Canberra's sports facilities face a defining test as national codes push for more capacity

Canberra’s sporting infrastructure is being stretched as the city’s population swells and national leagues demand higher-standard venues. The ACT Government and local sporting organisations are now wrestling with a question that will shape the capital’s sporting identity for decades: which facilities get upgraded first, and who pays?

The pressure point is most visible at Manuka Oval, the city’s premier cricket and AFL venue. The ground has hosted Big Bash League matches and GWS Giants AFL games, but its 13,500-seat capacity is the smallest of any oval used regularly by an AFL club. Giants officials have made no secret of their desire for more seating and better broadcast facilities, and the club’s recent form-detailed in a Guardian Australia analysis on July 13-shows they are building toward a deep finals run, which would only heighten demand for a larger home ground in the capital.

From suburban ovals to elite training bases

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) on Leverrier Street in Bruce remains the backbone of high-performance sport in Canberra. Built for the 1981 Commonwealth Games, its 40-hectare campus includes a 400-metre track, indoor sports halls, a 50-metre swimming pool and athlete accommodation. The federal government committed $55 million in 2023 for a major redevelopment, but work has yet to begin on a new gymnastics centre and a dedicated sports-medicine clinic, projects that were supposed to break ground in late 2024.

At the suburban level, the ACT Government’s 10-year Infrastructure Plan, released in 2024, identified $78 million for new and upgraded community sports facilities. Among the projects are a $12 million netball and basketball hub in Tuggeranong and a $6 million upgrade to the Deakin Stadium playing surface and lighting. But local sporting groups say the timeline is too slow. Brian Curtis, president of the Canberra District Netball Association, told The Daily Canberra in May that the Tuggeranong centre won’t be ready until at least 2028, leaving juniors scrambling for court time.

What comes next for Canberra’s sporting future

The ACT Government is expected to release a revised Sport and Recreation Facilities Strategy by the end of this year. That document will set the priorities for the next decade and will almost certainly address the capacity problem at Manuka Oval and the delayed AIS redevelopment. In the meantime, the University of Canberra’s new indoor sports centre-a $20 million facility opened in March 2025-has already become a key venue for the UC Capitals basketball team and for local badminton and futsal competitions.

For now, Canberra’s athletes and fans make do. They squeeze into Manuka for the Giants’ three home games a year. They share courts at the AIS with visiting national teams. They wait for the new netball hub in the south. The pressure is building, and the strategy due later this year will show whether the capital’s infrastructure can keep pace with its ambition.