Willoughby City Council endorses preferred option for new indoor sports centre

Willoughby City Council recently endorsed its preferred option for the Gore Hill indoor sports centre development - a facility that will provide six indoor courts (5,490 square metres), sports hall, gym, multi-purpose area for meetings and clubs, café, retail space and 182 car parks.

Council has $46 million earmarked for the project and will seek to close the funding gap by exploring partnership opportunities with Government Agencies and other key stakeholders.

The new indoor sports centre at St Leonards will help fill a gap in sports facilities in Willoughby and surrounding local government areas.

Willoughby City Council’s proposed $57.9 million indoor centre will complement the newly developed Gore Hill Oval near the Royal North Shore Hospital.

At its 8th March meeting, Council reviewed the preliminary concept options, costs and how they would meet the sporting needs of the community and selected its preferred option to proceed to concept design.

The stakeholder consultation and research found that demand has outstripped supply for indoor sports facilities for Willoughby and surrounding local government areas and that it’s expected to grow as the population expands. The consultation found that people are not participating in sports because of limited access to facilities.

Now that the project has the green light, the planning and design phase will begin with further input from sporting clubs and associations. Construction is expected to commence from 2023.

The indoor centre is stage 2 of the Gore Hill project. Stage 1, funded $9.5 million from the Australian Government and $1 million from Council, was finalised in March 2019 when the new synthetic oval, clubhouse and playground were opened.