Canberra United fans will have plenty to cheer about if their team moves to the proposed University of Canberra sporting facility. Photo: Stuart Walmsley
Capital Football wants to be the first to follow the ACT Brumbies to the University of Canberra and build a ''boutique stadium'' at its new high-performance home.
The Brumbies, the university and the ACT government last week announced plans for a $15 million sports hub on campus, which will be built within the next 12 months.
Capital Football boss Heather Reid has talked to university vice-chancellor Stephen Parker about joining the Brumbies at a new multi-sport headquarters in Bruce.
While no formal proposal has been finalised, Reid said a home for Capital Football's high-performance program was needed, with a 2000 to 3000-seat stadium to be used by representative teams and W-League side Canberra United high on her wishlist.
''Ideally what we'd want is a stand-alone home of Capital Football high performance programs as well as Canberra United,'' Reid said. ''There's a range of things that we're discussing, which include access to office and other administration type accommodation, as well as the sport science and the physiology and the training fields and, hopefully, a brand new stadium.
''At the moment there's nothing between the size of McKellar or Deakin [stadiums] and Canberra Stadium, and that's a real limitation for us.
''We could comfortably get 1500 people to a regular game for the W-League if we were able to provide people with a proper seat.''
The Brumbies, university and the Labor Party have pledged $5 million each for the new sports hub.
The Labor Party's contribution, which is reliant on the ACT election result, is for community sport.
The Canberra Capitals are also expected to begin discussions about joining the Brumbies, ACT Sport and United at the university.
However, the Capitals and Basketball ACT still have plans to build their own boutique stadium on their current site at Belconnen.
The university already sponsors United and the Capitals.
Reid said Capital Football would be expected to make a financial contribution to the new stadium.
Canberra United is housed at the AIS in an arrangement to give the W-League team a permanent base during the season - one of United coach Jitka Klimkova's requirements to stay on as mentor - but the fields at Deakin and McKellar are used for home matches. Both stadiums have limited seats, but only McKellar Park meets the line-of-sight requirements for televising games.
Reid said a new stadium would need to cater for television, as well as corporate hospitality and spectators.
''It would be for marquee games, so when we've got United or the Rockets playing against the Central Coast Mariners, instead of having a game at McKellar - a stadium that's got 480 seats - we'd have hopefully a stadium with 2000 or 3000.''
Capital Football's other high performance programs use the Hawker Football Centre and Kambah pitches, which have little more than toilets and change rooms. That would improve under a new partnership.
The university hasn't said it will build a new stadium, but in a statement to The Canberra Times, vice-chancellor Parker said it ''welcomes discussions with other organisations on this proposal and seeks their thoughts and vision for the Sports Hub''.
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