Penrith Stadium rebuild scrapped after costs soar
August 25, 2023 — 12.24pm
The Minns government has abandoned plans for a complete rebuild of Penrith Stadium after discovering the cost of the project was likely to be more than triple what was originally promised under the Coalition.
The government will still spend $309 million on refurbishing the Penrith Panthers’ home ground, but a whole-sale rebuild on a neighbouring site has been abandoned.
A controversial rebuild of Penrith Stadium will be scaled down to only a partial redevelopment after costs for project were set to be three-times the initial estimate.CREDIT:JAMES BRICKWOOD
Instead, the
Herald has confirmed, the government is likely to commit to a partial redevelopment of the existing site after a review found the project promised by the then Coalition government would likely cost more than $900 million.
The Coalition had promised to spend $309 million building a new stadium, nominating the neighbouring Penrith Paceway occupied by the local harness racing club as a future site.
Former NSW sports minister and Penrith MP Stuart Ayres had been central in pursuing a compulsory acquisition of the Penrith paceway site, while the Coalition promised to turn the existing home ground into a public park.
Despite ditching plans to develop grounds including Leichardt Oval, Brookvale and Shark Park, the Coalition had committed to a new Penrith stadium and issued an acquisition order to the paceway’s operators in July last year.
However, last month Infrastructure NSW wrote to Penrith Paceway to confirm that a controversial compulsory acquisition of the site had been withdrawn. A spokesman for the agency confirmed that “no further commercial negotiations to acquire the site are going ahead”.
In April, the government commissioned former Roads and Maritime Services boss Ken Kanofski to conduct a review of NSW’s $115 billion infrastructure pipeline.
The review found the cost of the Penrith project had increased rapidly from the original $309 million on the back of spiralling construction costs.
Sports Minister Steve Kamper said that early estimates on the cost of the project had indicated that buying the Paceway Site and building a new stadium would cost more than $900 million dollars.
“The former Government’s plan to shift the stadium to the paceway site, would’ve tripled the cost,” he said.
“The Minns Government committed to reviewing major infrastructure projects to ensure they would
not go massively over budget. We will continue to work with government agencies and local stakeholders to finalise the design and delivery of the project.”
The Panthers declined to comment. However, sources at the club not permitted to speak publicly said the funding envelope would probably allow for a knockdown renovation of the ground’s main grandstand and improve other facilities. However, negotiations over the redevelopment were still in their infancy.
The plan to build a new Penrith Stadium was at the centre of the suburban stadiums war between former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and NRL boss Peter V’landys.
The dispute was sparked after V’landys
accused Perrottet of reneging on a handshake deal to develop the other suburban grounds.
Paceway chief executive Tash Greentree declined to comment.