Rabbitohs claim SCG Trust pushed for club to break Accor Stadium contract

South Sydney claim officials wanted them to relocate to the new Allianz Stadium when it opened in 2022, as their bid to move is knocked back by the state Sport Minister.

South Sydney claim they were asked by the SCG Trust to break their deal with Accor Stadium and relocate to Allianz Stadium. Artwork by Emilia Tortorella. Sources: Supplied

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South Sydney have made the sensational claim that SCG Trust officials wanted them to break their contract to play matches at Accor Stadium until 2030 and relocate to the new $845m Allianz Stadium when it opened in 2022.

In an escalation of the club’s campaign to return to Moore Park, it can be revealed Souths are seeking an urgent meeting with NSW Premier Chris Minns about where they will play home matches.

On Tuesday afternoon, state Minister for Sport Steve Kamper’s office told Souths that it wasn’t going to budge on allowing them to relocate – but Souths have vowed to fight on.

The Australian has obtained a copy of a 13-page PowerPoint presentation from August 19, 2020, which the now-defunct trust delivered to the Rabbitohs in the hope of them returning to the precinct after leaving in 2006.

The approach was made two months after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian shelved plans during the Covid pandemic to reconfigure Accor Stadium into a 70,000-seat, rectangular venue at a cost of $810m.

One of the trust’s selling points was the stadium’s “unbeatable location” because of its proximity to the team’s former headquarters at Redfern Oval and Souths Juniors Leagues Club at Kingsford.

Another slide highlighted the club’s storied history at Moore Park: “The Rabbitohs and SCG Trust go back to 1908 with 847 matches in the precinct since the start of the NSWRL competition; more matches (326) at the SCG than any other venue; a foundation tenant of the former Sydney Football Stadium in 1988; and 20 of 21 premierships won in the SCG Trust precinct.”

The presentation also promised a “packed atmosphere” with the “goal of a full house” for matches against inner-city rivals Sydney Roosters, who are long-time tenants of Allianz Stadium and vehemently against Souths’ return.

Souths left Moore Park in 2006 after they struck a lucrative deal worth $1m a season with Venues Live to play matches at Accor Stadium, the home of the 2000 Olympic Games.

The club in 2016 extended its tenure until the end of 2030 in the belief that a refurbishment of the ageing 80,000-seat venue was forthcoming – but it now wants to return to Allianz because successive state governments have not made significant investment in the facility.

Minns confirmed that position to Souths chairman Nick Pappas and chief executive Blake Solly at a meeting on April 2, prompting the club to launch a PR offensive to return to Allianz.

The idea has been met with strong resistance from the Roosters and Venues NSW, the government agency that manages the state’s major sporting and entertainment venues.

Venues NSW absorbed the SCG Trust in December 2020, although much of the trust staff, including chief executive Kerrie Mather, remain. It wants Souths to stay at Accor, fearing fewer matches will jeopardise its naming rights sponsorship and membership program.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Sport denied the SCG Trust wanted Souths to break its contract with Accor Stadium, saying the discussions were about “uncontracted” matches.

“South Sydney Rabbitohs are contracted to play nine matches per season at Accor Stadium,” he said. “Souths have three uncontracted home matches each year. Venues NSW remains open on hosting Souths’ uncontracted games at Allianz Stadium.

South Sydney CEO Blake Solly. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“The Rabbitohs have played one home game at Allianz Stadium since it opened, with a second home match scheduled in August this year as part of the inaugural Gadhu Gathering.

“Conversations on hosting uncontracted matches have been ongoing for many years, including in 2020, when the then SCG Trust met with the Rabbitohs to bring one of their home games to Allianz Stadium.”

A furious Solly rejected the claim that previous negotiations were about uncontracted matches.

“That is incorrect and misleading,” he said. “Not for the first time, we were approached by the trust to break our contract.”

Souths want to play seven matches at Allianz next year, with as many as nine the year after. They have said they will retain two matches a season at Accor.

Solly defended the decision to reject the 2020 offer to return to Moore Park – the very deal it is seeking now.

“First, the NRL had asked us to support them in their negotiations with the government on a new MOU, which included investments in suburban stadiums,” he said. “Second, Accor was at the time operated by Venues Live, with whom we had a longstanding relationship that effectively saved the club from insolvency in 2006.”

He said the NRL had been in negotiations at that time with the government about an alternative refurbishment of Accor.

“At that stage, there were discussions about a more modest, $400m fit-out that would make the stadium rectangular, bring the lower bowl closer to the field, and an update of corporate facilities,” he said.

The Roosters, who share Allianz with the NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC, argue against more matches at the venue because of the unreliability of the playing surface, which has major drainage issues, despite the stadium being touted as world-class.

A second investigation in less than a year is under way to establish why the ground cannot support wet weather, highlighted most recently during the Women’s State of Origin when large pools of water formed on the surface.

The Australian has been told the playing surface could be torn up at the end of the NRL season, with the venue unavailable for as long as 12 weeks, which would force Sydney FC to play A-League matches elsewhere.

The Allianz Stadium surface came in for criticism after the Women’s State of Origin game. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“The comprehensive review into the playing surface and drainage system at Allianz Stadium is expected to be finalised in August,” a Venues NSW spokesman said. “While we wait for the results to determine the next course of action, we will continue to work with our sports partners on their fixturing requirements.”

At the heart of the dispute is the long-running hostility between the Roosters and Rabbitohs, rugby league’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Internally, Souths have adopted the same motto used when they were excluded from the NRL in 2000: “They can lie about us, they can lie to us, but we are not lying down.”

Souths coach Wayne Bennett fuelled the debate when he told reporters on Saturday: “We just have to get the small-mindedness out of it. One club doesn’t own that stadium. The stadium is there for the people of NSW. I don’t understand all the fuss about it. Well, I do. It’s the small-mindedness that’s creating all the fuss.”

Roosters chairman Nick Politis declined to comment about Bennett’s remarks, although it is understood he has met with Pappas about finding common ground.

This month, Minns told the Freddy and the Eighth podcast that the issue was “a tough one for us” because of Souths’ existing contract.

It has been widely reported that Souths signed a new 10-year contract in 2021 to play at Accor until the end of 2030. The club bristle at the suggestion, insisting they signed an amended agreement with Venues NSW promising “reasonable endeavours” to “secure additional funding for upgrades”.

Venues NSW says $100m has been invested in the stadium, including a large digital screen, lighting, and patron wi-fi.

“The suggestion that the 2021 agreement is a new contract is ridiculous,” Solly said. “After Covid, it simply relocated commercial inventory in the stadium and countered the fact we hadn’t played the requisite home games under our agreement at Accor Stadium in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.”

A spokesman for Kamper said: “In November 2021, the Rabbitohs signed an amended venue hire agreement with Venues NSW that provided highly favourable commercial terms to compensate for the cancellation of the redevelopment of Accor Stadium, committing to play nine home games a year at Accor Stadium until the end of the 2030 season.”