The Goldcoast is reporting that Swimming Australia may make it’s new home on the Gold Coast.
The national governing body is currently housed in Canberra, although the Gold Coast looks like a very good option for its new home, Sydney and Melbourne are also in consideration.
The local community will see many with the Queensland hosting the Pan Pacific Championships and Gold Coast City hosting 2018 Commonwealth Games and even more if Swimming Australia comes to town. Not only will the two championship meets bring an influx of business for the community during the duration of the games, but their legacy will see an influx of jobs and leave those in the community state of the art facilities.
An example of this is the $40 million renovations of the Southport Aquatic Centre. 
These renovations will include a cafe, function facilities, gymnasium, retail shop, new 10-lane, 50m competition pool, and 25m pool, while the learn-to-swim pool and kids’ aquatic play area will be rebuilt.
Cr Tate, Mayor of Gold Coast City, feels that having Swimming Australia relocate to the Gold Coast would be an outstanding addition to the legacy that the games will leave, “The Gold Coast is recognised as an ideal elite and high-performance sports training destination but I want to see us expand on this and become the base of operations for some of the nation’s peak sporting bodies,” said Cr Tate.
Cr Tate also wants to see the Australian Swimming Hall of Fame housed at the Southport facility.
The sporting industry is currently worth $579 million to the community and employs 2886 people and those numbers would increase significantly if Swimming Australia brings it’s headquarters to the area.
In addition to the Southport renovations, if Swimming Australia chooses the Gold Coast as their new headquarters, Jeremy Turner, interim CEO of Swimming Australia would plan on a having a multipurpose facility built adjacent to the Southport Aquatic Centre.
“We would like to build a state-of-the-art facility near the new pool,” said Turner.
Turner also noted that one of the aspects that makes the Gold Coast attractive to Swimming Australia is that a large percentage of the Australian National team have come from the area.
