Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club: $4.5m more needed to transform derelict bowling club

A plea has gone out for sponsors and donors to help fill a $4.5m funding shortfall for a new world glass gymnastics centre in Sydney.

An artist's impression of the proposed new Manly-Warringah Gymnastics Club facility at North Manly. The club is still looking for $4.5 million for its building fund. Picture: Supplied

A plea has gone out for sponsors and local donors to help fill a $4.5 million shortfall to build a much anticipated world-class gymnastics centre on the northern beaches.

The Manly-Warringah Gymnastics Club (MWGC) has agreed to transform the derelict former North Manly Bowling Club into a state-of-the-art regional gymnastics and “multi-sport” facility.

As part of the public-private partnership with the council, the MWGC will lease the site on the edge of Nolan Reserve and pay to build the $10.3m 3000 sqm indoor high-performance centre.

Club CEO Ian Hardy confirmed on Monday that while it had secured about 60 per cent of the money needed for the “Centre of Excellence”, it still had to pocket another $4.5m to get it built.

An artist's impression of the $10 million Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club Centre of Excellence to be built at North Manly. Picture: Supplied

The club was originally hoping to start demolition of what was still an ugly overgrown former bowling club with the new facility to open in April 2025.

Along with the plea for funding, the club was still going through planning processes to get the official approval to ahead with the project.

Mr Hardy said the DA will go before the independent Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel next month.

An artist's impression of the $10 million Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club Centre of Excellence at North Manly that would attarct 300,000 visitors a year. Picture: Supplied

Documents lodged with the DA suggested that the not-for-profit club’s more than 2000 members — and 300,000 visitors each year — would have a gymnastics’ home for the next 30 years.

The centre would also offer “new and exciting opportunities for the wider community to engage in a diverse range of recreational lifestyle programs for ages 6 months to seniors, disability groups and schools”.

“The facility will be recognised by Gymnastics Australia and Gymnastics NSW as a Centre of Excellence for High Performance gymnastics and trampoline and is designed to cater for all

sports that include aerial movement such as snow sports, diving, skate, surfing, and acrobatics,” according to the documents.

The dilapidated former North Manly Bowling Club and overgrown greens on Monday, which is proposed to be demolished to make way for the Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club Centre of Excellence. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

It was hoped that work to demolish the former North Manly Bowling Club would begin this month. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

It would also deliver programs including publicly accessible sports medicine and rehabilitation services as well as strength and conditioning recreational and “elite opportunities for all athletes engaged in sports with an aerial component”.

Mr Hardy said despite the search for sponsors and donors, the project was “chugging along quite well” and the club had secured $6m in funding.

“We’re looking for well-aligned, appropriate partners for naming rights over the facility. We want major sponsorships.

“We’ve been working with local, state and federal governments in discussions around funding.

“And,we have a fund set up through the Australian Sports Foundation that allows donations and sponsorships to be tax deductible.”

Mr Hardy said a naming rights sponsor would have their name and logo seen by more than 28,000 cars passing the site each day. ​

For more details of sponsorship deals and how to donate, click here.