Millions in public money poured into Dolphins’ dash to be ‘NRL-ready’

One of Queensland’s richest rugby league clubs, firming as a favourite to host the long-awaited 17th national franchise, received $17 million in public money across a multi-year redevelopment of its home stadium in Brisbane’s fast-growing north.

The Redcliffe Dolphins are behind one of three pitches to become the NRL’s latest team – alongside the Firehawks and Jets, also based in Greater Brisbane – and claim to leapfrog the Broncos with an asset base of $100 million behind their bid.

Almost 10,000 people squeezed into the then-Dolphin Stadium at Redcliffe, before its final “NRL-ready” touches, to see the Roar play Melbourne City in November 2019.Credit: Jono Searle/Getty Images

As the NRL confirmed an expansion would take place from 2023, the game’s finances were also on the agenda, with the new club required to have a $50 million bank guarantee to carry it over the next five years without handouts from head office.

They will not be required to pay a licence fee.

The Dolphins’ 11-hectare enterprise sits on the Redcliffe peninsula jutting into Moreton Bay, about 50 minutes north of Brisbane. Alongside its 30,000-strong membership base and recently finished stadium redevelopment, the club’s books also boast a shopping centre, office facilities and training grounds.

Established in 1947, the club joined the Brisbane first-grade competition in 1959 and won its first premiership six years later. But it considers the 1988 Brisbane Broncos’ entry into the then-NSWRL to have essentially marked its relegation into a “second-tier competition”.

Along with home Queensland Cup matches, the now 11,500-capacity rebadged Moreton Daily Stadium has also hosted A-League matches and NRL trial games.

Announcing the completion of the stadium last year, following five years’ work to deliver new grandstands and facilities, the club touted it as “NRL ready” after a $6 million contribution from the federal government and Moreton Bay Regional Council towards the third and final stage.

Politicians and governments of all stripes have been backing the project for years. But what the club’s website does not expand on is the additional $11 million of public money already poured into the stadium’s earlier works – much of it from Commonwealth programs facing criticisms of pork-barrelling and accountability.

This included $500,000 under the third round of the federal government’s controversial Community Sports Infrastructure Grant program, announced by Liberal Petrie MP Luke Howarth the month before the 2019 election. Guardian Australia has since reported the project scored below what the Auditor-General found would have been required for funding in its scathing report on the program.

That funding was announced alongside a $3 million pledge from the Community Development Grants program, which requires an invitation to apply and features no real upper dollar limit and had also skewed heavily towards marginal and targeted Coalition seats.

Those came after $6 million from Moreton Bay Regional Council and $1.1 million from the Queensland government under stage two.

Stage one received a total of $4 million from the federal government in August 2015, under an earlier round of the CDG program announced by then-prime minister Tony Abbott.

The local government approved its final $2.5 million injection in December 2019 — under a special, largely unadvertised grant only able to be approved by a resolution of council — after being forced to request ministerial approval when most councillors declared conflicts of interest ranging from Dolphins tickets to mayoral trips to league matches in Melbourne and Papua New Guinea.

After the Queensland government revealed plans to redevelop the Gabba as the potential 2032 Olympic opening ceremony stadium, Mr Howarth’s official Facebook account published a post critical of the cost, saying “we spent $20 million” to refresh the Dolphins’ home turf.

His office later clarified the figure included the club’s own contribution. The club has not been drawn on questions about its spend on the stadium project.

Having previously held his seat on a margin of 1.6 per cent, Mr Howarth was returned at the 2019 poll with a first-preference swing of 3.4 per cent. He has told Brisbane Times the project was a “positive story” about infrastructure in one of the country’s fastest-growing regions.

Han Aulby, director of independent anti-corruption think tank the Centre for Public Integrity, said an overhaul of grant-making processes was needed to boost parliamentary scrutiny of ministerial spending decisions and set merit criteria in primary legislation, including an assessment of other resources available to applicants.

She said government grant-making lacked clear processes and accountability and the Australian National Audit Office had found flaws in all 10 federal grant programs it had assessed in recent times. “Taxpayers deserve to get the best bang for buck for public grants,” Ms Aulby said.

Redcliffe Leagues Club’s 2020 annual report shows the group turned a $614,000 before-tax profit to September last year as the pandemic bit, driven by pokies receipts making up half its $22.5 million in revenue.

Jets bid director Nick Livermore offered what appeared to be a veiled jab at the Dolphins bid on Thursday, saying pokies should not be the model for a club’s financial viability.

For the Dolphins, who provided audited finances to the NRL as part of the bid process, the prospect of joining the national competition is one they say they have been actively preparing for across the past 30 years. A dream for the thousands of supporters who have “faithfully held the flame”.

“The long journey back to top-level rugby league has involved our community club building ourselves up to a point we hope is highly attractive to join the NRL,” the club said in a statement.

“The Dolphins are as well positioned as any community sporting club to actively provide the type of long-term financial commitment needed to guarantee the success of the newest NRL team.”

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