Daley’s own goal on stadiums

Apart from lifting his name recognition, NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley’s promise to “sack’’ 2GB radio host Alan Jones and most of the 16 members of the Sydney Cricket Ground trust board if Labor is elected on March 23 achieved little. The stunt did not enlighten voters about what, if anything, Labor would do to ensure Sydney’s main football stadiums receive the upgrades they need. Mr Daley’s self-righteous “schools and hospitals before stadiums’’ slogan ignores the fact that Australia’s largest city deserves world-class venues, both for the economic benefits they generate and to improve Sydneysiders’ and visitors’ enjoyment of the games they love. Both the Allianz Football Stadium in Moore Park, beside the Sydney Cricket Ground, and the ANZ Stadium on the Olympic Games site at Homebush compare poorly with interstate venues. For football fans, both stadiums fall far short of the standards of Melbourne’s Docklands Marvel Stadium and Perth’s Optus Stadium, which will host the Bledisloe Cup in August. League fans complain that the ANZ Stadium lacks the atmosphere and immediacy of Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

More importantly, serious issues of public safety are at stake at the Allianz Stadium. SCG trust chairman Tony Shepherd says the potential consequences of what the board has been advised by experts are “too frightening to ignore’’. Problems include: no fire sprinklers; accessibility of emergency exit doors; the width of internal and external concourses; and the width of aisles and stairways. “In an emergency, patrons face the very real prospect of serious injury or worse in the rush for the exits … it would be absolute mayhem in the event of an emergency evacuation.’’

The long-running controversy over the upgrades of Sydney stadiums — including $730 million to be spent on demolishing and rebuilding Allianz, which opened in 1988 — has been problematic for the Coalition, especially in the bush where voters resent the notion that the government is favouring Sydney over them. But Premier Gladys Berejiklian had a win yesterday when Land and Environment Court judge Nicola Pain ruled that demolition of the Allianz Stadium can now resume.

Mr Daley has been keen to draw attention to the issue. But he has done so in a way that has made him look foolish. SCG trust board member Maurice Newman is considering suing Mr Daley over his bizarre claim that the board had ­arranged for fire sprinklers to be removed from Allianz Stadium under the cover of darkness. Mr Daley dug in deeper yesterday, insisting it was “game over” for the high-profile board members he wants to remove, come “hell or high water”.

Now that demolition of Allianz can proceed, Mr Daley, if elected, would have to decide whether to continue with the demolition and rebuild or opt for a more extensive patch-up job. He is gambling that the public will respond better to his promise of an extra 4900 health and hospital workers than to upgraded stadiums. Voters expect both. Given NSW’s strength after eight years of Coalition government, improved frontline healthcare and world-class stadiums should be affordable. Ms Berejiklian needs to make a stronger case about how the Coalition has created the conditions for the state economy to flourish.