Geelong Football Club is planning to build an indoor training facility in an existing car park outside GMHBA Stadium
Further details have emerged about a proposed indoor training hub outside GMHBA Stadium which could be built in an existing car park.
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Geelong Football Club is planning to build a new indoor training facility in an existing car park outside GMHBA Stadium.
At the Cats’ annual general meeting on Wednesday night, the club’s chief strategy and growth officer Marcus King said the hub was planned to contain a 40m x 60m training field with community spaces, a Cats shop and a café.
“It is something that is really important to our future,” King said.
“For those who aren’t aware it’s a concept of a 40 by 60m indoor training field.
“More than half of the league now have these.
“They’re a great facility, not only for high performance but for community.
“To have kids’ clinics and activities in there to run events through the year, to provide the space for community clubs.
“That’s our vision.”
He said the club was working with the City of Greater Geelong and ground managers Kardinia Park Stadium Trust on its design amid a broader masterplan for the precinct.
King said the centre was planned to be established in the existing A3 car park – adjacent to the Cats shop – with basement carparking an option.
“There’s a little way to go but we’ve got really strong alignment on the location of that, which would be roughly on the A3 car park,” King said.
“Part of the design would be to actually have a basement car park.
“We don’t want to lose carparking.
“But it is a good location for that facility for all users of the park.”
Geelong chief executive Steven Hocking told members to be prepared for plenty more change to come at GMHBA Stadium.
“As members you will see quite a bit of change across this stadium,” Hocking said.
“There’s more to come and we’re working hard behind the scenes, we can’t reveal all of it, but over coming years you’re going to see some significant upgrades in a range of areas.
“This is an events stadium, it’s not just the Geelong Cats’ home.”
The club has more than $4.5m in the bank, and returned a net profit of $6.6m last financial year, but Hocking said Geelong had “run out of runway” in terms of government investment for upgrades.
Earlier in the night, the club’s general manager of events and stadium experience Carly Flakemore said parking at the ground remained a big issue.
“We’re really limited with the space that we have in the precinct,” Flakemore said.
“Next year we’ll have even more accessible parking than we’ve had before.
“We’re currently working with the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust, we definitely recognise that accessible parking is needed and we’ll continue to grow that.”
Meanwhile, King said the ground’s southern scoreboard will be upgraded over summer in time for Round 1 next year and it will be “considerably larger” and “82 square metres bigger”, after receiving $3m in State Government funding.
Originally published as Geelong Football Club is planning to build an indoor training facility in an existing car park outside GMHBA Stadium
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