ROY MASTERS
May 24, 2010
Rugby league officials are furious at the wasteful expenditure by the NSW government on the AFL'S new Greater Western Sydney team, pointing out its budgeted $45 million redevelopment of the Sydney Showground follows $27m already spent on a facility at Blacktown, which is likely to be abandoned.
The NSW government was expected to placate rugby league with a $55m-$58m payment to host the NRL grand final in Sydney for the next 10 years but an NRL spokesman has rejected this, saying, ''We are still in discussions with the government.''
While rugby league has benefited from NSW government investment in suburban ovals, such as Kogarah and Brookvale, officials point out nine NRL clubs are based in Sydney, hosting more than 100 games annually.
The Greater Western Sydney team is expected to play only nine games at the 30,000-seat showground site, anticipating crowds of 15,000 to 17,000, meaning a half-full venue, compared with the embarrassment of playing at the adjacent 80,000-seat ANZ Stadium, where the AFL is contracted to play three games a year.
ARL chief executive Geoff Carr said: ''The logic of building a ground alongside a ground when they both have the same oval configuration doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.''
Carr said the SCG and SFS, which sit beside each other in the Moore Park precinct, are different configurations, with the SCG oval shaped and the SFS rectangular. It is expected the Swans, free of the obligation to play the AFL's three contracted games at Sydney Olympic Park, will stage all games at the SCG, where their attendances have increased over the past four years, compared with a 30 per cent fall at ANZ Stadium.
GWS, set to enter the AFL in 2012, has a training ground at Blacktown Olympic Park, built with a $27m investment from the state government, suitable for a crowd of 10,000.
The AFL knows most of its players would not live at Blacktown and expects to move its training facility to Sydney Olympic Park - about 15 kilometres from the centre of Sydney and closer to the coast where most players would live. In any case, GWS has targeted the upper-middle class of the Hills district, including Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills and Pennant Hills, which already has a strong AFL junior competition. The AFL anticipates this demographic would feel more comfortable driving to Sydney Olympic Park than Blacktown.
Rugby league officials have been aware for some time of the discussions between NSW Minister Ian MacDonald and AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, saying they have jointly convinced Premier Kristina Keneally of the showground investment. They understand Ken Edwards, the former chief executive of ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, has been advising MacDonald.
''By the AFL's own admissions, their GWS crowds will only be 15,000 to 17,000, about the same as an NRL game, yet they are getting $45 million to play nine games a year,'' one NRL official said.
The AFL has already negotiated stadium redevelopments in Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Geelong as part of its conditions to co-operate with soccer's bid for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups, yet refuses to release Melbourne's Etihad Stadium, which it will use exclusively for AFL matches.
Football Federation Australia, angered by the AFL's refusal to relinquish Etihad, broke off negotiations with the AFL to jointly redevelop the Sydney Showground, which it considered using for its western Sydney expansion team, Sydney Rovers.
It declared a new stadium at Blacktown would be the 12th venue for the World Cup bid, funded by the state and federal governments.
Now, it appears, the AFL has found a back-door way, via MacDonald, to have its nine games at the showground afterall.
AFL investment in stadiums has been modest, with $6m spent on ANZ Stadium in 1999 to configure it into a composite venue, a shape that doesn't suit any sport perfectly.
The chairman of the AFL, Mike Fitzpatrick, owns ANZ Infrastructure Services, which holds the management rights to ANZ Stadium, meaning he will be the landlord of GWS for three of their games. He has acknowledged the conflict of interest.
