http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...f/news-story/9673dc0ae38ff82356074c447777c51a
$1.1bn upgrade of ANZ Stadium includes a retractable roof
The $1.1 billion redevelopment of ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park is expected to include the construction of a retractable roof.
A stadium announcement expected soon by Premier Gladys Berejiklian includes, as
The Australian has revealed, a $700 million knockdown and rebuild of Allianz Stadium from 2018-19 and a $1.1bn knockdown and rebuild of ANZ Stadium from 2019-21.
The ambitious plan from Sports Minister Stuart Ayres is said by government sources to have been agreed to by the NRL, which had fought for an upgrade of ANZ ahead of Allianz.
It will soon go before the full cabinet, despite the protests of some ministers, including Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, that it could hurt the budget and that the amount of the spend may cause disquiet from some voters.
But
The Australian has also learnt that a retractable roof — similar to that which operates during wet weather at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium — is set to be part of the plan.
Overall, the spend on the stadiums will push out former premier Mike Baird’s original promise of $1.6bn to $2.1bn, with $300m already having been spent on a new Parramatta Stadium.
The money is being reaped from the government’s $2.6bn sale of the Land and Property Information Service.
Under the plan, Allianz Stadium, at inner-city Moore Park, would have a capacity of 45,000 and ANZ would have a capacity of 75,000, down from 85,000, but would be redesigned as a rectangular stadium.
The plan is aimed at raising Sydney’s stadiums to the quality of those recently built in Adelaide and Perth, as well as match Melbourne’s stadiums.
It was on a trip to Tokyo in August that Ms Berejiklian first said she might be able to build both stadiums. Opposition Leader Luke Foley wants to scrap the Allianz rebuild and do ANZ alone.
“I’ll do what’s best; I’m not wedded by what envelope we’ve created,” Ms Berejiklian said at the time. “If we have the opportunity to look outside that [$1.6bn funding] envelope we will.”
The Premier said at the time that she wanted Sydney to be the “global events capital of the region”.
“We’ve got the International Convention Centre. We’re starting to see soccer matches we’ve never seen before; I want Sydney to be the regional capital for major events and we have the potential to do that,” the Premier said at the time.
In April last year, when Mr Baird committed to an ANZ Stadium knockdown and rebuild first, ANZ Stadium boss Darryl Kerry then raised the possibility of a retractable roof.
