Modern AIS Arena in demand after $15 million upgrade

The AIS Arena is back.

The $15 million upgrade is complete and the doors are ready to be thrown open so the 4000-seat multi-use facility at Bruce can once again be a fixture in the sporting, entertainment and social life of the national capital.

That will include the University of Canberra Capitals WNBL team. They checked out the venue yesterday (2 July), the latest in many visits to the site, and while the deal is not done, an announcement is expected soon on their return to their former stronghold for the 2024-25 season.

Concert acts can also be expected to start returning to Canberra, with the venue now having even greater scope for a variety of shows.

On Wednesday (3 July), Australian Sports Commission CEO Kieren Perkins led Sports Minister Anika Wells, Finance Minister and ACT Senator Katy Gallagher, Member for Fenner Andrew Leigh and media on a tour of the new-look Arena after an official opening ceremony.

So what’s new?

New fixed and retractable seating will accommodate a wide range of sport, music and community events.

New lighting, scoreboards, big LED screens, PA system and air-conditioning will enhance and improve the audience experience, while glass viewing platforms for wheelchair users, a hearing loop and accessible bathrooms will make it a much more inclusive venue.

For sportspeople and performers, modern and flexible changerooms and green rooms will match their experiences elsewhere.

Mr Perkins said the project came in under budget, which allowed for a new floor that can be set up and packed down as required by multiple sports.

Events already on the Arena’s schedule for the second half of 2024 include the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships Opening Ceremony, Uni Sport National Championships, Skipping Australia National Championships and ICN Body Building World Championships.

Mr Perkins said it was a proud moment to be able to show off the work that’s been going on.

He said the phone had melted down once people knew the Arena would be back in action.

“We’re dragging as much entertainment and activity on site as we can,” he explained.

“A whole bunch more announcements will be hopefully coming over the next month or two as we finalise those agreements and make sure that we’ve got our core tenants – people that are going to regularly be here.”

Mr Perkins said the Arena would again put Canberra on the concert map because of its crowd capacity, new technical assets and extra space.

He said the Arena was more than double the size of the next biggest indoor space, had new lighting and audio-visual systems, and more roof capacity.

“We’ve unloaded a few tonnes of capacity from the roof which enables us to bring in acts that do want to have rigging and staging,” he said.

“That is going to allow a different type of show than what we had previously.

“We’re not rigging the stages. For any concert act that wants to come, it’s really more about ensuring that the venue is clean, safe and open.”

Mr Perkins said the Arena, while owned by the Commonwealth, was a core asset of the ACT and the community.

He said the relationship with the ACT Government would continue to be important and the ASC would ensure that the two worked together to bring events and acts to the Arena.

An impressed Senator Gallagher said the ASC had obviously got great value out of the $15 million in Commonwealth funding.

“People coming here will be impressed, and they will notice that it’s had more than a lick of paint,” she said.

Senator Gallagher said Canberra had missed out on a lot when the Arena was out of action.

“We want this utilised,” she said.

“It’s a big community asset here, and when you don’t have a medium to small-sized venue, you don’t get those acts.

“So, we know we’ve missed out on things. We know we’ve missed out on the Caps, which has been their home, so we’re looking forward to that being rectified.”

Senator Gallagher said the Federal Government was ready to work with the Territory so Canberrans could get the same opportunities as other cities do with entertainment and sporting fixtures.

It was also open to other infrastructure projects and proposals through the formal partnership that has been established.

As a former Chief Minister, she understood the Territory’s limitations and need for Commonwealth support as the national capital.

“I certainly recognise that they haven’t got what they should have over the past decade,” she said.

“We’re trying to change that, but we can’t change it overnight. We’ve got our own budget pressures. So what we’re trying to do is work through the things that the ACT Government wants to partner with – light rail, obviously, we’re putting more money into that to help them – and we’ll keep working it through.”

The AIS Arena closed to the public in 2020 due to safety concerns and briefly reopened in September 2021 to support the ACT’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, where it operated as a mass vaccination clinic and administered more than 288,000 COVID-19 vaccinations to the ACT community.