Cairns rectangular stadium: CRC Mayor Bob Manning on Barlow Park plans

Mayor Bob Manning has claimed he was unaware of a plan put forward last year to upgrade Barlow Park to a rectangular stadium.

A STADIUM befitting a city the size of Cairns is looking increasingly unlikely any time soon with the mayor claiming he is unaware of a plan to upgrade Barlow Park which is gathering support.

He also admitted his own plan, mooted more than four years ago, for an NRL deal with PNG and a purpose-built stadium, would be “hard to stack up”.

Plans for an upgraded rectangular stadium at Barlow Park up to 20,000 seats has been proposed by Enterprise North executive manager Kevin Byrne and the Northern Frontier Foundation, led by businessman Dean Pradel.

When Cr Manning was asked by the Cairns Post what he thought of the proposal he said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In November Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch warned personalities could get in the way of the progress on the project.

Mayor Bob Manning says there is still time for a Cairns Stadium. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cr Manning said he was still waiting to see a plan.

“First of all if someone comes up with a plan that does it, we’d accept that,” he said.

“We don’t think that’s likely because I think what you will find is a lot of people talk about it with good intention but haven’t got plans.”

Cr Manning said there needed to be a business case, including demand, revenue, and costs to make a new stadium feasible.

“That’s often the hard part. If someone was to put something forward. Then we wouldn’t muck around.”

Cr Manning visited Papua New Guinea on a fact-finding mission in 2018, where he gauged the potential for a Cairns-based PNG team to enter the NRL competition, a move which would necessitate the upgrading or building of a major new stadium in the Far North.

But he was seemingly blindsided recently when PNG launched its own bid to have a team included in the NRL by the end of the decade.

But Cr Manning still wants to have the discussion with them.

”We’ve been talking to people in PNG now for four or five years over this and over the idea of PNG coming into the NRL,” he said.

Enterprise North and the Northern Frontier Foundation have released their plan on how to create a 20,000-seat rectangular stadium at Barlow Park in Cairns, as well as other major sporting and associated infrastructure including fields, courts, extensive parking and athletics tracks. Picture: Supplied

“It’s hard to get plans like this to stack up.

“Maybe we are going to get into it in the next few years. We’ve talked a lot with the NRL about a stadium – if the NRL for whatever reason were inclined to adopt this.”

Mr Byrne said he had sent multiple letters to Cr Manning about the proposed upgrade of Barlow Park and he should have been aware.

“He has not sat down with me; I have requested to talk to him,” Mr Byrne said.

“If he says he doesn’t know what I am talking about then I dispute that.”

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, the Premier’s office, and Cairns MP Michael Healy in the past few days have said it was the council that needed to spearhead the discussion.

Cr Manning said he would when there was a clearer plan.

“The demand is probably getting to a point where yes we need to look seriously at a stadium,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be waiting for the state government to support it. I think they decided to put their money into Townsville.”

Cairns Chamber of Commerce CEO Patricia O'Neill, Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch and Advance Cairns CEO Paul Sparshott are advocates of the Barlow Park upgrade. Picture: Brendan Radke

And he said there was no urgency for the stadium to be done before the Olympics.

“The Olympics is in 2032. It would seem from what I am reading that the state government have no intention but to use Cairns as a training centre,” he said.

“If we were talking about what’s on the table now, I would think there will be something else that will come forward that will be advanced, and could take it further.

“I think this has a little while to play out yet.”

Cr Manning said a Cairns Stadium definitely needed to happen with a possible precinct but it wasn’t limited to Barlow Park.

“It’s a site that could well be used, yeah. But there’s probably three or four other sites that can be used,” he said.

Cr Manning said Barlow Park was built as an athletics field and that past proposals to alter the track were objected to.

“We hadn’t heard anything for track and field, I think that’s likely to come to the forefront again,” he said.

“That may necessitate the changes with some of the other designs.”

Originally published as Cairns rectangular stadium: CRC Mayor Bob Manning on Barlow Park plans