Sydney FC’s Centre of Excellence will become a reality next year with the club set to move into a brand-new state of the art facility at Macquarie University Sports Fields in Sydney’s north.
The elite training base and community precinct, which will be called Sky Park, will bring together all of the club’s operations under one roof for the very first time.
The Sky Blues A-League and Westfield W-League squads, the Sydney FC Academy and the club’s administration team will all be based at Sky Park.
Construction will begin mid this year on land at the club’s current training base at Macquarie University Sports Fields and is due for completion in June next year.
Sydney FC Chairman Scott Barlow said: “This project has been a few years in the planning so I am delighted we can now start construction to make Sky Park a reality.
“Sky Park will for the first time in our club’s history bring all of our operations together under the one roof in a state-of-the art football facility that will be our home for many years to come.
“The Sky Park precinct will enable us to supercharge our work in the community by delivering more outreach programs and delivering greater benefit to the community than ever before.
“The completion of Sky Park next year will coincide with the completion of our new Stadium at Moore Park and these two world class facilities will be the platform for our club’s next phase of growth and success.
“I am pleased to announce that inline with the opening of Sky Park next year, we will launch the Sydney FC Female Academy where we will provide an elite development pathway for the most talented young players to become the Sydney FC W-League stars of the future.”
The project will provide an inclusive platform for the club to expand its community engagement programs and facilitate new opportunities and experiences for the grassroots football community across the club’s heartland.
Macquarie University sees true benefit in bringing Sydney FC permanently to the sporting precinct through the expanded collaboration opportunities the facility will offer existing and future students.
Vice-Chancellor and President of Macquarie University, Professor S Bruce Dowton said:
“Bringing Sydney FC’s new Centre of Excellence to our North Ryde campus will not only provide a world-class facility that will encourage sporting participation in our community, but will also open up new collaborations with our health sciences centre MQ Health, opportunities for student athletes and student work experience, and research and development partnerships.”
Sydney FC Centre of Excellence is being partially funded by the NSW Government with the focus being to establish integrated high-performance training, administration and community facilities to improve talent development pathways, provide female friendly facilities and expand community programs.
While developing even closer ties with community, the precinct will also provide Sky Blues Members and fans a welcoming and inclusive space for year-round access to Sydney FC’s professional and academy squads.
