Future Victoria: Australian first $2bn central entertainment hub to be built in Wyndham
Western Melbourne Group releases blueprints for a new sports, health and entertainment city to be built in Melbourne’s outer south west.
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Australia’s first sports, health and entertainment city is set to be built in Melbourne’s booming outer south west in a game-changer for the community.
A much-needed major new rectangular stadium for Melbourne, allied health hub, schools and sports science precinct are planned under the blueprint.
Western Melbourne Group — a property development company which owns A-League club Western United — is using a public/private partnership model popular in US sports to activate the community through sport.
A central entertainment hub modelled on Avaya Stadium in San Jose California is at the heart of the plans, to provide a meeting point and public asset for the burgeoning community to be used year-round.
The hub will include a new 15,000 capacity stadium with a community facing big screen to show live events such as the AFL Grand Final, Socceroos or Matildas’ matches, a microbrewery and space for food and cultural festivals.
The group also wants to build a vast indoor arena for sports such as basketball, netball, combat, Esports, volleyball and badminton in a “vertical sports building’’.
Group chairman Jason Sourasis told the Herald Sun the almost $2bn plans would redefine Melbourne’s west, “using the power of sports to unite’’ in the Wyndham Council area that also takes in the likes of Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and Laverton.
“My vision is to build a whole city that is the centrepiece of Wyndham and a mini Melbourne and Olympic park Trust of the west,’’ he said.
“The city is underpinned by health, wellness and education and Western Melbourne Group is trying to bring all those partners together in our precinct.
“We’re bringing infrastructure and things that will shape the west, instead of just being reactional … and having house and land packages that aren’t planned and that won’t unite a community.’’
The first stage of the group’s ambitious plans have already been achieved, with a 5000 seat rectangular stadium build at the Tarneit home base of United’s A-League team.
Next will be the bigger stadium, training facilities, and multipurpose central precinct for athletes from the grassroots to the elite, built in empty paddocks on some of the 150 acres of council-owned land designated to make the dream a reality.
The group is in talks with Victoria University about creating a campus in Tarneit and with a high school to set up a base for years 7-12 studies in the precinct.
It is also in discussion with health providers, with a view to making an allied health building with physiotherapy, radiography and potentially hospital services.
Mr Sourasis said it would attract employment and new residents to the west.
“Basically we are trying to create a city and almost a mini AIS or VIS,’’ he said.
“And to have any sort of institute of sport style set up, the education pillar is really important from a high performance, education, innovation, research perspective.
“So the aim now is to lock in the education piece and then talk to lots of different sporting bodies.
“I’m trying to bring government sporting bodies federally, across the nation, to Tarneit, complimented by a university and high school that have sport or high performance focuses.
“And then we have the vertical sport building – a whole level of that might be that sport’s bodies home.
“So the schools use it during the day but it’s also high performance and the home for that sporting body which is getting ready for Brisbane 2032.’’
While the population of the City of Wyndham is forecast to grow from 333,045 this year to 488,606 by 2046, Mr Sourasis said thousands of house and land packages were being sold in one of Australia’s fastest growing regions with “minimal supporting infrastructure’’.
He hoped to “use sport as a pathway to connect kids to integrate with society’’.
And, with the state government so far failing to fund the project, he said the ownership model his business had adopted that was common in the likes of US leagues such as the NBA and NFL was “unique’’ in Australia.
“We can unite the west using all different sports, so we’ve started with football but ultimately we can have a lot of different teams that represent the west and play out of infrastructure and stadiums in the west,’’ he said.
“That creates tribalism and the US model of the group that owns the teams, owns the infrastructure and activates the city.
“That is in effect the vision.’’
Socceroos great: Melbourne ‘falling behind’ in stadium stakes
The man whose spot kick steered Australia into the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 32 years says Melbourne is “falling behind’’ other states because it has only one major rectangular stadium.
Socceroos great John Aloisi created Aussie sports history when his penalty shot sailed into the back of the net in a classic World Cup qualifier at Sydney’s Stadium Australia in 2005.
That venue, now known as Accor Stadium, has since been the stage for many more highlights including the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and Rugby World Cup finals.
But while Sydney and Queensland have multiple venues in the right configurations for soccer, rugby league and rugby, Melbourne has only one rectangular stadium of note – AAMI Park.
Western United coach Aloisi said it was “super important” more rectangular stadiums were built in Melbourne to ensure Victoria kept pace, starting with a 15,000-capacity venue in the west.
“We’re falling behind a little bit in terms of the stadiums,’’ Aloisi said.
“In NSW they've got Allianz, they’ve got CommBank (stadiums) that are rectangular, they’ve got a few more stadiums than we have here, so we are falling behind.
“Victorians like to say it’s the sporting capital of the world, well, we need to make sure it stays that way by building more stadiums and having more infrastructure, and that is why this is an important project.’’
Depending who you speak to, 30,050-capacity AAMI Park, built 15 years ago is often the wrong size.
Some say it is too big for A-League games attracting average crowds this season of 9794.
But it is too small to host FIFA World Cup matches or sporting blockbusters demanding more seats, which often end up in Sydney.
It is why Western Melbourne Group decided to build its own 5000-capacity rectangular stadium at its Tarneit headquarters which will soon become a training base.
Plans for a 10,000-seat, 15,000-capacity stadium nearby have been approved, with construction to start in the coming months.
“I love the vision; that is one of the reasons why I did come to the club,’’ Aloisi said of the precinct he predicted would attract Socceroos and Matildas training sessions in years to come.
“It wasn’t just for the football in terms of the coaching and trying to win something and getting results.
“It was also about building something that leaves a legacy … not only the development of areas but for kids playing the game.
‘‘The infrastructure needs to be there, and there need to be enough fields and something people can go to, and feel part of a community.’’
With no plans forthcoming from the state government, Western Melbourne group chairman Jason Sourasis said: “It’s only us, we’ve done it all by ourselves. The only rectangular stadium, which had six or seven tenants a year ago, is AAMI Park.
“We have no other rectangular stadiums that are A-League or rugby league or rugby union compliant. The only one we’ve got is the one we’re playing at now in Tarneit and the one we are building.’’
The size of Melbourne’s sole significant rectangular arena has been a key reason it has missed out on events to the 83,500-capacity Accor Stadium.
Mr Sourasis said AAMI Park also lacked the community feel he hoped to establish in a central precinct around the new stadium in Melbourne’s west.
“The longer-term vision is a three-sided stadium, a screen that faces outwards and activates an outdoor events area that will be underpinned by a hospitality, food and drinks area,’’ he said.
“It basically makes it a Fed Square on steroids, but it is somewhere the community can congregate to watch anything, whether it is the cricket or Olympics or Carols by Candlelight.
“It’s a destination for the communities in the west, and the other big thing is, within the next seven years it is anticipated 100,000 new residents will live within 2km of where that precinct, where our main stadium, will be.’’
While a Divali festival and Indian pop concerts had already been staged in the smaller stadium, a bigger precinct would bring the west to life.
“It’s outward facing and isn’t just an enclosed, four sided stadium that waits for a game every couple of weeks,’’ he said.
“It’s activated every day so the community can use it for any sort of events, not just what is going on inside the stadium.
“So that has been a focus of the design, to be able to run lots of different events.’’
The club hopes to move into its new rectangular stadium for the 2026-27 A-League season.
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