NSW Premier Mike Baird announces lion’s share of $1.6 billion stadium funding will go to ANZ stadium, not Allianz

IT’S been the stadium shemozzle that’s divided a city and a government, but NSW Premier Mike Baird has drawn a line in the sand.

ANZ Stadium redeveloped as a 75,000-seat rectangle.

IT’S a stadium-sized debacle which has left footy fans frustrated, pitted club against club and seen a Premier openly contradict one of his ministers.

But on Thursday afternoon, NSW Premier Mike Baird did his best to draw a line under the saga of Sydney’s new stadiums.

Standing awkwardly next to his Sports Minister Stuart Ayres, Mr Baird announced the lion’s share of more than $1 billion of funding for improved sporting infrastructure would go towards upgrades at Parramatta and ANZ stadiums, in the city’s west.

“The $1.6 billion package represents the biggest investment in sport, entertainment and the visitor economy in NSW since the Sydney 2000 Olympics,” Mr Baird said.

Yet, barely a few days ago, Mr Ayres had thrown his weight behind an alternative plan to build a new arena in the Moore Park precinct in Sydney’s east.

The contradictory messages from the government has led the opposition to call for the sports minister to be sacked from the ministerial bench and claim the Coalition has simply come round to their own stadium strategy.

The Sports Minister is possibly smiling a bit less now that his stadium plan has been turned on its head. Picture: Jonathan Ng

‘AT RISK’

For Mr Ayres, it was all supposed to be so different with Thursday’s announcement, on the turf at ANZ Stadium at Homebush, like losing the match and then being forced to watch the opponent’s victory parade.

Just over week ago, with the Premier overseas, Mr Ayres was reported to have told NRL clubs that the cash splash was “at risk” if they didn’t fall in behind his stadium plan at Moore Park.

Rather than refurbish the existing Allianz stadium, with the existing Sydney Cricket Ground Trust (SCG) boundaries, an entirely new rectangular stadium would built adjacent to the current arena on publicly-owned parkland.

The proposal would mean the Sydney Roosters, Sydney FC and NSW Waratahs, could continue to use their home ground until the new stadium was ready.

The price would be the destruction of prized inner city parklands and the historic Kippax Lake, a move which even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had his doubts about.

Rooster’s aside, the NRL were furious at the threat and presented their own “five point plan” which would see ANZ turned into a rectangle and the retention of much loved suburban grounds.

On Tuesday 5 April, Mr Ayres said he would “continue (talking) with the NRL “to try to close the gap” between the competing views of Sydney’s stadium future.

The swans which glide along Kippax Lake are safe, it would seem, from the Roosters. Picture: Craig Wilson

GREAT NEWS
But the only one who got a talking to was Mr Ayres himself whose vision of arena nirvana was given the red card when the Premier returned to Australia earlier this week.

On Monday, Mr Baird said that if a proposal was put to the government to build on the Centennial Parklands he would urge them to “go back and make sure it’s built on existing land”.

On Thursday, Mr Baird announced the ANZ, Allianz and Parramatta stadiums would share funding. Sydney would also host NRL grand finals and State of Origin matches for the next two decades, 10 years worth of the Bledisloe Cup and an additional test match each year, a guaranteed Lions Tour test match, along with Rugby Sevens and a 12-year agreement in principle to host at least 12 Socceroos and 12 Matildas matches.

“It means the country’s premium sports content and major events will be showcased in Australia’s global city for decades to come, as a result of our investment in world-class venues,” he said.

“This is a historic day for Rugby League … one which will give our fans the comfort and facilities they deserve,” NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said.

The new stadium plan was “great news” for codes, said Mr Ayres, “but more importantly it is great news for the NSW economy.”

Allianz Stadium will now be retained and refurbished rather than demolished. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images.

RESIGN

But it’s been nothing short of a humiliating climb down for Mr Ayres.

Sporting greats are now urging the three teams still barracking to build on public parkland to concede that they will now never win the match.

On Tuesday, Penrith General Manager Phil Gould said everyone needed to take a step back and put self-interest aside.

A temporary relocation of the Roosters might be hard but, “if we all get a better stadiums structure then everyone gets what they want. It’s a small price to pay,” reported The Australian.

It will take some convincing diehard fans of the merits of Baird’s announcement. On Wednesday, 2GB shock jock and SCG Trust board member, Alan Jones, went apoplectic telling his listeners “The proposal always was, from the Premier down, that the Roosters, Sydney FC and Waratahs would stay playing at Allianz stadium while a new rectangle was built on a different footprint.

“These football clubs are entitled to feel that they have been dudded.”

The stadium stoush has been an own goal for the government which Labor has only been too happy to highlight.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley has called for Mr Ayres to be replaced over the shemozzle.

“Premier Baird has no choice but to sack Stuart Ayres. He’s undermined his own Premier and he’s actively fought against the decision of the Cabinet.

“Four years and countless iterations later, Mike Baird has realised that Labor’s policy of putting a refurbished ANZ Stadium in Sydney’s geographic centre first is the right policy.”

The swans that glide along Moore Park’s Kippax Lake are safe, it would seem, from the Roosters. Mr Ayres tenure as sports minister is less secure.