A1 Badminton Centre opens at Mount Erin Road, Campbelltown

A mutual love of sport has seen eight friends have transform a warehouse in Campbelltown in to a badminton centre. See what it looks like.

A group of friends with a shared love for a sport have banded together to transform a warehouse into a sporting complex.

The A1 Badminton Centre opened on Saturday at 11 Mount Erin Rd after months of hard work.

Mahmud Emon is one of eight who helped bring the sporting complex to life in Campbelltown.

“This was a warehouse and we are leasing it and we did all the painting of the inside and spent hours trying to get it ready,” he said.

“We opened on February 19 after three months of hard work. There are eight of us that have pooled together to open it and we did a lot of the work ourselves.

“The eight of us are all friends and we used to do a lot of event management together in the Bangladeshi community.”

The new badminton centre has eight courts, and Mr Emon said they wanted to ensure the flooring, lighting and everything was to the “elite” standard so professionals could play.

“We are really proud of our heritage but we are all Australian and we want this to be a place for the whole community,” he said.

“I myself am not a badminton player but there are a few people in the group who love it.

A warehouse has been transformed into the A1 Badminton Centre at Campbelltown

“For them, they wanted a place that they could go where they could play as there are not many centres for it.”

The night before opening, the group of eight and their families worked hard to make sure everything was “perfect” for opening.

They were there until 2.30am to get it all done.

“I remember we just looked at each other and said ‘it’s finally happening’,” Mr Emon said.

Mr Emon said that in Australia most people’s minds turn to rugby league, AFL, cricket or tennis when thinking about sport, so, why badminton?

“In general, we know it is popular with people from Asian backgrounds,” Mr Emon said.

“It‘s such a huge game back home. I remember at home, people would play it all the time. It’s so much fun and it doesn’t matter your age or fitness level. You can just give it a go.”

For more information about the centre, click here.