Barlow Park set for $10m upgrade as Cairns stadium dream ramps up
Cairns Regional Council is about to put its hand out for a $10m upgrade to the city’s premier sporting arena – but Mayor Bob Manning has been urged to ask for much more.
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CAIRNS Regional Council is putting its hand out for a $10m upgrade to the city’s premier sporting arena – but Mayor Bob Manning has been urged to ask for more.
Wednesday’s council meeting will tick off a 50:50 federal funding application to overhaul lighting and audiovisual technology at Barlow Park, with ratepayers covering half the $10m cost.
One of the country’s most respected sporting voices believes it must be just a small piece of a much larger plan to get Cairns the rectangular stadium it deserves.
John Moore has been a rugby league stalwart in Cairns since he was first “conned into” becoming a referee in the 1960s.
He went on to be president of Brothers, a selector for Cairns, president of the CDRL for 12 years and chairman of Queensland Rugby League’s (QRL) northern division.
Mr Moore wound up being a director for both the QRL and the Australian Rugby League before retiring and making it his life mission to lock down a stadium for Cairns.
After two decades of “banging on” about a stadium, he can almost smell the beer, sweat and hot chips.
“Only two weeks ago, I had lunch here in Cairns with Shane Richardson who was the CEO of South Sydney (Rabbitohs) when they came here with six games,” Mr Moore said.
“He told me the only reason they left Cairns – they’re now in the Sunshine Coast – was because they just couldn’t grow the crowd.
“In actual fact, they kept dropping in numbers from something like 16,000 in the first game to 9000 in the last.
“It didn’t matter how much promotion they did.”
Mr Moore said the bizarre downward trend had nothing to do with the quality of football being played.
“The new people that came along were that disappointed in the experience of Barlow Park that they didn’t come back again,” he said.
“They were losing more people every year than they were gaining, even with their marketing efforts.
“The intention was to keep coming to Cairns but they’ve moved to Sunshine Coast and they’re going to stay there now because it has a modern stadium, albeit a small one.”
Lighting and audiovisual upgrades are long overdue but Mr Moore was adamant they alone would not help Cairns secure big NRL games.
Last year, the code brought matches to the Toowoomba, Sunshine Coast, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Mackay, as well as Townsville, Brisbane and Gold Coast.
Cairns was the only city of note not to get a nod.
“Last year we missed out virtually completely on sports tourism while the rest of Queensland got it,” Mr Moore lamented.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said a recent meeting with council CEO Mica Martin convinced him all three political tiers were on board with the push for major Barlow Park precinct upgrades.
That covers a 12,000-14,000 rectangular stadium that can be expanded to 20,000-25,000 in future years, and additional infrastructure including a new athletics facility – potentially built on underused Cairns Showground land.
With no business case yet drafted, it will be difficult to secure an election pledge.
“This should have been done a decade ago,” Mr Entsch said.
“The election wish list is well and truly finalised but that doesn’t mean to say there aren’t other barrels of money that can be found.
“It’s such a good project that I don’t think it needs to wait for an election cycle to get funding.”
However, a lot can happen in the three months until May 21 – the last date the federal election can be called.
The State Government has flagged $40m in upgrades to the Barlow Park precinct in its infrastructure plan for 2032 Olympics satellite cities.
Couple that with the $10m lighting upgrade and there is still a $50m shortfall on current stadium cost projections.
Funding could be sourced from various federal packages – or the vastly under-committed Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
Enterprise North chairman Kevin Byrne, who has led the stadium charge, said all the city needed now was a coherent plan.
“The lighting is good. It’s a start,” he said.
“But this is a no-brainer. The money is going to be there.
“The council just has to commit to going with it and making it happen.”
Mr Moore said the arena need not be a financial burden on the city, and a start-small-and-grow ethos would mean it was always the right size for the population.
“I believe some time in the future, Cairns will have an NRL team,” he said.
“But it will be a long time in the future.
“A stadium can’t be built for that but it can be built in planning for that.”
He said the mayor’s former push for a joint Cairns-Papua New Guinea NRL team would never succeed.
“Waiting for that is just a reason to do nothing,” he said.
“Nobody but nobody has any hope of PNG having a team in the NRL in the foreseeable future.
“They’re not even talking about it themselves.
“And do you think PNG is going to put in an application to play in Cairns?
“They will want to look after their own economy.”
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