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A new report from the Committee for Sydney confirms what we already knew. It's time to fix it.
The Committee for Sydney just dropped a 100-page report on the state of sport and active recreation in Greater Sydney. They called it A Sporting Chance. We read every word of it.
The headline finding is damning, and it's one we've been building SKTNG to address: Sydney's sport and recreation system is failing — and it's failing Western Sydney hardest.
The funding gap is real, and it's embarrassing
Of all 31 local government areas measured for sports grant funding per resident, Parramatta sits dead last. $0.24 per person.
For context: Hunters Hill receives $1.43 per resident. Mosman gets $1.08. The community that is set to add 91,000 new residents by 2041 — one of the fastest-growing urban populations in the country — is receiving less than a quarter of the investment directed at some of Sydney's most established, resource-rich suburbs.
The report describes this as a pattern where "the competitive, application-based model might favour clubs in better-resourced areas, leaving faster-growing communities with fewer opportunities to access funding." That's a polite way of saying the system is structurally rigged against the west.
The indoor facility crisis
Just 10 per cent of Greater Sydney's 2,202 public sports facilities are indoors. Ten per cent. In a city heading toward 6.3 million people, with summers getting longer and hotter, and western suburbs already recording nearly one-in-ten outdoor fields classified as too hot for children to play on during summer, the chronic undersupply of covered, weather-proof recreation space is not a minor inconvenience - it's a public health issue.
Liverpool, Camden and Fairfield record fewer than three indoor facilities per 100,000 residents. The report is explicit: "Greater reliance on indoor facilities will expose the chronic undersupply of covered courts and multi-sport spaces."
SKTNG is an indoor venue. Climate-proof, year-round, designed for Western Sydney's demographics. Not by accident.
The participation shift is already happening
The report documents a clear trend away from traditional, structured club sport toward flexible, accessible, drop-in recreation. Running, cycling, skating — activities that don't require membership, rigid season structures, or expensive registration fees. The largest single growth area in Australian sport over the past two decades has been informal, individual activity in public spaces.
Roller skating sits squarely in that shift. The report even calls it out directly, noting roller derby as one of Sydney's most affirming and community-centred sporting cultures — a space that "holds body positivity, self-expression, and community over performance as core values."
That's not niche. That's exactly where sport is heading.
The private operator model is the right model
The report validates the case for privately-delivered recreation infrastructure, explicitly citing Hoops House — a private indoor basketball facility in Brookvale — as a direct response to the facility gap that public investment has failed to close. It goes further, describing best-practice venues as those that "run around the clock, offering the potential for revenue stacking: memberships, day passes, corporate wellness, recovery services, food, events, community activation."
That's the SKTNG model. Not a skate rink. A multi-revenue recreation destination built for the way Western Sydney actually lives.
The youth disengagement crisis is urgent
In 2005, 31 per cent of NSW children met daily physical activity guidelines. By 2023, that figure had dropped to 20 per cent — and the decline is steepest among girls. The report links this directly to a lack of accessible, affordable, welcoming venues that young people actually want to attend.
SKTNG is designed to be that venue. Inclusive by design, affordable by intention, and built around the kind of joyful, social, non-competitive experience that keeps young people coming back.
The window is now
The report notes that with six years until the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and growing national momentum around sport investment, there is "a rare opportunity to benefit from surging interest and investment in sport." It warns, however, that this opportunity only translates into outcomes if the infrastructure is in place to absorb it.
Western Sydney's infrastructure is not in place. SKTNG is here to change that.
We're building the venue this community has needed for a long time. The data now backs us up.
Follow our journey below or on our socials and stay across our progress as we move toward opening.