Australian Rugby Development Centre
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Australian Rugby Development Centre (ARDC) is co-located with the University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Sports Campus, and the underlying principle was to create a new home for rugby in Australia and a state-of-the-art sports education facility.
The ARDC houses world-class performance training and recovery facilities for various teams and their coaching staff. It is also the first time that the Wallabies (men’s), Wallaroos (women’s) and the Australian men’s and women’s Sevens teams are located in the one training base. The deliberate positioning of the UTS Sports Campus means educational opportunities for elite athletes based at the Centre – they can enroll in custom-made courses that will be balanced with their sport and training commitments.
The ARDC is a leading example for the co-location of elite sport and education with more than 100 sporting professionals, over 700 students and researchers in the same facility. A core value was to provide world-class amenities, including state-of-the-art training and research spaces with high-performance laboratories.
In addition, the Centre is designed to be a valuable community asset that encourages use by community groups, including Indigenous organisations, local schools and clubs plus other Australian and international sporting teams.