Parramatta Eels unveil $70m centre of excellence in Kellyville
Parramatta has officially launched its centre of excellence in Kellyville with the Eels opening the doors on the largest facility of its kind in rugby league on Thursday morning.
The $70 million site is spread across 11 hectares and includes five full-size rugby league fields, a community centre, an indoor training centre, a gym and infrared sauna, rehabilitation pools, the club's offices and NRLW-standard match facilities with a capacity of 5,000.
The venue is the first fully integrated NRL and NRLW training facility in Australia and a far cry from the Old Saleyards the club used as a training base when CEO Jim Sarantinos first joined the club back in 2016.
"The gym was spread across three small little demountable modulars, the ice baths were out on the balcony, the first space I walked into was a team meeting room … but the chairs that were in there were plastic chairs from Bunnings, and it was so tight that players were kind of falling off and stumbling off the chairs," Sarantinos said.
"Credit to them, the coaches and the players never used it as an excuse for performance but at some point it does have an impact.
Funded by the NSW and federal government, the Hills Shire Council and Parramatta Leagues club, the Eels searched far and wide across professional sport, touring Premier League and NFL facilities to hone the design of the facility.
There was also a special focus on integrating the club's history. The theatre room is named Jack's Bus, after the bus coach Jack Gibson used as a meeting place during the club's premiership years in the 80s.
Former Eels from those premiership sides like Brett Kenny, Peter Sterling, Peter Wynn, Mick Cronin, Eric Grothe and Ray Price all donated memorabilia to the club to give the new building a true blue and gold feel.
"We brought a number of players along for tours at different stages of the build and the biggest thing they were blown away by was just the size and the scale, particularly compared to the facilities that we were operating in," Sarantinos said.
"We picked up a lot of ideas from looking at facilities in Australia, the US and Europe as well.
"When you're going overseas, you're dealing with organisations that are on a different scale from a financial perspective, but it is about picking up things, different ideas that can be applied in our context."
The accompanying community centre and grandstand will allow the Eels to play NSW Cup, junior representative and NRLW trial games at the venue.
Sarantinos is hopeful the club could also host NRLW competition games in the future.
"Once we set the facility up and we're up and running we'll be able to have the capacity to accommodate somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 people for a game," he said.
"Obviously, we'd love for the NRLW to grow where facilities like this are too small to accommodate NRLW games, but whilst we're still going on that growth trajectory … there's no reason why our facility wouldn't be able to accommodate games."
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