The two men have turned public sparring into an art form. When the premier accused the Rugby League Commission chair of “circus and theatre” over stadium funding in May,he returned fire:“Dominic Perrottet would know all about circuses considering he runs one in Macquarie Street.”
High stakes:NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys.Getty/SMH
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 Berejiklian.
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.
But the only promise the government has made is the $300 million Penrith revamp,which happens to be in the electorate of Sports Minister Stuart Ayres.
Now the government is under pressure from various quarters to reappropriate that money again. Venues NSW,chaired by another outsized Sydney personality,businessman Tony Shepherd,wants a retractable roof on Stadium Australia (Accor) to weatherproof it and bolster the state’s bid for the 2027 Rugby World Cup final.
Shepherd confirmed on Tuesday that Venues NSW was a “strong supporter” of the roof,saying it would “certainly bring a lot more content to the stadium”. He wouldn’t comment further.
But post-COVID budget constraints are forcing the government to reappraise various infrastructure projects. “We’ve got to make choices,” Ayres told 2GB on Tuesday. “We’ve been really clear with the NRL about the limitations that exist on our budget.”
The besieged Ayres was notably absent from Monday night’s meeting in Perrottet’s office which consisted of V’landys,NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and the premier’s deputy chief-of-staff.
Perrottet is understandably dismissive of V’landys’ threat to take the NRL grand final elsewhere,treating it as a bluff from the boy who cried “Brisbane”. “Let’s have the dance,but we know where this is going to finish,” the premier said in April.
Others aren’t so sure. “It’s very hard to tell whether it’s theatre or not,” said one high-level source who didn’t want to be named.
It would be a dummy spit of considerable magnitude. But that’s the rub with big personalities and big egos – you never know when someone might just flick the switch and do something crazy.
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