{"id":432904,"date":"2026-01-23T20:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432904\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T20:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:06:15","slug":"17-million-announced-to-push-wollongong-sports-and-entertainment-precinct-closer-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432904\/","title":{"rendered":"$17 million announced to push Wollongong sports and entertainment precinct closer to reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long-awaited plans for a revamp of the Wollongong sports and entertainment precinct have moved to the next stage with the NSW premier announcing $17 million in funding and unveiling new detailed plans.<\/p>\n

The Wollongong Entertainment Centre will be rebuilt and branded WIN Arena, with capacity nearly doubling to 9,500 people.<\/p>\n

The Wollongong showground, widely known as WIN Stadium, will be significantly redesigned to include a new northern grandstand and an extended, reconfigured southern grandstand with improved player facilities.<\/p>\n

The concept plan also includes a new Southern Plaza to be built on the training oval and a beach promenade behind the famous eastern hill spectator area.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

An aerial view of the proposed WIN Stadium redevelopment. (Supplied: NSW government)<\/p>\n

Planning Minister Paul Scully joined with Premier Chris Minns and Sports Minister Steve Kamper to make the announcement.<\/p>\n

He said the $17 million investment would enable the government to develop a full business case for the plans.<\/p>\n

“It will allow us to make sure that we are ready to go,” Mr Scully said.<\/p>\n

“We’re not in a position at the moment to be able to say, ‘OK, this is how much it’s going to cost to get it done.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We need to get the design right, [and] understand that cost before we can get underway and seek that money to get it built.”<\/p>\n

Mr Scully said the refurbishment did not include new or additional car parking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We do need to make continual improvements to public transport but there isn’t a shortage of parking in the city,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Lord Mayor [Tania Brown] is already working on stuff with the business community, with the hospitality community to make sure people understand there are thousands of car parks in Wollongong’s CBD and it’s more of a perception issue than a parking issue that there isn’t availability.”<\/p>\n

Mayor backs upgrade<\/p>\n

Wollongong lord mayor and NBL Illawarra Hawks tragic, Tania Brown, welcomed the announcement, describing it as a great day for the region.<\/p>\n

Councillor Brown said it was her understanding that the extensive construction work would be staged over time, with no starting date yet.<\/p>\n

“They are not going to be able to do it all at one time,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, they get on with the new WIN Arena first and they will work through to the stadium and showground number two.<\/p>\n

“So it won’t all be at once.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A revamped entertainment centre would almost double the capacity for basketball games and concerts. (Supplied: NSW government)<\/p>\n

The Wollongong Entertainment Centre was built primarily as a basketball stadium but also hosts concerts and conventions.<\/p>\n

It opened in September 1998 with a concert by Bob Dylan and Patti Smith.<\/p>\n

Local politicians, including Councillor Brown and Mr Scully, have long backed a push to refurbish the centre, which has had issues, including a roof leak which forced the cancellation of an NBL game.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, WIN Stadium has hosted rugby league games since 1991, with the TV network gaining naming rights in 1997.<\/p>\n

It was upgraded with a new northern grandstand in 2002, and a new western grandstand opened in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long-awaited plans for a revamp of the Wollongong sports and entertainment precinct have moved to the next stage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11848,43,72496,15057,44,158,226441,4563,41,39,42,40,4526],"class_list":["post-432904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-entertainment-centre","tag-headlines","tag-illawarra-hawks","tag-nbl","tag-news","tag-nrl","tag-sports-and-entertainment-precinct","tag-st-george-illawarra-dragons","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wollongong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432904","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=432904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}