What’s the Buzz: Queensland’s bid to pinch NRL grand final from Sydney
WHAT’S THE BUZZ: Queensland is determined to cash in on Sydney’s stadium wars with a multimillion-dollar bid to take NRL grand finals to Brisbane.
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THE woman who brought boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao to Australia this year is now trying to pinch our NRL grand final.
Queensland minister for major events Kate Jones is determined to cash in on Sydney’s stadium wars with a multimillion-dollar bid to take premiership deciders from our Olympic venue to Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Jones’ NSW counterpart, Stuart Ayres, has put at risk a 20-year agreement for Sydney to host grand finals at ANZ Stadium by his failure to sort out the major venue mess.
The signed agreement will become null and void if Ayres gets his way and prioritises a new 45,000-seat stadium for the SCG Trust at Moore Park, which will push back several years the plan to transform ANZ Stadium into one of the world’s great rectangular stadiums.
If Ayres is successful delaying the Olympic stadium works, the grand final will go to the highest bidder from 2020. And this is where the Queensland government steps in.
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“We have a proven record of staging big events like Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao,” Jones said.
“We have invested $750 million on events since coming in to government. We will take one or even two grand finals.”
Jones is highly critical of how poorly Ayres has handled the stadium funding issue.
“We’re getting very frustrated with the NSW government,” she said. “They’ve been saying all year that they are going to find a solution for their stadiums.
“Yet here we are and they’ve been dithering for 12 months.
“I’ve said to Todd Greenberg Queensland has consistently demonstrated our passionate fans turn up to games in huge numbers throughout the year.”
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Greenberg, soccer boss David Gallop and the chief executives of the Canterbury Bulldogs, St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers, the Rabbitohs and the Western Sydney Wanderers have written a joint letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to support the ANZ redevelopment as a priority.
So, too, has the chief executive of the NSW Business Chamber, Stephen Cartwright, who pointed out Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne were all trying to take major events from Sydney.