to keep the Adelaide Aquatic Centre up to standard, the option is seen as an attractive one in providing a community aquatic facility.

Introducing the plan to the Council, Crows Chief Executive, Andrew Fagan stated "we wish to relocate our training and administration from West Lakes to the city of Adelaide, in part to strengthen the connection with the city and the club.

"Also, we'd like to be more centrally located within metropolitan Adelaide and to enhance the delivery of club and community services and programs, as well as more effectively to engage with our large fan base on a much more frequent basis.

“We see the opportunity for a large not-for-profit community organisation and the City of Adelaide to come together to address council's ongoing issues regarding the aquatic centre and deliver a new and modern sports and community centre that increases amenity to the North Adelaide community and the broader City of Adelaide ratepayers as a once in a generational opportunity.”

However, while the Federal Government has already pledged $15 million towards the development, there is no indication of where the remaining funds for the project will be sourced from.

Fagan added “we're seeking to invest a significant amount of money into that aquatic centre but the financial business model and financial model for supporting it hasn't yet been defined.”

In 2014, AFL games moved to Adelaide Oval from Football Park, where the Crows are based and where they have a fan facility called the Crows Shed.

Football Park was sold to developers in 2014, and stands around it were pulled down in 2018.

The State Aquatic Centre opened at Marion in 2011, relegating the Adelaide Aquatic Centre from its previous role as South Australia’s major aquatic sport facility.

Fagan told ABC Radio Adelaide the new facility would not be an after-match venue like the Crows Shed, advising that the Crows would instead work with existing North Adelaide licensees.

Adelaide’s Park Lands were included in Colonel William Light's original plans for the city in 1837 as "a place for public recreation".

Images: An aerial view of Adelaide's proposed new training base in North Adelaide (top), a  public pool will remain on the site as part of the proposed $65 million development (middle) and the entrances to the Crows' proposed new training and administration facility (below). Courtesy of AFC.com.au