Bathurst Regional Council has paid invoices worth more than $300,000 to Penrith Panthers in the past 12 months, giving the best indication yet of what ratepayers are paying to bring a National Rugby League match to town each year.
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Council has signed a five-year deal with Panthers for the club to play a game each year at Carrington Park.
In March this year the Panthers hosted the Gold Coast Titans.
Council pays a sum to Panthers each year to become the promoter of each game, which allows it to set ticket prices and retain all ticket and corporate hospitality revenue from the matches.
But ratepayers have never been told just how much council pays each year, with council maintaining the view that those negotiations are “commercial in confidence”.
However, a study of recent budget updates tabled at council gives some insight into the deal.
The review, prepared each quarter by corporate services and finance director Bob Roach, offers a quarterly update on council’s financial position and details the major contracts paid out by council each month.
The review for the quarter ending September 30, 2014 showed that council paid Penrith District Rugby League an amount of $50,000 on July 3, 2014 for an item listed in the report as “Bathurst Game Agreement 1st Instalment”.
No money was paid to Panthers for the quarter ending December 31, 2014, but the most recent report shows there were two amounts paid in the quarter ending March 31, 2015.
Council paid a sum of $55,000 to Penrith District Rugby League for “Panthers NRL Game First Instalment” and a second sum of $197,500 for “Panthers NRL Game Balance”.
That’s a total of $302,500 in three separate payments, but Mr Roach said that money included expenses outside the “game fee” council was paying to bring the NRL match to town.
While still refusing to disclose how much that game fee was, Mr Roach said the $302,500 also included merchandise and promotional material the council either bought or hired from Panthers.
And he maintained the council line that the region was getting a good return on its investment in the NRL matches.
“The greatest benefit is the promotion of the city and the tourism generated by the matches, plus the accommodation and overnight stays with people coming to the games,” he said.
“Then there’s the television exposure that we get on Fox Sports with about six hours of coverage on the day, and on top of that we are promoting the city of Bathurst as a regional sports centre.”
An official crowd of 8824 turned out at Carrington Park in July 2014 to see the Penrith Panthers take on the Cronulla Sharks in the first match of the five-year deal, and 6240 were there in March when the Panthers played the Titans.
The signing of the five-year deal has also seen council embark on a major upgrade of facilities at Carrington Park, including a new drainage system for the playing surface and replacement of all the seats in the grandstand.