Looking for something different to do indoors in Sydney? There's a new first-of-its-kind entertainment centre, catering to everyone from sports lovers and novices to kids, party groups and mates just wanting a fun social activity. It’s an immersive, simulated sports experience venue where you can engage in social batting (cricket, tennis, baseball and lacrosse) as well as golf (driving, games and fun challenges), and also darts. There’s a bar for drinks and food, and a range of different activities that you can pick between or cycle all the way through. Our resident sports fan, Alice Ellis, tried it all out...
For the batting and golfing, you use real equipment and balls, but the bowling aspect of it is simulated. For instance, in the cricket, you see a (fairly realistic) animated life-sized bowler running towards you and releasing a ball – before an actual ball shoots out from a bowling machine that’s hidden within the digital screen.
Then you score different points depending on what part of the screen you manage to hit the ball at. Cycle through the different sports while competing with your mates for points.
Never fear, the balls are made from fairly soft rubber. And you can switch the settings from beginner to amateur, club and all the way up to professional – so whether you’ve never swung a cricket bat (or lacrosse… um.. stick thingy?), or you’re almost at Usman Khawaja level, the bowling can be tailored to you.
A word of warning for the super sporty: this place provides a fun way to test your hand-eye coordination (and to see how you go up against 90km/hour bowling) – but this isn’t exactly a sports training facility, the way a cricket training or specialised golf training centre is. It’s a social experience.
As well as virtual golf games, you can choose from a range of different golfing challenges (‘hit the bullseye’, for example) – which appeal particularly to kids and competitive types. It’s the same with the darts – you’re playing with real darts and a real dart board (nothing virtual about that), but the board has been digitalised so that you can choose from different game types and the computer will keep track of everyone’s different scores.
SportsPlus is located at Canterbury Leagues Club, which also has a range of other bars and restaurants.
Sessions run from 60 to 120 minutes, tailored for different preferences and group sizes. They offer a range of group packages, as well as kids party packages for up to 24 kids.
Bookings (here) are recommended, but walk-ins are also welcome.
