sport, local-sport

The NSW government has bought back ANZ Stadium, securing the long-term dominance of rugby league and football in Sydney's west and ending the ambitions of one sports minister, while realising the dreams of another. The Baird government will pay up to $220 million to buy out the final 15 years of the ownership of the former Olympic stadium by Infrastructure Capital Group, the AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick's majority-owned infrastructure fund manager. The day-to-day operators of the stadium will continue to be Stadium Australia Group, headed by CEO Daryl Kerry. A buyout of the remaining seven years of its contract would have cost the taxpayer an additional $10 million. More significantly, it means Premier Baird has not handed control of the running of the Homebush stadium to the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust with whom his sports minister, Stuart Ayres, was closely aligned during the "stadium wars" when $1.6 billion in funding for sports infrastructure was bitterly contested. Ayres, an earlier supporter of the Homebush redevelopment, switched to support a Trust plan to spend the majority of the funds on a new rectangular stadium near the SCG. But a "material adverse effect clause", where the private owners of the Homebush stadium were entitled to compensation should a new stadium be built in near proximity, was a continuing obstacle, forcing Ayres to revisit a buyout of ANZ if his inner city stadium was to be built. Baird eventually sided with Sydney NRL clubs and Football Federation Australia who wanted the majority of the funds spent on redeveloping ANZ, scuttling the ambitions of the Trust and Ayres. With the "stadium wars" now over and most of the $1.6 billion to be spent converting ANZ from its current elliptical-shaped playing surface used by AFL to rectangular dimensions, the dream of former NSW sports minister, Graham Annesley, has been achieved. In 2012, Annesley made a pitch of $100 million to the stadium owners but it was scuttled by then Treasurer, Mike Baird, with the government coffers empty. Now, according to Homebush sources, the Baird government will pay in excess of $100 million, while rival sources claim the "enterprise value" of the buyout for 15 years ownership is $220 million, consisting of $150 million to ICG, plus a settlement of $70 million of its debt. When Annesley's planned buyout of ANZ Stadium failed, he approached ICG to upgrade the facility in exchange for the government extending the lease past 2031, the date when it would revert to public ownership. Negotiations then proceeded between two extremes of the private equity owners offering a $1 upgrade for a 100-year extension and the government requesting a $100 million upgrade for a one-year extension. The sale of government-owned electricity assets gave Baird the funds to enact Annesley's policy of developing publicly owned stadia. "The government was caught in a Catch 22," Annesley said. "If we didn't invest in the former Olympic stadium by the time it came back to us in 2031, we would have been taking back an asset which was ready for the bulldozer. The private owners had no incentive to invest because the stadium was going to eventually revert to government ownership." A modern, roofed, rectangular stadium at Homebush also kills off the ambitions of rugby league's winter rival, AFL, to become the dominant sport in Sydney's western suburbs. They must stage all their games at the home of the Giants, the smaller Spotless Stadium, adjacent to ANZ. The Swans have already abandoned ANZ where they once played three games a year to play all matches at the SCG, joining cricket and the Waratahs who have also moved to the city. Annesley, who resigned as NSW sports minister three years ago to take up the position of chief executive of NRL club, the Gold Coast Titans, said: "My motivation as sports minister was to get the best possible publicly-owned stadium facilities. We were seriously lagging behind other cities, particularly Melbourne. Ultimately, the stadium policy I developed got that result off the back of the government revenue generated from the sale of Poles and Wires." A former rugby league referee and NRL chief operations officer, Annesley said the final outcome was a good result for his code. A NSW government spokesman cited commercial confidence when the Herald sought an exact figure for the sale price. The custodian of the lease is the Sydney Olympic Park Authority who has played no part in the negotiations between the state government and ICG.

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