Sydney Swans open new headquarters at the Royal Hall of Industries

The AFL’s Sydney Swans have taken up occupancy of their new $70 million headquarters within the Royal Hall of Industries in Sydney’s Moore Park Entertainment Quarter.

Taking up occupancy in the former show bag hall of the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the Sydney Swans HQ is now home to the Sydney Swans elite men’s and women’s teams, as well as more than 700 young athletes, boys and girls, engaged in the QBE Sydney Swans Academy.

A key pillar of the Swans’ successful bid for an AFLW licence, the facility features an indoor sports field measuring 60 metres x 30 metres wide, with artificial turf that enables players to train year round.

The heritage building also features gym facilities including an altitude cycling studio, a hydration station, a wet area with hot and cold plunge pools, as well as saunas and spas.

Now home to the football departments for both the AFL and AFLW programs, there are separate but identically sized changerooms along with an auditorium, meeting rooms for players and coaches and a creche made specifically for the families of staff members and players.

Also situated in the building is an on-site café, as well as a player lounge with sleeping pods and an international standard basketball court while an upper level includes an outdoor terrace for the club to hold barbecues and functions.

Additionally, a major Lifeblood blood bank donor centre and two Indigenous mentoring and education organisations - the GO Foundation and the Clontarf Foundation - all reside within the Swan's new headquarters.

Commenting on the new facility, Swan coach John Longmire told AFL.com.au “it's been unbelievable. It's been fantastic. To be able to start the new year off in a premises like this, and being our new home, we feel very privileged and grateful.”

Looking back on the Swans’ more rudimentary facilities from the past, Longmire added “every day when you walk in, you can't help but think of when the guys came up from Victoria to New South Wales initially and they didn't have anywhere to go. They didn't have houses, they didn't have jobs, they didn't have anywhere to train. We feel very privileged that we've got this.

"So many people have been part of that journey. You're grateful from an historical perspective, then you get into the present and the thought of 'what a great spot to work'. The players are loving it, the staff are loving it. It's been fantastic."

Longmire, the club's longstanding coach, was significantly involved in the design and placement of most aspects within the club's facilities, recalling "from the identification that we were looking at different places in Sydney, which is so difficult, that was 10 or 12 years ago. From that, to the design of the place … once we knew the building and we had the building and how it worked, all of the footy staff got involved in that. It was really exciting.”

The Swans are also looking to have the nearby former Showground at Moore Park is repurposed as a sports field and linked with the Centre of Excellence in order to host AFLW matches.

Located next to the Hordern Pavilion music venue, the Royal Hall of Industries was built in 1913 and has been used as an exhibition venue, dance hall, roller and ice skating rink, boxing venue and even a morgue.

The Swans are leasing the Royal Hall of Industries from Greater Sydney Parklands with all rental funds received go straight back into protecting and improving Centennial Parklands.

Images: The Sydney Swans new headquarters within Sydney's Royal Hall of Industries. Credit: Sydney Swans.