RATEPAYERS still don’t know how much they’re paying for the privilege of bringing a National Rugby League match to Bathurst each year, but we’re getting closer.
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What we do know this morning is that Bathurst Regional Council has paid out more than $300,000 to Penrith Panthers in the past 12 months, but we don’t know exactly how much of that is “game fees”.
But we can be sure that estimates of at least $1 million over the five-year term of the contract with the Panthers are somewhere in the ballpark.
It’s a massive investment, but that’s not to say that the deal with Penrith Panthers is a bad one.
Our region derives undisputed benefits from the deal through exposure on television and the thousands of league fans who make the trip to town to enjoy the match.
There’s also the sense of excitement created by having the NRL stars here in Bathurst, though council should demand the players arrive here earlier in the week to help with promotion of
the game.
But the problem remains that ratepayers are in no position to determine just how good a deal it is if they don’t know how much they’re paying.
Council’s senior staff – and councillors – maintain the line that ratepayers are getting good value for their money, but why should we have to take their word for it?
The “commercial in confidence” rule that council invokes in these cases is the most overused phrase in the Bathurst council chamber, yet there appears to be no appetite for change in this area.
Councillors have the power to make these numbers public, but it is left up to this newspaper to make our best guess to try and inform the ratepayers.
It’s really not good enough, is it?
