Agreed Allianz should downsize to 30k and have ANZ as your showpiece venue for the big blockbuster matches of either both rugby codes and football.

But nobody bar concerts and Origin fills them now...

-PB

Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Football Stadium will be demolished and rebuilt

Updated 19 minutes ago

The Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Football Stadium will be demolished and rebuilt in a $2 billion overhaul signed off by New South Wales Cabinet today.

Work at the Sydney Football Stadium site at Moore Park is expected to start next year, followed by the Homebush Olympic stadium in 2019

Senior government sources described this morning's Cabinet meeting as "robust" with some ministers, frustrated at the length of time it had taken to reach a decision, expressing concerns the handling of the issue had been damaging.

It is understood some also raised concerns about the $2.3 billion price tag, up from former premier Mike Baird's original estimate of $1.6 billion.

The package also includes the cost of rebuilding Parramatta Stadium.

The rebuilt Sydney Football Stadium's capacity is expected to be 45,000 people while the Olympic stadium will hold between 75,000 and 80,000 people.

The decision is expected to be announced tomorrow and brings to an end a saga that dragged out for more than 18 months since Mr Baird first detailed his proposal.

That plan would have seen the Olympic Stadium reconfigured to a rectangular venue at a cost of $700 million ahead of a refurbishment of the Sydney Football Stadium.

While the proposal received strong support from the NRL, there has since been furious lobbying by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, who control the Sydney Football Stadium, as well as the Australian Rugby Union and Sydney FC to rebuild the Moore Park venue first.

Sports Minister Stuart Ayres backed that option and has spent almost two years tying himself into knots advocating various positions that would get it over the line.

But there has been fierce opposition from some members of Mr Ayres' own cabinet, with some scratching their heads as to why a stadium that was built as a state of the art venue for the Sydney Olympics less than 20 years ago should need to such a complete overhaul so quickly.

Am I missing something here or does Allianz Stadium have fuck all to do with the Sydney Swans

Good to see the AFL having an opinion on what can and cant be built for other sports, considering the upgrade of the GWS stadium which needs free tickets to reach 40% capacity

Rumour is that the new stadium for Allianz will have a 30k mode and a 45k mode. 

Thats good. 

Less visually embarrassing for SFC.

Now watch these two stadiums turned into ovals.

Absolutely pathetic that the Sydney Football Stadium  (aka Allianz) should start before Stadium Australia  (aka ANZ).

The stadium in the middle of Sydney should go first.

I don't even live there but I can see how stupid this is, it's baseless, some developer must be backhanding someone.

Someone has pulled a shifty. 

Smart on their behalf I guess. When the SFS rebuild has a blowout on budget  it will already be built or almost complete. Then if any cost cutting occurs it will be aimed at ANZ. 

Now watch as the Allianz stadium rebuild suffers from cost blowouts, gobbles up the whole $2 billion and the Olympic Park rebuild gets canned.

This is the worry.

Sydney has appalling transport infrastructure which is the result of decades of kicking the can down the road. It really hits home not only when you go to Sydney and get stuck somewhere/everywhere, but also when you live in Europe where a subway/metro is like a basic human right. People are amazed when I show them how big Australian cities are. Then they are shocked when I tell them Sydney with 5 million people doesn't have a subway. Prague with the same population as Adelaide has one and is currently looking to expand it. And the city of Brno with 400,000 people is investigating building one as well. Kiev has a 3 line metro with half 2/3 the population of Sydney and Melbourne despite being flat broke and a war zone. And smug aussies call these former communist countries "second" world! I'll take 5 minute commutes in the second world over hours in cars in the first world any day.

More corporate welfare and a glorified government jobs program.

Make whatever arsehole tenant who winds up benefitting from the stadium reconstruction pay for it, not more cronyism.

I get the need for a refurb, but I'd be trying to put at least half of that money into increasing the number of football pitches around suburbia.

Yup - SFS will no doubt soak up the budget and that's the play. NRL really need to lobby hard for Homebush first. They are the biggest player in all of this at the end of the day and can influence the outcome.

Its gobsmacking that Sydney is about to completely blow it's chance to have the best football stadium in Asia. I can't think of any other stadium  in the confederation that ticks all the boxes of retractable roof, rectangular pitch, moveable goal ends, steep gradient and high capacity.

I have zero faith in the NSW Libs ensuring that the SFS project doesn't compromise the full plans for the homebush rebuild.

Berejiklian stares down $2.3bn stadiums revolt

• The Australian
• 12:00AM November 24, 2017
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• ANDREW CLENNELL

  

  NSW Political Editor

  Sydney

  @aclennell

  

Ms Berejiklian opened cabinet yesterday by strongly supporting a proposal from Sport Minister Stuart Ayres to knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium in Moore Park, in Sydney’s east, from next year to 2019 and ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, in the west, from 2019 to 2021.

Ms Berejiklian’s support was despite the cabinet minute pointing out that the benefit-cost ratio for the projects was well under 1, meaning they would not generate more money than their cost to the state’s economy.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is understood to have said words to the effect of: “I can’t believe we’re doing this but I have to reluctantly agree to it.”

Many ministers argued that the government should rebuild ­Allianz Stadium only, as it was 35 years old and in serious need of an upgrade, but they were told the NRL was threatening to take the grand final out of Sydney if work did not occur on the 17-year-old ANZ Stadium. One minister labelled it a “vanity project”, The Australian has been told.

Finance Minister Victor Dominello is said to have said: “Four hundred and fifty-eight days ­before the election, this is not something we should be doing.”

Attorney-General Mark Speak­­man told cabinet: “It does not cut the mustard economically or socially.”

Those who spoke out against the projects — or expressed serious concerns about the political effects of spending so much money on stadiums — were Mr Perrottet, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Education Minister Rob Stokes, Mr Dominello, Mr Speakman, Tourism Minister Adam Marshall and Racing Minister Paul Toole.

Ms Berejiklian is expected to announce this morning that work on Allianz Stadium will begin next year and be completed at the end of 2019. After the 2019 NRL grand final, work would then commence on ANZ Stadium with hopes the stadium could be knocked down and rebuilt by 2021. An “indicative cost” was given to cabinet of up to $1.7bn for ANZ Stadium. Another $600 million is set to be spent on Allianz Stadium. Part of the cost involves ANZ Stadium having a retractable roof.

The new spending comes on top of more than $300m the government has outlaid on Parramatta Stadium and $200m the government spent buying back ANZ from its private operator. The funds will come from the $2.6bn sale of the Land and Property Information service.

It is understood that, as part of the Sydney Olympic Park ­pro­posal, an Olympic museum will be built as a tribute to the Sydney Games.

The replacement for Allianz Stadium will have a capacity of 45,000. The new stadium at Olympic Park will seat 75,000. ­Although the MCG in Melbourne has a larger capacity, it is not an oval so it does not have the same appeal in terms of viewing soccer, rugby league and rugby union.

Those who voiced support for the proposal in cabinet were Ms Berejiklian, Mr Ayres and Deputy Premier John Barilaro. Mr Ayres said that if NSW were to pitch for the women’s World Cup soccer, ANZ Stadium needed to be upgraded sooner rather than later.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley said yesterday: “I can’t and won’t support spending $2.5bn on sporting stadiums. Labor will put schools and hospitals before stadiums. The members of the SCG Trust must exercise more power than the members of Gladys ­Berejiklian’s cabinet.”

Berejiklian stares down $2.3bn stadiums revolt

The real headline for me is even the governments cost benefit analysis is against the proposal.

I don't understand why they want to further reduce the capacity of ANZ. Why 75,000? That sounds a bit too small for a showpiece stadium in a huge city. What's wrong with the current 82,000? Why can Melbourne have the humongous MCG, yet Sydney can't even have an 80,000 capacicity stadium? 

The plans involve retention of the existing roof and exterior. The newly constructed stands will be built with a steeper rake and closer to the pitch around the ground. Removing the oval shape means less circumfrence to work with, so fewer seats can fit in. They don't have the option of building the new stands higher because they need to fit under the existing roof line.

When would Sydney get 80 000 for the soccer? Poor old Arsenal and Liverpool cant sell more seats. 75k is plenty enough for Socceroos, some would say too much for Sydney. 

This is how power works in NSW

• Clover Moore

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And the fact that there are literally only 3 members of the Cabinet in favour of it - surely simple democracy dictates it shouldn't go ahead?

I hope that Berejiklian is turfed by her own party or by the voters - whichever comes first. Followed closely by Stuart Ayres.

Good - the more this shitfight hits the media, the better.

I think the government have severely underestimated how much this could backfire. 

I agree.  Will be interesting to see what position the Daily Telegraph takes as the NRL is a beneficiary.  (Can tell, even without looking, that the SMH will be against it.)
 

Meh, fucking great news for Sydney FC and Sydney FC fans. Hopefully instead of listening to the whingers they just build it well and to last and provide a genuinely good and productive asset.

TBH even the Sydney fan in me is 'meh' about this. A 45k seat rebuild is completely and utterly pointless. This "club mode" is basically code for shutting the top tiers by the looks of things. Big whoop, they're still large empty stands. Meanwhile Sydney is growing at an unprecedented rate and there are no concrete plans for rail infrastructure beyond stage two of the Sydney metro RTS. This city could come to a standstill within 10 years. 

I'm usually not the biggest Clover Moore fan but she is 100% on the money in this opinion piece.