\n Hawthorn Football Club has officially opened its new home, the Kennedy Community Centre.\n <\/p>\n
Hawthorn Football Club has entered the next exciting chapter of its rich and storied history after officially opening the Kennedy Community Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Club\u2019s new\u00a0headquarters\u00a0in Dingley, named in honour of Australian Football\u00a0Hall of Fame\u00a0and Hawthorn\u00a0Legend John Kennedy Snr,\u00a0will\u00a0proudly serve as\u00a0a home for the entire Hawthorn family\u00a0for generations to come,\u00a0including members,\u00a0fans,\u00a0past players,\u00a0fans\u00a0and the local community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The world-class,\u00a0state-of-the-art\u00a0complex is headlined by the Harris High Performance Centre,\u00a0featuring\u00a0an elite\u00a0gymnasium\u00a0with full aquatic facilities,\u00a0including a magnesium pool and\u00a0dry\u00a0sauna, as well as\u00a0equal\u00a0amenities\u00a0and locker rooms\u00a0for both AFL and AFLW programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adjacent to\u00a0the\u00a0MCG-sized training oval\u00a0is the\u00a0dedicated\u00a0AFLW Oval and\u00a0Community Pavillion,\u00a0boasting\u00a0full broadcast facilities, changerooms\u00a0and floodlights\u00a0\u2013 which has been\u00a0purpose-built to host future AFLW matches, in addition to being\u00a0available to the local community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the turning of the first sod in February last year, on Monday morning, Hawthorn President Andy Gowers, CEO Ash Klein and Senior Coaches Sam Mitchell and Daniel Webster were joined by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan and Kingston City Council Mayor Georgina Oxley to open the new facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Stage 1 of the\u00a0Kennedy Community Centre\u00a0now complete, Hawthorn is now working with all levels of government on the future vision of Stage 2\u00a0\u2013 which will include an indoor community sports centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn members and fans will get the chance to immerse themselves in their new home when the\u00a0Club hosts its\u00a0annual Christmas Open Training on Saturday 6 December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn President Andy Gowers said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an\u00a0historic\u00a0and\u00a0proud\u00a0day for our football club as we officially open our new home, the Kennedy Community Centre.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kennedy Community Centre\u00a0will transform our football club into the future, providing our players and staff with\u00a0a world-class high-performance environment,\u00a0best\u00a0positioning\u00a0Hawthorn\u00a0in\u00a0our never-ending\u00a0pursuit of\u00a0sustained\u00a0premiership\u00a0success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of the\u00a0Club,\u00a0I\u2019d like to acknowledge the\u00a0hard work and\u00a0very\u00a0generous contributions\u00a0from\u00a0many people over\u00a0they journey,\u00a0including\u00a0former Director Geoff\u00a0Harris\u00a0and\u00a0his\u00a0family\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the support has\u00a0played a\u00a0significant role in bringing the Kennedy Community Centre\u00a0to life, whilst continuing\u00a0to highlight\u00a0the loyalty and commitment of the\u00a0Hawthorn family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn CEO Ash Klein said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHawthorn has long been a\u00a0Club built on\u00a0high\u00a0performance\u00a0and success,\u00a0now being able to thrive in the\u00a0elite surrounds of our new home at\u00a0the Kennedy Community Centre, we\u00a0are very confident we\u00a0take that to the next level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery\u00a0Hawthorn\u00a0player\u00a0and staff member\u00a0will\u00a0be given the opportunity to reach their potential\u00a0at\u00a0the Kennedy Community Centre\u00a0\u2013\u00a0forging\u00a0a genuine competitive advantage over the rest of the competition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, our new home is as much for our members as it is for our players and staff, we can\u2019t wait\u00a0for\u00a0the Hawthorn faithful to\u00a0experience our\u00a0new innovative\u00a0museum,\u00a0take a look around the\u00a0revamped\u00a0HawksNest\u00a0Shop,\u00a0and\u00a0most importantly, come\u00a0grab a coffee and watch training\u00a0in our amazing new surrounds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to\u00a0thank those who have supported the\u00a0Club\u00a0in making the Kennedy Community Centre a\u00a0reality,\u00a0whilst working in partnership with federal,\u00a0state\u00a0and local\u00a0governments, and the AFL, to directly benefit the local community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to\u00a0continuing these strong relationships\u00a0with all levels of government as\u00a0the\u00a0Club\u00a0embarks upon Stage 2 of the Kennedy Community Centre.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn Football Club has officially opened its new home, the Kennedy Community Centre. Hawthorn Football Club has entered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-290811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}