Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins says the "phone has absolutely melted" with requests to book the refurbished AIS Arena after launching a new era for Canberra's biggest indoor venue.
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And if first impressions are anything to go by, the city's sports and events fans will like what they see when they walk in to see what a $15 million makeover can do for a 41-year-old venue.
The fresh paint, the speckled green, blue and white padded seats, new scoreboard and video replay screen, updated change room facilities, and ambient light flooding in certainly give the impression of a major upgrade since the venue was unexpectedly closed indefinitely in 2020.
Back then the commission deemed the AIS Arena no longer part of the AIS or commission's core business. Even last year the commission considered offloading operational duties to the ACT government under a lease agreement.
But now with a fresh look and a bright future, in more ways than one, Perkins has committed to running the arena and hopes to attract touring acts and sporting fixtures over the coming months.
![Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins says users are lining up to book the AIS Arena. Pictures by Karleen Minney Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins says users are lining up to book the AIS Arena. Pictures by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/98fb966a-0a8f-42f4-8ed1-5263ac600763.png/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
So far only a handful of events are scheduled and they mostly fall into the non-ticketed category, including an opening ceremony, skipping championships and body building titles.
That's because the commission is still in the process of organising a ticket operator, but once that is in place the calendar is expected to fill up quickly.
The Canberra Capitals are also locked in negotiations with the commission to shift most, if not all, of their home WNBL matches to the arena for the first time over the past decade.
"The phone has absolutely melted," Perkins said. "As soon as we started work, and it was clear that the completion was going to happen, we've had a non-stop cavalcade of people coming through wanting to see what we're doing, what was available and asking for bookings.
"We're not going to be short of work to do here ... We have a natural advantage because we're more than double the size of the next biggest indoor space [in Canberra]."
The arena's revival fills a glaring gap in the capital's venue options and provides a perfect mid-sized solution until the ACT government breaks ground on building a 10,000-capacity pavilion in Civic or the University of Canberra gets funding for a 7000-seat stadium at its Bruce campus.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT?
There will be a sense of deja vu when fans walk back through the doors. The bones of the venue are still the same, but in so many ways the arena is more advanced than it was four years ago.
From a comfort perspective, fans won't have to swelter through hot summer afternoons or evenings or shiver through winter nights now that air conditioning has been installed.
From an athlete perspective, the change rooms that had been barely touched since 1981 now give off an air of professionalism and suitability for the athletes and artists that will use them.
From an event organiser perspective, Perkins said the restructure led to "unloading a few tonnes of capacity from the roof" to give touring acts the ability to bring in different staging for different shows.
"The work that's needed to be done to understand what the opportunity with the arena is and how we might actually operate it has been ongoing work and not completely settled," Perkins said.
"But the reality for us is that it's such an integral part of our facility ... it was always an important and valuable asset, but we didn't have the money to do the capital works and that was obviously what led to the closure.
"Don't get too excited. Running an operation like this is not a river of gold. The profitability is a very difficult thing to quantify ... we have the competency and capability [to operate it] and it just seemed sensible to maintain the use of our asset."
THE POLITICAL PUSH
Federal Finance Minister and ACT Senator Katy Gallagher and Sports Minister Anika Wells were given the honour of unveiling the new plaque at the upstairs entry on Wednesday.
The push to invest in the arena was championed by Senator David Pocock in his federal election bid three years ago. His stance forced former Liberal opponent Zed Seselja to commit to funding, and Labor's Gallagher did the same to ensure there was a plan in place to get the venue operational again.
In the end, the $15 million commitment looms as a sign of what's to come for Canberra's infrastructure wish list of the future. The federal government has already committed to an almost $250 million upgrade of the AIS campus, and $10 million for a multi-purpose precinct - which includes a stadium - study in Bruce.
Gallagher was impressed by what she saw when the doors finally opened at the arena.
"I think they've really made that $15 million work for them to really change and revitalise the arena. I think people coming here for the first time will be impressed and notice that it's more than a lick of paint," Gallagher said.
"We want this utilised. We know [Canberra] has missed out on things ... the former government did not care about this. They let the arena [and precinct] deteriorate and we're trying to rectify that."
THE OLYMPIC RUNWAY
Wells threw her support behind the AIS becoming a thriving sports hub again, especially in the lead up to the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032.
The $250 million investment for new facilities - including a training dome, accommodation for athletes and a new high-performance centre - is set to make the AIS campus a crucial destination for growing future Olympians and world champions after a decade of neglect from previous governments.
"Hopefully that [investment] will facilitate all that because we want this to be a real hub," Wells said. "All the sports science and health practitioner work behind our athletes, hopefully people will really see this as the place to do that now."