Newcastle International Hockey Centre chairman Bob Fernance’s “big punt” almost 30 years ago paid dividends on Wednesday when the Broadmeadow complex was given $10 million in NSW government funding.
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The injection from the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund to redevelop facilities around the NIHC’s three international-class fields will make it “arguably the best and biggest hockey centre in the country”, Mr Fernance said.
The announcement ended a long battle for Mr Fernance and the Newcastle hockey community to secure government backing to bring NIHC’s facilities on par with its surfaces and allow it to attract major tournaments to the region.
Mr Fernance and long-time administrator Peter Sweeney went guarantors for an $800,000 loan to help build the $1.25 million Broadmeadow centre, which opened in 1990. It has since operated and maintained elite fields with almost no outside funding.
Mr Fernance said the announcement on Wednesday was “a great result” for Hunter hockey and reward for the hard work of many people.
“It was a big punt,” Mr Fernance said of he and Mr Sweeney’s initial loan.
“But I had a lot of faith in hockey players and they are responsible for building everything here. This centre stands on its own two feet. It’s got a board, it’s user-pay. Hockey players pay for all this. It’s a credit to the Newcastle hockey fraternity that we can have something like this. It’s been special but now it’s going to be a whole lot more special.
“I’m immensely proud and I’m proud of the people who are involved in it. Everyone has played their part and when everyone does that, it goes just like a hockey game. You get a result.”
Mr Fernance said NIHC board member and development director Rolly de With and Jenny Roberts, from Castlecrest Consultants, had been driving forces in the successful application for funding.
The planned renovations include covered grandstand seating, new change rooms, rainwater tanks, upgraded watering and lighting, security fencing, car parks and a second-storey cafeteria, bar and viewing area. It is hoped the works will be complete by the end of 2018 and the new complex will become an east-coast centre of excellence for Hockey Australia, which bases its national team programs in Perth.
“There are a lot of championships that Hockey Australia are going to give to us,” Mr Fernance said.
“They want something like this. They came up to look at this before we held the Masters World Cup this year and [Hockey Australia chief] Cam Vale said, ‘I can’t believe this is here. If you put the infrastructure with this, this is what we are looking for on the eastern seaboard’.”
He said NIHC was the only hockey complex in Australia with three international-class synthetic surfaces and the improved facilities would enable it to host major domestic and international matches and tournaments.
In its application, the NIHC estimated a program of hosted events from 2017 to 2020 could bring $32 million to the Hunter.
NSW parliamentary secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald said the development had “benefit not just for Newcastle but the wider Hunter region” and the NIHC application had “ticked those boxes”.
“You will have a wide range of clubs geographically that will enjoy the facility, but it also brings people from outside the Hunter region,” Mr MacDonald said. “That generates your jobs and all that extra economy through hospitality and everything that goes along with that.”
Mr Fernance said “the real benefits are in the jobs and business opportunities this project will deliver to our community as national and international teams visit, stay and spend money in the Hunter. This is a win for hockey and a win for NSW.”
He said hockey was the third most-watched sport in the world because of its popularity on the sub-continent and more than 400,000 people already visited the NIHC each year.
The NIHC submission also emphasised the new-look centre’s potential to win events from other states and territories and be the cornerstone of the planned redevelopment of the Broadmeadow sporting precinct.
