WITH a state election just 12 months away, the Berejiklian Government has no option but to review – and revise – its Sydney stadia policy.
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Polls are already showing the next election will be a tight affair so the government cannot afford to simply give away votes to Labor.
While ever the rebuild of sporting facilities at both Homebush and Moore Park remains on the books, though, that is exactly what it is doing.
Not that the government isn’t trying everything within its power to try and sell the $2.5 billion plan that comes on top of the cost of redeveloping the Parramatta Stadium.
Sports Minister Stuart Ayres appeared on Channel 9 on Monday night in a pre-recorded one-on-one interview with rugby league commentator and former premiership-winning coach Phil Gould.
Of course, it was a case of preaching to the converted for the minister because the National Rugby League stands to be one of the biggest winners in this plan.
So Mr Ayres took the opportunity to speak directly to thousands of rugby league fans who had tuned into 100% Footy in the hope of convincing them of the plan’s merits.
But the problem for Mr Ayres and his government is that the vast majority of those league fans who tuned in on Monday might only visit Moore Park or Homebush for a game a few times a year.
Even then, the chance to be a few metres closer to the action does not seem to be worth the $2.5 billion bill – particularly when every league fan could give you a long list of projects they would prefer to see funded.
The government has also failed to explain why the Homebush stadium that was a state-of-the-art facility when it opened in 1998 is hopelessly out-of-date just two decades later that it needs to be razed to the ground.
Why can’t it be maintained and modified (at much less expense) in the way the MCG and SCG have gone through so many facelifts over the past 100 years?
These are the questions Labor and voters will keep asking for the next 12 months and the government desperately needs some answers.
In the end, Mr Ayres might be able to convince us that rebuilding one stadium is warranted but he has no hope of getting two off the ground.