Expressions of interest: NZ Cycling centre of excellence

As part of plans to develop a Cycling Centre of Excellence for New Zealand, Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from parties who intend to submit proposals for the ownership and operation for the Centre.

Only parties that have participated in the EOI process will be invited to submit proposals for the Cycling Centre of Excellence. Responses to the EOI are to be sent by email to be submitted by Monday 30th August 2010. SPARC is then planning to release the Request for Proposals at the end of October 2010 and expects to notify the successful tenderer and announce the results publicly in mid-April 2011.

In issuing the EOI, SPARC's objectives are to:

• Provide early notification of the upcoming RFP

• Provide potential tenderers with sufficient information for them to determine their interest in participating in the RFP process

• Enable interested tenderers to provide high level information about their capability and capacity to provide the required services, and

• Learn more about the number and quality of potential tenderers, so it has the opportunity to make the best decisions for high performance achievement in cycling in New Zealand.

In June, New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, and Minister for Sport and Recreation, Murray McCully announced a major reshaping and expansion of high performance sports in New Zealand. Major features of the package included a significant injection of additional government funding for investment in high performance sport.

One of the key programmes included in the announcement is the development of a cycling centre of excellence, to build on the success of Bike NZ's high performance programme.

The Cycling Centre of Excellence is expected to provide:

• Accommodation and facilities to form the BikeNZ headquarters, housing administrative facilities for the road, track, BMX and mountain bike disciplines;

• Meeting rooms, varying sizes, with good facilities;

• Proximity to, or in-house provision of, high performance training and support facilities for road, track, BMX and mountain bike disciplines;

• Proximity to, or in-house provision of, high performance sports science, gym, medical and physiotherapy facilities;

• Road Cycling: Access to an extensive roading network from the facility, with light traffic and varied terrain.

• BMX: Within the facility, specific tracks/jumps for technical training (not necessarily entire tracks) and access to a BMX super-cross track.

• Mountain Biking: Access to a quality mountain biking area.

• Track Cycling: World-class, fast, indoor velodrome; major events hosting capability, including event area, spectator capacity, transport network, public parking; and guaranteed access: Bike NZ needs priority use of the facility, over any alternate use of the track or inside it.

Other important factors to be taken into consideration in developing the centre include:

• Ability to interact with other national sports organisationsâ high performance programmes;

• Strength of business model, e.g. public/private partnerships, community funding, governance, sustainability;

• Population base: talent pool and volunteer availability.

• A strong local cycling community and evidence of potential use by the wider community (high performance activities will likely use only 25% of the centreâs maximum capacity);

• Access to an international airport.

The New Zealand Government will contribute to the development of the cycling centre of excellence facilities. Responders are required to outline how they intend to fund the capital development.

Responses to the EOI are to be sent by email to by 12 noon on Monday 30th August 2010 or earlier. All responses will be acknowledged.

For details email: kerry.martin@sparc.org.nz

The EOI document can be read at www.sparc.org.nz/Documents/High%20Performance/EOI%20for%20Cycling%20Centre%20of%20Excellence.doc