NRL 2024: Cronulla Sharks call for urgent government funding to upgrade PointsBet Stadium

While the Panthers are getting a new $300m stadium, the Sharks haven’t been given a cent. Now CEO Dino Mezzatesta has called for urgent government funding, as the club chases history.

The Sharks pursuit of four premierships across the club has been made all the more extraordinary with the revelation their elite teams are being forced to train out of 1980 facilities that includes demountable dressing rooms and massage tables held together by strapping tape.

Cronulla CEO Dino Mezzatesta has come out swinging for urgent government funding to overhaul PointsBet Stadium amid the club’s chase for a historic four titles across the NRL, NRLW, NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg competitions.

Cronulla Sharks CEO Dino Mezzatesta has called for urgent funding to upgrade PointsBet Stadium. Picture: Richard Dobson

Both the Sharks Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup-affiliated Newtown Jets teams will feature in grand finals on Sunday.

The Sharks NRLW team will also feature in a preliminary final against the Broncos on Sunday.

However, it’s the Sharks NRL squad, which tackles Penrith in a preliminary final on Saturday night that pits two of the biggest junior rugby league nurseries together for a ticket to the grand final.

Despite the massive role the Sharks and Panthers play in developing the game at a grassroots level for men and women, Cronulla haven’t received a penny for a Centre of Excellence or Stadium upgrade at Woolooware.

The Panthers spent $22 million on their Centre of Excellence in 2016 while building works on a new government-funded $300 million stadium is about to begin.

Mezzatesta said the contrast was staggering despite the hugely influential role the Sharks play in cultivating the future of the game.

“For our four teams to be in this position speaks to the high-performance environment that our club creates for success,‘’ Mezzatesta said. “We are is still the only Sydney club to never receive any funding at all.

“We always seem to be the underdog and we don’t mind that, but we can’t be underdogs when it comes to funding.

“Clearly we have all the effort and dedication that is going in to nurture this game, but we can’t continue without the facility upgrade.

“It will become a problem at some I time.

The old massage table in the Sharks sheds.

“We have shown we have one of the big catchments in the state at junior and senior levels, we have one of the biggest representations of women in the state in tackle level, we are about to play a preliminary final in the women in only our second year in the competition, our men are the same, yet we continue to survive.

“That will be sooner rather than later. We’re second (in junior league participation numbers) only to Penrith. Its massive.

The away team change rooms at the Cronulla Sharks’ PointsBet Stadium. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The Panthers are going to enjoy a brand new stadium – they already have their Centre of Excellence.

“They have the biggest catchment but us being second, what about he gap between the team coming first and second.

“They are given $300 million and we can’t even get a dollar.

“The state government thought within their wisdom that they had to get a stadium done.

“Yet we are the second largest catchment in rugby league and we can’t get a dollar.

“That is my gripe. It shows that everything we do is for the benefit of the community and code, we’re passionate.

Penrith Panthers host the official opening of the Panthers Rugby League Academy.

“We’re not different to anyone else yet we don’t play in the same environment as anyone else because we keep getting overlooked for funding.

“Every Sydney club will be training out of a new revamped Centre of Excellence of some description because they have all been given money.

“Here we are still competing and showing how we nurture the code and the competition, and we’re going it to the best of our ability, but we’re doing it in facilities the are below par.

“When we have played a triple header – and the fans are so passionate about playing at home – we are bringing in demountables.

“At what point in time does someone not say why does every other club get supported, and are given big dollars at state and federal level – and we are still bringing in demountable.”

Originally published as NRL 2024: Cronulla Sharks call for urgent government funding to upgrade PointsBet Stadium