State of Origin at Adelaide Oval 2020: How much the State Government paid NRL to bring game here

THE State Government is shelling out millions of dollars to bring the State of Origin rugby league game between New South Wales and Queensland to Adelaide Oval in 2020.

• Adelaide Oval to host State of Origin in 2020

THE State Government is shelling out somewhere between $5 million and $8 million to bring the State of Origin rugby league game between New South Wales and Queensland to Adelaide Oval in 2020.

While the government refuses to reveal how much it has paid the National Rugby League to bring the high-profile match to South Australia, one eastern states newspaper pegged the bill at somewhere close to $8 million.

However, The Advertiser believes the figure to be between $5 million and $6 million to bring the series – which has been won by Queensland in 11 of the past 12 years – to Adelaide.

Premier Jay Weatherill said yesterday not releasing the figure was a “competitive” issue.

“If people got the word about what we were spending it would tip them off about what they’d need to do to win these events, so we just don’t do that,’’ he said,

“What we do is tell you the global budget, which is $5 million each year for our bid fund, so it is obviously a proportion of that.”

However, the SA Government has predicted the game will result in a $15 million boost to the state’s economy.

The State of Origin payment is the latest in a series of expensive sporting outlays the State Government has refused to publicly release.

It kept the figure for last year’s boxing match between Anthony Mundine and Danny Green a secret.

It has also consistently refused to detail how much it paid the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to appear in the Tour Down Under in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

However, Opposition treasury spokesman Rob Lucas said yesterday that a future Liberal government would reveal the Armstrong payments and foreshadowed greater transparency in the future.

“A Marshall Liberal Government would definitely release the details of the payment made to Lance Armstrong, as he was a drug cheat and the payments were made many years ago.’’ he said.

“We will commit to being much more transparent than the current government.

“We will release details of some payments and will only not release details where we can be convinced there are genuine reasons why it is not in the state’s competitive interests to reveal the payment.’’

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon also called for greater transparency from the SA Government and said at the “very least should indicate a band for what they are paying unless there is a compelling reason not to’’. “The millions the government spends could be better spent on community sport,’’ he said.