AIS investigates soccer field 'air domes' and accommodation upgrade as Kieren Perkins weighs into Canberra's new stadium debate

The former champion swimmer is lobbying the federal government to secure the funding required to refurbish the ageing AIS to ensure it can have a significant impact on Australia's "golden decade".

In a wide-ranging interview, Perkins revealed out-of-date accommodation needed the most urgent attention, weighed into the Canberra's stadium debate and encouraged all sports to tap into the institute's resources to boost performance.

He said the commission was investigating adding pop-up air domes, similar to the ones built by Duol for English soccer club Watford, for a new rectangular testing facility on vacant land, and also potentially adding them to the existing fields at the back of the AIS to make them all-weather indoor venues.

The commission has been working on a new AIS masterplan for several years, but Australia winning rights to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2026 Commonwealth Games is set to end frustrating government delays.

The domes and an urgent accommodation improvement loom as two of the first construction projects to make the AIS a modern campus.

Chris Dutton: How far advanced are the AIS upgrade plans and what is the first stage?

Kieren Perkins: Our strategy for what we want to deliver and the planning for that is done. Obviously, it is predicated on federal government funding to enable us to be able to actually execute.

To get us over this next 10-year runway and make us sustainable beyond that, we need to do these things. With funding confirmation, we'd absolutely have this place back to its world's-best facility status. In the meantime, we're at capacity now and that's why we'd kick off with accommodation.

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CD: Is funding allocation in the 2023-24 budget a realistic prospect?

KP: Yes, 100 per cent. Most people have a narrow view of the AIS and what it delivers. They think it's very much centred around winning gold medals, but there is also technology and innovation and Allied Health Services. The industry impacts the broader GDP nationally and in the ACT. Demand is going to increase for us to lead the national sporting agenda.

CD: What does the plan look like? What elements are involved?

KP: I can't go into deep detail because it's being presented to [the federal government]. But we need to uplift our accommodation, deliver more technology engineering and innovation spaces. We need more all-weather indoor facilities.

The rest of the world has been building these for 30 years, but we've just been sitting and watching.

We need air domes to get indoor rectangular playing surfaces and testing facilities. We need to embrace the new sports that are in the Olympics and Paralympics ... three-on-three basketball, speed climbing.

We haven't had investment over the last 20 years in the site, so the plan does include a solar farm and battery facility. We need to be more green, have more sustainable outcomes.

The old accommodation and the gymnastics hall need to be knocked down and rebuilt. It's about 50-50 for repurposing facilities and brand new.

When we talk about the dome over the playing surface, similar to the dome used by English soccer club Watford, it's not a brick and mortar facility. It's a different funding scope.

We need another outdoor oval, so the area off Braybrooke Street and Masterman Street will all be absorbed.

CD: The future of Canberra Stadium is a point of contention right now. Does the sports commission want to continue owning the stadium?

KP: I'm interested in ensuring we've got the facilities we need to deliver. At the moment the ACT government has a long-term lease at the stadium, which is up for review next year.

[A new stadium] isn't going to be built in Canberra within the next decade, so in the meantime Canberra needs a rectangular stadium.

We want to ensure we've got the right scope to deliver on our outcomes. Having an A-grade facility that can bring in crowds might be important for us.

I'm not going to give [the stadium] away without being really clear on making sure we can utilise it in the future. If the government decide they don't want to invest in developing the stadium, then it's still needed in the interim and then we can build future plans.

I see the for and against with the stadium [location] argument. But what I am 100 per cent certain of is that there is no commercial outcome that sees us giving away, or selling, the land here. Any investment opportunity [at the AIS site] has at least a 20-year cycle on it, and the only people that make money out of that will be developers.

CD: What if the sports commission and ACT government struck a deal on a percentage of selling the land where the stadium currently is?

KP: I'm always open to having a conversation, I never say never. But as it stands, what I know is that any sale proceeds from just the stadium, I'd burn in operating capital in a quarter.

We're seeing these bullish predictions of what it's all worth. They're just wrong. They're flat-out wrong. I'm happy to talk to anyone who's got an idea, but from what we've seen so far it would be giving away land forever for three or four months of gain. I can't do that.

CD: What about the argument that the stadium and the AIS Arena are no longer part of core purpose, and the land should be returned to the ACT at no cost to the territory?

KP: That's not true. In terms of training and daily operations when no-one is watching, of course we use [the arena]. We have no access to the stadium while the ACT government leases it.

We need to work in partnership with whoever might want to fund an upgrade of the stadium, if that's what they want to do.

But I'm not in the business of charity. I'm not going to give away the farm to make someone else rich, which at the moment, every proposal I've seen come over my desk or in the newspaper ... developers get rich.

I don't understand why anyone in the community thinks that's a good idea when we're ultimately talking about community facilities and output.

CD: If the ACT government chooses to build a stadium in Civic or at Exhibition Park, that leaves you with a white elephant.

KP: That's very true, but those are problems for a different day. Let's be honest, if the ACT government decides to build something somewhere else, they're still going to need this stadium for a minimum of a decade.

Give me five or six years, if that's the choice, and I'll come up with an awesome plan that we'll fund to be able to utilise the site properly.

CD: ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says refurbishing Canberra Stadium is his preferred option, despite the venue being owned by the federal government. Do you think there's a partnership to be had with the ACT government?

KP: I've met the Chief Minister and we're having those conversations. It's about being able to navigate an appropriate path and understanding what the outcome would be.

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If the Canberra community needs a brand new stadium that's not in Bruce, then what we do here over the next 10 years to enable football codes to keep competing is a different answer to the one if [the government] wants to redevelop Bruce.

It would have to be staged, but that would change the outcome and what you'd navigate over 10 years. We're up for those conversations, we're all running hard to get ourselves strategically set up.

CD: What about the future of the arena? It has $15 million funding to upgrade for a reopening in 2024, what are your plans for it?

KP: Maybe I've got a bit of a different commercial view about things [than past commission leaders]. We need that space as an overflow. Before it closed, we had 50 to 60 events every year. There's a commercial return on that that helps us operate, I don't know why we would ever want to give that away.

I'm not going to give away the farm for a short-term gain and then find in five or 10 years I have no control, ownership or access to a facility that's on our site.

My experience tells me the vast majority of environments where facilities are given away to commercial operators, the original owners end up in a much worse position. We need to find a way to navigate that.

CD: You've said the door is open for the Socceroos to have a base at the AIS. Would you like more professional national teams to use the AIS?

KP: We need 200 beds a night minimum just to keep up with our average because we're often over-subscribed. If we can solve the accommodation challenge, absolutely I'd like them to come.

I understand why a team like the Wallabies are at Sanctuary Cove, it's a beautiful location. But it can't deliver on the broader sport performance, recovery and education outcomes that exist here.

We'd welcome back any sport that wanted to come. We're not talking a scholarship program. But teams are welcome, and accommodation is often the death knell of those conversations. That's why we need to upgrade.

When I started in the job the Australian women's cricket team was in Canberra. They used our facilities, but stayed at Hotel Realm. We just need to modernise.

Over the past 12 months we've had 36 different sports use this site and more than 6000 athletes. We're already at capacity, and if we upgrade the accommodation then it would be a step into the professional and commercial codes.

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