Building assessment ignites fears Allianz stadium is a deathtrap in event of emergency
ALLIANZ Stadium is a potential deathtrap, with a confidential building assessment saying it would be ill-equipped to cope with a serious emergency.
NSW
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ALLIANZ Stadium is a potential deathtrap, with a confidential building assessment saying it would be ill-equipped to cope with a serious emergency.
With the state government to announce an expected billion-dollar rebuild of Olympic Park’s ANZ Stadium, the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust has written to chiefs of the sports that use the 31-year-old Moore Park venue with dire warnings about its condition.
The leaked letter says there are no fire sprinklers, no emergency power supply, not enough exits, “non-compliant” crowd barriers and woefully insufficient toilets.
Trust CEO Jamie Barkley wrote to sporting code chiefs last week, saying: “As a key partner and a major provider of content to Allianz Stadium, it’s important that the Trust makes you aware of relevant safety, security and compliance issues.”
As part of their Certificate of Occupancy, independent certifiers Blackett, Maguire and Goldsmith say they can only guarantee the stadium should remain open for another three years without an urgent injection of funds.
“Spectator evacuation times ... are significantly greater than internationally recognised and accepted standards,” the certifiers found.
They also wrote “fire and life safety issues ... present a number of immediate risks to occupants within the stadium, as well as potential risk to the stadium itself”. And they noted there were 48 women’s toilets, well short of the 335 required to meet Football Stadium Advisory Design Council guidelines.
The Trust is understood to have provided the government with numerous options including an $800 million redevelopment, or at least $400 million for refurbishment on the site. The price of minimal remediation works at Allianz has been put at $137 million.
The government has committed $1.3 billion for stadiums — on top of $350 million for Parramatta Stadium — but there are fears the Sydney Olympic Park upgrade could swallow all of that funding.
Last week it was leaked that an ANZ Stadium rebuild could be kept to $900 million, possibly freeing up $400 million for a rebuild at Allianz.
The government is yet to announce the nature of any ANZ redevelopment but Premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to make an announcement within a month.
The government has already spent $200 million buying back ANZ Stadium at Homebush from its private sector owners and is committed to turning it into a rectangular stadium with seats closer to the action. The question remains as to whether funding can also be allocated to Allianz.
NSW Rugby Union chief Andrew Hore last week wrote to Ms Berejiklian urging her to do something about the dilapidated Allianz. “The food and beverage offering is inadequate, narrow concourses are clogged with patrons and bathroom facilities are desperately poor,” he wrote.
Mr Hore said he was happy to discuss options, including temporary relocation for the Waratahs, should a refurbishment be decided upon. “The poor old stadium, even though it’s in a great position, is not to a level people deserve.”
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