https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/03/29...stay-in-sydney-until-2042-after-stadium-deal/
NRL grand final set to stay in Sydney until 2042 after stadium deal
Brad Walter Senior Reporter
Thu 29 Mar 2018, 01:27 PM
The NRL grand final is set to remain in Sydney until 2042 after the NSW government committed to redeveloping ANZ Stadium into a rectangular configuration.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian outlined details of a compromise deal in the Sydney stadium debate at a press conference on Thursday in which she admitted there had been a very real chance the state would have lost the NRL grand final to Brisbane without the upgrade of ANZ Stadium.
The former Olympic venue is home to Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Wests Tigers, and is also Sydney's venue for State of Origin and has been the home for the NRL grand final since the stadium opened in 1999.
It will be reconfigured into a rectangular stadium but will no longer be knocked down and rebuilt.
However, the Premier announced a new stadium would still go ahead at Moore Park, with Allianz Stadium to be knocked down and rebuilt at a cost of $730 million.
The $1.5 billion investment in the two stadiums honours a Memorandum of Understanding between the NRL and the NSW government to stage the grand final in Sydney for the next 25 years.
"I am also pleased to say that the grand final will still remain in NSW for the next 25 years," Berejiklian said.
Had we not invested in our stadiums we would have been at risk and in fact definitely lost events to other states.
Gladys Berejiklian
"That is a really big coup for us and we know how important that is … to making sure we retain all of those major events which we were definitely in risk of losing.
"I don’t want to underestimate that enough. Had we not invested in our stadiums we would have been at risk and in fact definitely lost events to other states."
