Govt set for GWS backflip
* By Josh Massoud and James Phelps
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* May 06, 2010 12:00AM
THE State Government is about to pull a backflip of Olympic proportions on its promise not to redevelop Sydney Showground to house the AFL's new Greater Western Sydney (GWS) franchise.
After yesterday revealing that Blacktown is now favoured to be the proposed site of the FFA's 12th and final stadium for our 2018-2022 World Cup bid, Sport Confidential was contacted by an extremely well-placed source with ears inside both Macquarie St and Homebush Bay.
He was adamant that State Development Minister Ian Macdonald has been in discussions with the AFL about the $100 million-plus project, which would upgrade the Showground into a 25,000-capacity boutique venue perfectly attuned to GWS's needs.
It's widely expected the Government will declare the news within the next month. But careful spin doctoring is already being applied to the announcement given former premier Nathan Rees last year promised that NSW taxpayers' money would never be used to fund the AFL's pipe dream.
We've been told to prepare for the Government to publicly justify the works on the basis of the Royal Easter Show. But it just so happens that the AFL is ready to contribute around a quarter of the cost (about $30 million).
And it just so happens the venue will be oval-shaped and a perfectly located home for GWS. No one was denying the story when we checked it yesterday with the AFL, Macdonald, and the Royal Agricultural Society, which operates the Showground.
An AFL spokesman was holding its standard line about "continuing negotiations".
Macdonald would only say he was looking at "a range of options" and the RAS failed to get back to us.
