Exactly why are we spending $2 billion on new stadiums in Sydney?

[Terry]

NRL's ultimatum: Four new suburban stadiums or grand final will go

The NRL will meet the NSW Government this week armed with the threat of moving the grand final away from Sydney if the state doesn't deliver up to four boutique suburban stadiums over the next decade.

With the state government on Saturday dumping plans for the $800 million redevelopment of ANZ Stadium as it deals with the financial fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, NRL powerbrokers are set to demand funds be redirected towards suburban venues as part of a push to regenerate tribalism in rugby league.

ccording to sources with knowledge of the NRL's stadia strategy, the governing body is delighted with the decision by NSW government to scrap ANZ Stadium refurbishment plans, and will now lobby for up to four 15,000-20,000 seat stadiums worth around $150m-$200m each.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-s- ... 54y3z.html

Whilst NRL officials appear to be delighted with the news about ANZ Stadium being scrapped, I would think it is highly unlikely that the funds would now go to new suburban stadiums. Funding is likely to be diverted to bushfire affected areas as it should.

Oh and surely the NRL would have to now pay back the $15 million compensation it received last year from the NSW Government right?

Oh dear!!!! What a hypocrite is the ol' beatup. After ranting, clapping and applauding thats it's so great his fave game of fumbling would benefit from this C -19 decision & RL would be losers he's now going to, "diverted to bushfire affected areas" lolololol. You,re a little bit late to the party pal. But you're a true fumble fan pal. Delusional. What a dill!!!!

[leeroy*NRL*]

From NSW treasuer

$19 million has already been spent on ANZ
Getting it drafted and ready for construction..
Which was suppose to begun June

Does this mean this goes to waste..

[AFLcrap1]

The jealous fumblers prob realise that there's a good chance the 4 stadium request will go ahead .
The fear they have is that what PVL wants he gets .
The squealing on here will be music to my ears

[Beaussie]

The jealous fumblers prob realise that there's a good chance the 4 stadium request will go ahead .
The fear they have is that what PVL wants he gets .
The squealing on here will be music to my ears

I am guessing you have not seen the community outrage expressed in the comments section to this news. Have a look. Political suicide comes to mind if the government caves in to the NRL’s greedy demands.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-s- ... l#comments

Most comments also appear to suggest people don’t care if the NRL grand final leaves Sydney. Good for the NRL I guess as they can flog off the grand final to the highest bidder in another state yeah?

[AFLcrap1]

Lol
The SMH
Lol lol lol
Which side of politics are they .
It's rare that a comment gets through tat doesn't agree with their agenda .
But you keep plugging away Bea
Remember your posting frenzy at the start of this thread when the election was coming up .
The anti stadium issue was made front & centre of the election yet Labor still got beat .
Lol
So now you're back to posting the same anti stadium dribble .
Lol
Lol lol

[Terry]

The jealous fumblers prob realise that there's a good chance the 4 stadium request will go ahead .
The fear they have is that what PVL wants he gets .
The squealing on here will be music to my ears

I am guessing you have not seen the community outrage expressed in the comments section to this news. Have a look. Political suicide comes to mind if the government caves in to the NRL’s greedy demands.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-s- ... l#comments

Most comments also appear to suggest people don’t care if the NRL grand final leaves Sydney. Good for the NRL I guess as they can flog off the grand final to the highest bidder in another state yeah?

I'm guessing your memory can't stretch as far back as the last NSW election beatup!!!! You know....... the one all the way back in March last year. The one Labor fought on the stadiums issue. The election they were supposed to win............but didn't. Google it pal to jog your hopelessly ineffective memory lest you continue to make a fool of yaself!!!!!

[Fred]

I was waiting for the usual deflection of the paper or the journalist lol. Predictable. Anything negative is automatically put down to bias or an axe to grind lol.

[AFLcrap1]

How is citing what happened ...last year a deflection
FAirfax ran a campaign through the media led by hanky head & Bea hung on his every word

It's fact .
Something fumblers have trouble with

Lol you want evidence just re read this thread & how many articles Bea posted by Hanky head .

[Beaussie]

Lol
The SMH
Lol lol lol
Which side of politics are they .
It's rare that a comment gets through tat doesn't agree with their agenda .

You mean the same SMH that is owned by Channel 9 whose CEO is on record as supporting suburban NRL grounds to increase atmosphere for their NRL broadcasts? LOL Yeah bias indeed.

[Terry]

How is citing what happened ...last year a deflection
FAirfax ran a campaign through the media led by hanky head & Bea hung on his every word

It's fact .
Something fumblers have trouble with

Lol you want evidence just re read this thread & how many articles Bea posted by Hanky head .

Yep. And that idiot Labor leader Michael Daley took the bait and ran with the anti stadiums issue. Every single day. And where is he now?? Unknown. Un-wanted. And nobody cares.

This current issue isn't about stadiums. It's about an infrastructure fund for a post C-19 rebuild. Anyone saying otherwise is a dolt!!!! Ok.......so dolts now put ya hand up lololololo!!!!!!!!! And here they come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fred]

How is citing what happened ...last year a deflection
FAirfax ran a campaign through the media led by hanky head & Bea hung on his every word

It's fact .
Something fumblers have trouble with

Lol you want evidence just re read this thread & how many articles Bea posted by Hanky head .

It does seem a pattern would you not agree. Everytime there is a negative article quoted it is either seen as the newspaper is anti RL or the journalist is. Or there is an axe to grind - but always some conspiracy theory.

[Beaussie]

How is citing what happened ...last year a deflection
FAirfax ran a campaign through the media led by hanky head & Bea hung on his every word

It's fact .
Something fumblers have trouble with

Lol you want evidence just re read this thread & how many articles Bea posted by Hanky head .

It does seem a pattern would you not agree. Everytime there is a negative article quoted it is either seen as the newspaper is anti RL or the journalist is. Or there is an axe to grind - but always some conspiracy theory.

Of course it’s a pattern with this lot. First it was News Ltd... now it’s the ABC, Channel 9 and Fairfax.

[AFLcrap1]

Oh dear . So all the negative rants by hanky head pre election with BEA cheering him on were just a conspiracy theory .
Oh my .
Talk about denial.

[Fred]

Who is hanky head?

And again, the pattern of any article being rejected based o. The paper, journalist, or organisation. It comes from being biased in some way is almost folk lore on this site. You can predict it.

[Beaussie]

Who is hanky head?

And again, the pattern of any article being rejected based o. The paper, journalist, or organisation. It comes from being biased in some way is almost folk lore on this site. You can predict it.

The voice of reason in all this stadium building debate seems to be hated by many league cheerleaders.

NRL's new pitch for stadium cash is so greedy it's offensive

Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and author
June 3, 2020

Thank you, thank you all. Or at least most of you ...

After the NSW government finally bowed to sanity and announced it would no longer spend $800 million or so turning the Olympic Stadium from an oval to a rectangle, I have – given I’ve been a tad noisy on the insanity of that very thing – received many congratulatory emails and texts. I blush. No, really.


ANZ Stadium will not be getting an $800 million overhaul after all.CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES

I take it as half a victory only – as what had been a perfectly fine Sydney Football Stadium is now a hole in the ground, and the Gummint is proceeding with plans to spend the better part of a billion dollars on its replacement.

Under the circumstances – of the plague and post-plague pressure on budgets across the board – you might think the NRL would leave it at that. You know, it has fought the good fight, won two-thirds of the battle and will have two new stadiums at taxpayers’ expense, with Parramatta Stadium and the new Sydney Football Stadium to show for its trouble. So leave it at that?

No, not a bit of it.

For it doesn’t take much gorging on public largesse before it becomes your favourite dish, and the NRL wants the government – read we taxpayers – to cough up another few hundred-million dollars from the $800 million saved so it can refurbish some “boutique stadiums”, revamping Brookvale and Leichhardt ovals, etc.

A moment’s pause while the professional cheerleaders for rugby league have their say.

“What a great idea!” “GENIUS!” “Just a win-win, isn’t it?”

Of course it’s a great idea if you judge it purely from the point of view of rugby league. What industry in the country wouldn’t be doing cartwheels if they received the news that, despite paying no tax on their business, taxpayers might be obliged to fork over yet more money to build their business infrastructure?

If I was making widgets and paying no tax on every widget made, and I got the news that after already giving me, free of charge, two of the biggest widget-makers money could buy, the government was going to put hundreds of millions of dollars into buying me some slightly smaller widget-makers for the suburbs, I’d be pretty pleased, too. And if I was a professional commentator on the art of widget-making, I’d also enthuse on the virtues of such a spend. That is, unless I had a life beyond widget-making and realised there are so many more things deserving of government expenditure that it might be better to shut the hell up.

A real response, however, is a little more nuanced and a little more cognisant of the fact other factors – like economic sanity and base-level decency – should be observed.

So here is the short answer.

No, you greedy bastards!

I’ll never know what hold you had on this government to get them over the line for the first two stadiums, but please – so we can all get some sleep – leave it at that. And do not give us the usual soft-sell that such a spend will help the economy, and that the public and other sports will benefit too. We’ve heard it all before.

By all means the government should spend on infrastructure in these difficult times. But do you think it might be time that schools, hospitals, local sporting organisations and regional NSW got a look in? Or does it always have to be rugby league first in line?

As for other sports using it, please. Right now rugby union crowds could fit into a phone booth and not know the difference. And when we in rugby do have big matches, like a Bledisloe, we don’t need Leichhardt. The Olympic Stadium is fine. For smaller matches, why would we go to Brookvale Oval, when North Sydney Oval is more central to the wider mob and already beloved?

But, say what?

You of the NRL are threatening to take your grand final elsewhere if the government doesn’t write the cheque for three or four new stadiums? Great. I’ll call the cab while you finish packing your bags. Where are you off to with the grand final anyway?

Melbourne? Perth? Brisbane?

If you locked in the grand final to Melbourne and it ended up being played between the Cowboys and Broncos, do you think you’d get the MCG a third full or half full? And if it was in Brisbane between the Raiders and the Storm, what then? Any chance in hell you’d fill it?

But look, good luck with it. TAXI!

Enough.

After we taxpayers have paid for rugby league to have two state-of-the-art stadiums – even though this was against all economic advice, even by the government’s admission – the idea that we should also pay for three or four boutique stadiums is so absurd it is offensive.

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-s- ... 54z7f.html