Cover up our stadiums for big bucks to start flowing

A visit to Las Vegas last weekend for the NRL extravaganza may have Sports Minister Steve Kamper thinking of stadium upgrades in Sydney, writes James O’Doherty

The NRL’s ambitious season opener in Sin City proves that not everything that happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas.

Premier Chris Minns should be taking notes from Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys after the gamble to launch the 2024 season paid off spectacularly.

Sunday’s first salvo in the NRL’s five-year campaign to break into the US market even won over some of its toughest critics.

It goes to show that the “crash or crash through” technique, executed well, can deliver in spades.

V’landys even managed to get Sports Minister Steve Kamper to travel to the US, winning over bean counters in the NSW Government after the Premier clamped down on Ministers going overseas on the taxpayer dime.

And it is a good thing too. Kamper returned home with bold ideas on how to better utilise our sporting infrastructure and finally fix the embarrassing fact that our major stadiums are still at the mercy of the weather. Kamper’s admission that he was “seriously looking” at putting a roof over Accor Stadium, as revealed by Dean Ritchie on Monday, was backed in by business leaders who have long argued that a covered stadium will pay off by attracting big acts like Beyonce.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo, ARL chairman Peter V’Landys and Minister for Sport Steve Kamper at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas

It was also backed by Venues NSW boss Kerrie Mather. Venues NSW has even produced fancy new renders of how Accor might look with a Vegas-inspired roof.

Spending hundreds of millions enclosing Accor would be a Damascene conversion for the NSW Labor party, who in 2019 campaigned up hill and down dale against the Berejiklian Government’s proposals to rebuild Allianz Stadium.

Minns was cool on the idea this week, declaring: “It really comes down to the price tag and we don’t have a figure for it yet. It’s not my money, it’s the taxpayers money … it’s not cheap.” He is right in his belief that taxpayers’ money is a finite resource that should be preciously guarded.

However, enclosing Accor with an Allegiant-style roof would go a long way to fixing an ever-present risk with Sydney’s sporting and entertainment offerings.

A fortnight ago, Taylor Swift’s opening night in Sydney was threatened by a lightning storm.

Kamper noted that “everything was out of our (the government’s) control” when storm clouds rolled through.

“If you have a facility that can’t protect against that, then there’s a great chance that you could lose a lot of great performers and content that is so valuable for our economy,” he said. Luckily the show was only postponed, not cancelled.

Swift is not the only superstar to be left at the mercy of Sydney’s open-air stadiums. Just ask Elton John, who was drenched when performing at Allianz for his farewell tour.

As Kamper points out, not being able to protect megastars from Sydney storms risks our economy losing major acts and big money.

Accor Stadium was built with provisions for a roof but plans to install one have always proved too costly. That, business leaders argue, is costing Sydney potentially millions of dollars in revenue from major entertainment acts and sporting fixtures. But amid the Minns government’s ethos of fiscal conservatism, the question of how to pay to install a roof remains unresolved. The Vegas experience could have an answer for that too.

Allegiant Stadium, whose transparent roof captured Kamper’s imagination, cost a bomb to build — almost US$2 billion.

An artist’s impression of what a roof may look like over Accor Stadium.

However, the majority of this money came from the local NFL team. There was US$750 million in public financing with the Raiders chipping in more than $1 billion, according to local reports.

What is to stop the NSW Government doing the same thing, by seeking to raise private capital to pay for a future-proofing investment?

For one, Minns’ vow against privatisation means he would be unlikely to give investors a stake in Accor to raise the funds for upgrading the facility with a world-class roof.

There is also the problem that NSW is still not getting the best possible value out of our stadiums.

Kamper’s visit to the US showed him the value in using stadiums for more than just sporting matches or concerts: he has returned with ideas on how to “activate” entertainment precincts to keep people at the ground longer, spending more cash and increasing revenue.

If saving Accor from the elements is a way to do that, a roof could go a long way to paying for itself.

The Premier came to power promising to be boring and it worked.

He has had one, maybe two, big ideas since coming to power: dramatically increasing Sydney’s housing density by going to war with councils and turning Rosehill Racecourse into a 20,000 mini-city (although this was the Australian Turf Club’s brainchild, not that of Minns). As the NRL’s Vegas gambit showed, big bets can pay off, if done well.

Perhaps Minns should take the idea for an enclosed stadium and run with it.