The AIS will still play a vital role in Australian sport even after the Canberra campus is redeveloped, according to director Peter Conde.
A business case for the redevelopment of the ageing facility is expected to be presented to the federal government later this month.
While marathon legend and former AIS director Robert de Castella has concerns about the new era for the sporting body, Conde insists there is no reason to panic about the future of the campus.
"I believe it will be absolutely as important as an organisation. We've got a really critical role to play in leading high performance sport," Conde told AAP.
"He (de Castella) has a particular view about what the AIS was back in the 90's.
"It certainly had some more sports that were permanently based here in Canberra, but the reality is there was only a small minority of athletes in the heyday that resided here in Canberra.
"It can be a bit of romantic view of what it was and that doesn't mean the AIS is any less important and it's just not a location in Canberra."
Gymnastics and basketball are two sports considering moving their bases away from the capital.
A shift for Basketball Australia's Centre of Excellence is considered a long-term prospect, with the Victorian government promising to build a state-of-the-art facility in Melbourne if it wins the next election in November.
Gymnastics, one of eight foundation sports when the AIS opened in 1981, could depart before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Federal sports minister Bridget McKenzie said after announcing the government's national sport plan, Sport 2030, last month that some of Australia's sporting rivals had overtaken the original AIS model.
"We need an AIS that is globally focused, that is cutting edge, in partnership with leading researchers across this country," she said.
