Calls for roof at Allianz Stadium after Elton John fans drenched at show

Critics say Sydney’s reputation as a world-class city took a beating on Wednesday night after fans at Elton John’s show got soaked by rain, sparking new calls for a roofed venue.

Drenching rain that required “Rocket Man” Elton John’s piano to be repeatedly wiped down mid-performance on Wednesday night has ignited another push for Sydney to get a roofed stadium.

Concertgoers left sodden from Wednesday night’s concert at the new $828 million Allianz Stadium, which was designed without a roof and opened in August.

Paul Nicolaou, executive director of Business Sydney, said images of rain-soaked patrons had been beamed around the world, hurting Sydney’s reputation.

“Sydney aspires to be a world city and by definition it has the attributes that make it a world class place to live, work and do business,” he said.

He said Sydney’s role “as an international city of note” can’t be realised “while we don’t have the benefit of a single big event stadium where the roof can be closed”.

Elton John on stage at Allianz Stadium on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Picture: John Appleyard

Mr Nicolaou said images of Elton John’s farewell performance “to rain-soaked patrons … have unfortunately gone around the world, sadly diminishing Sydney and its international stature”.

“Put simply, an all-weather stadium for Sydney is desperately needed to guarantee major events are not subject to the whim of rogue weather systems,” he said.

Fans donned ponchos …

… in the bucketing rain.

Aussie music pioneer Michael Chugg, the founder of Chugg Entertainment which helped bring Elton John’s show to Australia said: “Any new stadium should be built with roofs.

“It’d be nice to have one, but I can’t see anything like that in the near future,” he told The Telegraph.

In lieu of that, Mr Chugg said he’d prefer a “brand new entertainment centre” in the city or in the Moore Park precinct.

“There’s only so many acts that can play stadiums, but a lot of acts can play arenas,” he said.

When the stadium opened in August it was billed by the state government as a state-of-the-art facility.

Patrons leaving the venue on Wednesday and attempting to travel back to the eastern suburbs were hit with an extra hindrance — the light rail was suspended at Moore Park for more than an hour due to the rain.

“Unfortunately, the delays impacted customers heading out of the city as they exited the Elton John concert,” a Transport NSW spokeswoman said.

“(Light Rail operator) Transdev apologises for the inconvenience to passengers.”

Calls for a roof over Allianz come after similar pleas for a cover over Accor Stadium at Homebush, where Venues NSW chair Tony Shepherd has previously pushed for a retractable cover costing $120 million.

Mr Shepherd on Thursday acknowledged the NSW Government “has its limits”.

“We would have liked an opening (and) closing roof but we also recognise the government has its financial limits and they have many mouths to feed,” he told The Telegraph.

Sports Minister Alister Henskens said the new Allianz Stadium was “world class”, and the government would continue to look at improvements to sportsgrounds across Sydney.

“We’ll continue to look at ways to enhance our stadium infrastructure and we’ve got a strong record of doing that,” he said.

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