NEWCASTLE Knights Chairman Brian McGuigan has suggested the Baird government should redirect some of its $1.6 billion stadium funding to the Hunter if agreement can’t be reached about where the money should be spent in Sydney.
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The government’s stadium plan has been marred by disagreement over its plan to fund a new stadium at Moore Park.
Sydney-based NRL clubs instead want the government to spend about half the money on upgrades to ANZ Stadium at Homebush.
The stand-off prompted Sports Minister Stuart Ayres to say this week that the money would be “at risk” if an agreement could not be reached.
Mr McGuigan seized on those comments on Friday, saying the money could be redirected to the Hunter because there was was “no argument” about where it should be spent.
It came on the same day state MP Tim Crakanthorp called for the government to provide funding for a “world class sporting precinct” in Broadmeadow.
At a press conference at the stadium on Friday, Mr Crakanthorp and shadow minister for sport, Lynda Voltz, pressed the government to include the Hunter in its stadium funding.
“The Broadmeadow precinct has enormous potential and deserves to have some money put into it as well,” Mr Crakanthorp siad.
While Labor is calling for the government to invest money in the precinct, Ms Voltz said it needed to come forward with the master plan first.
“We need to see more from this government in investing in sporting facilities around Hunter Stadium, and that means a master plan,” she said.
In January the Newcastle Herald reported that the Newcastle Knights were pushing for a training centre of excellence to be built at Broadmeadow, as part a new master plan for the sporting and entertainment precinct.
Venues NSW, which manages Hunter Stadium, and the Hunter Development Corporation had been consulting the city’s major sporting clubs and other stakeholders about options for the precinct’s redevelopment, with a plan to be given to the Baird government this year.
“That kind of development would not just benefit the Newcastle Knights, it would be a world class facility for current and future athletes in the entire Hunter and in fact Northern NSW,” Mr McGuigan said.
In a statement a spokesman from the office of sport said that “too early to speculate on any funding figure”, but that the idea of a Centre of Excellence was being considered as part of the development of the masterplan.
“High level concepts are being prepared for cabinet, one of which includes a centre of excellence,” he said.
Mr Crakanthorp accused the government of dragging its feat on the master plan.
“In 2012 the then minister for sport said that while there is no money to proceed with plans to develop a world-class sporting precinct in Newcastle the plans are still on the cards,” he said said.
“Not in 2012, 2013, but 2014 but finally in 2015, after prodding, we had some movement at the station.”
Mr McGuigan said the Knights had yet to hear from the government on the progress of the plan.
“The minister visited late last year and had a look around I suppose in preparation for whatever they’re thinking of doing, but to this point we have not heard anything from them,” he said.
