Eric Brooker fears diving could be lost to Newcastle unless an indoor facility is built in the region and says the proposed Hunter Park redevelopment for Broadmeadow provided a perfect opportunity to cater for the sport's future.
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The Hunter United Diving Academy president said Newcastle competitors were at a disadvantage by being unable to train year round in the region.
At the moment, to pursue their sport at an elite level, athletes must relocate or travel to Sydney to train through the winter months when Lambton Swimming Pool, where the diving academy is based, is closed.
"We've had Olympians. We've got a current world champion. But they can't train in Newcastle all year round," Brooker, who is also on the board of Diving Australia and the technical committee for World Aquatics, said.
"To be able to provide a facility that we can get access to 12 months of the year would be a game-changer. It would be absolutely amazing.
"We're stuck at the moment where you're always left to the elements and training is cancelled so many times, and then in winter you've got nothing.
"You try to do what you can but, because you're not getting that continuity of dry and wet training, kids tend to just go off and do something else during the winter.
"Half the time they don't come back so you sort of feel like you're starting from scratch every year."
We've had Olympians. We've got a current world champion. But they can't train in Newcastle all year round. To be able to provide a facility that we can get access to 12 months of the year would be a game-changer.
- Eric Brooker
In 2017, the NSW government flagged a major overhaul of the Broadmeadow sport and entertainment precinct - Hunter Park.
The Herald revealed in November a leaked "masterplan" for the precinct - which would include a new 11,000-seat entertainment centre, an aquatic centre, hotels and 2700 dwellings - but the Liberal government is yet to confirm any further details.
Brooker said his understanding of the proposed aquatic centre was "basically a backyard pool" but described it as the perfect opportunity to build a state-of-the-art facility to benefit a range of water sports.
"We need something that's adequate to cover the diversity that we need in our region," he said.
"There's so many other sports that could utilise something that's built to an international standard, where you could bring in major sports, major events, major competitions - locally, nationally and internationally ... If you go back to when the [Lambton] facility was first built, it was world class.
"But in the last 20 or 30 years the whole sport has changed to an environment where you're training all year round. Without an all-year-round facility, we're just being left behind.
"Kids and those that want to become elite divers especially, if they're not getting that sort of training environment then they tend to think, 'We can't see a future in this sport because we don't have the same opportunities as our Sydney and other states' counterparts have'.
"So it's a real big issue for us."
Nelmes added her voice to calls from regional advocacy groups, Wests Group chief executive Phil Gardner and National Basketball League boss Larry Kestelman for the government to progress plans for a new indoor stadium and large-scale redevelopment on the 63-hectare site at Broadmeadow.
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