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The North Queensland Cowboys’ plans to develop a community, training and high-performance centre are moving forward with their application for a Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) loan moving to the next stage of approval.

The Cowboys’ application to NAIF has progressed, with NAIF’s Board making an Investment Decision to approve a loan to the project.

The $20 million NAIF loan would complement the existing $15 million Federal Government grant announced in March enabling the construction of the project to commence, with the facilities to be available for the 2021 NRL season.

The proposed facility, to be located adjacent to the new North Queensland Stadium in Townsville, will combine community areas, multi-sport high-performance training spaces, sports medicine and sports science laboratories, together with the stadium and administration offices, located in between Ross Creek and Saunders Street in the Townsville BCD.

Welcoming the advancement of the loan application, Cowboys Chairman, Laurence Lancini stated “funding support from NAIF is a crucial part of our business plan for our new centre, and we are grateful to NAIF for their consideration and positive response to our application.

“Our planning has continued as each milestone has been met, to keep us on track for a completion timeline of January 2021 when we would reunite our playing and administration areas.

“The economic and social contribution of the development and operations of the centre will have a significant impact on our region, and we’re delighted to also share this positive news with our stakeholders.”

The centre’s 17,000 metre² site, located within the Townsville City Waterfront Priority Development Area, will incorporate a full-sized training field (approximately 12,000 metre²) and provide modern facilities currently unavailable in Townsville.

The facility will provide a high-performance athletic training environment for local and visiting teams, co-located orthopaedic/sports medicine consulting, sports science and research facilities in conjunction with James Cook University and Mater Health Services, and centrally located meeting and office spaces.

The Cowboys will continue to operate and train from 1300SMILES Stadium in 2020, with work on the new centre scheduled to begin in December.

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