It may feel like macho posturing,but this is a high-stakes competition for Sydney and NSW. Hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line along with the quality of the city’s suburban grounds,rugby league’s relevance in its home state and – if V’landys is to be believed – the future of the NRL grand final.
The rugby league chairman,who is also the boss of Racing NSW,is a vociferous networker and lobbyist,and an expert at using the media to pressure politicians. With apologies to Perrottet,you could comfortably make the case V’landys is the most powerful person in the state.
Only a week or two ago he went troppo over a foreshadowed government decision to schedule a Bruno Mars concert at Sydney Football Stadium on the same day as the Everest horse race. The diatribe scored headlines,as did the premier’s response that Sydney “may as well be a country backwater” if it couldn’t manage both.
“V’landys is very good at this sort of stuff,” says broadcaster Alan Jones,who is on the board of Venues NSW. “[He] sometimes thinks he runs NSW,and therefore makes these extraordinary demands on governments. Someone’s got to tell V’landys he’s not the premier.”
At the same time,Jones says if commitments were made to V’landys about stadium funding,then they should “obviously” be honoured.
But this government has famously had more positions on stadium funding than goals in an AFL match. The $800 million V’landys wants for the suburbs was originally going to be spent upgrading Stadium Australia (Accor) at Homebush,which itself was a backflip on previous plans to rebuild it entirely. Former premier Gladys Berejiklianjunked the refurb early in the pandemic.
A purported “deal” to spend the money upgrading suburban grounds – Brookvale Oval,Leichhardt Oval and Shark Park in Cronulla,as well as Penrith Stadium – is also in dispute. V’landys has sung from the rooftops about the importance of suburban “tribalism” since he became ARLC chair in 2019,as well as the need for governments to keep their word.