Broncos High Performance Centre

[BroncosAlways]

Broncos to leave Red Hill ??

No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

Surprising, opinions ?

 

[vertigo]

Brisbane Broncos eye move away from Red Hill | News.com.au

EXCLUSIVE: BRISBANE could move from their spiritual home at Red Hill as powerbrokers investigate a multimillion-dollar infrastructure upgrade to make the Broncos the NRL's most cutting-edge club.

The Sunday Mail can reveal Broncos hierarchy have undertaken due diligence on the construction of a high performance centre to ensure the club keeps pace with state-of-the-art facilities at rival clubs such as Melbourne and the Bulldogs.

The blueprint has been formulated over the past 18 months in conjunction with the club's landlord, the 50,000-member Broncos leagues club.

Leagues club general manager Geoff Kuehner admits Brisbane's football arm is suffering "growing pains" with the club's ageing headquarters, established 25 years ago, struggling to cope with modern-day NRL requirements.

The Broncos' preference is to remain at Red Hill, but football and leagues club officials are exploring larger development sites to house the proposed high performance centre.

The club has won six premierships training out of Red Hill, with master coach Wayne Bennett and legendary players such as Allan Langer, Kevin Walters, Steve Renouf, Gorden Tallis and Darren Lockyer having graced its headquarters.

But club CEO Paul White concedes the Broncos must expand in the short-term to remain an NRL flagship, even if it means severing ties with Red Hill.

Melbourne and Canterbury, last year's grand finalists, have set new high-performance benchmarks.

The Broncos believe better infrastructure can propel the club to a new era of dominance.

"The general consensus here is our current football set-up is not harming us, but it's not helping us," White told The Sunday Mail.

"As everyone knows in this game, if you're standing still, then you're falling behind.

"In this NRL clubs 'arms race', the Broncos need some form of high performance centre to continue attracting and retaining talented players, coaches and staff who are well advanced in their knowledge of what is required.

"At the end of the day, we need to grow here to succeed, or we will need to move on. Red Hill is our spiritual and historic home - we've been here for all of our 25 years. We had training sessions way back in 1988 on the very same training field sitting outside our leagues club today.

"We want to stay here, we are determined to stay here. We just need some local precinct options and ideas to get ahead of the game."

Under an expansion plan to keep the Broncos at Red Hill, the leagues club has bought three adjacent residences, but space is still inadequate.

White revealed the Broncos' current operations at Red Hill are struggling to cope with the game's professional demands.

"We're bursting at the seams, stacking office staff into ever-shrinking cubicles and even into storage rooms," he said.

"We've had some great seasons, but we've also had 25 years of striving to keep updating and expanding our football facilities and growing our technical staff to stay ahead of other NRL clubs, while supporting the under-20s competition.

"Right now, we've exhausted our renovation options in the football clubhouse. In the past five years, we've added a new office floor above the gym, then added more office space to the exterior for coaches, players and staff.

"Of course, any local expansion need not be just about benefiting the Broncos, but about the benefits for the whole community."

Kuehner hopes any expansion plan can keep the club at its spiritual home.

"There are a range of possibilities and one avenue could be using any unused sections of the Ithaca TAFE campus across the road," he said.

"We really want the entire Broncos franchise to stay together.

"We're going to do all that we physically can to keep the Broncos here. I fully understand the football club needs more living room to improve. We're in the same boat.

"The leagues club has shared its concerns over the growing pains we're all experiencing at Red Hill with state, local and federal governments for the past 18 months."

 

[BroncosAlways]

I think its good, but it will be interesting to see if it goes ahead

 

[Unbreakable]

Hopefully it goes ahead, sounds good.

 

[Ari Gold]

If we are using it we can hardly call it a place for high performance.

 

[broncos4life]

If we are using it we can hardly call it a place for high performance.

True, however 'affable yet mediocre performance centre' doesn't have the same ring to it does it

 

[Bucking Beads]

Good to see the club are trying to get our off field stuff in order. We do need the very best facilities to compete with other sides.

 

[Nashy]

I hope they stay at Red Hill.

 

[Fozz]

As long as we don't spend $25 million on it and bugger it up like the Titans.

 

[Big Pete]

But where am I supposed to be able to enjoy their famous breakfast buffet and footage of old classic matches?

 

[Broncoman]

But where am I supposed to be able to enjoy their famous breakfast buffet and footage of old classic matches?

The leagues club is staying in the same place the training facilities might be moving somewhere else. If it helps the team's performance i'm supportive of it.

 

[winslow_wong]

Maybe it will teach our players how to ground the ball for a try

 

[nopatience101]

hardly an exclusive.

 

[Big Pete]

I don't know how this is anything but a positive for the club.

A lot of fans have accused the admins. for sitting on their hands as the club falls into disarray but forget some of the strides we've been making off the field. We've made more headway in Ipswich, Logan and we're growing our presence on the Coast too.

Lot of good long term plans.

 

[rnabokov]

High performance centre? My car needs a tune up.

Come to think of it, so does Griffin

 

[GCBRONCO]

Great! Now all we need are the suitable players, coaching and management staff to take advantage of it!

 

[Ari Gold]

High performance centre? My car needs a tune up.

Come to think of it, so does Griffin

**** the tune up, lets just trade it for a newer model

 

[Alec]

I like how the administration is expanding the Broncos. We are the richest club, may as well use the cash. I think White is doing a pretty damn good job.