The Hills Sports Recreation and Aquatic Centre, which will be on a 7300-square-metre site in Distribution Road, will have four indoor courts, a heated swimming pool and a 600-square- metre gym.

There will be courts for cricket, soccer and netball.

There also will be two automated batting practice and coaching areas for baseball and cricket.

The centre will have a physiotherapy clinic, a children's play area and a cafe.

Centre director Patrick Nalletemby said the facility would be the biggest of its kind in Sydney.

He said the centre would be ready for use this year or, at the latest, early in 2009.

``Final preparations are being made and construction will start in two weeks,'' Mr Nalletemby said.

He said a new ArtEnergy Solid State Lighting (SSL) would be installed, and that this would be a world's first in a sport facility.

``It uses the technology invented by Keith Higgins to provide up to 80 per cent in energy savings and has up to a 100,000-hour life,'' he said.

Mr Nalletemby said the centre was seeking 12 corporate sponsors for naming rights, logo display and advertising for one to five years for sums ranging from $2000 to $20,000.

Mr Nalletemby currently operates the Girraween Indoor Sports Centre, which he bought in 1997.

He said that the move to the new centre was to keep pace with a growing sport and health market in the region.

To be viable, the new centre will need 6000 members to attend every week.

``We are confident, as the new centre stands at the border of two of Sydney's fastest growing regions, the Blacktown and Baulkham Hills areas,'' Mr Nalletemby said.

``The Hills has mobile young families while Blacktown is the most populous area in NSW with half of the population under 30.''