As NSW minister for sport, Stuart Ayres pushed for a $12 million grant with no relevance to his portfolio to go to his local leagues club weeks before the 2019 state election, with bureaucrats revealing he did "not want to have his signature on anything to do with the Panthers project".

NSW Office of Sport executives spent months trying to find another department to fund the Panthers Western Sydney Community and Conference Centre (WSCCC) before and after the election because funding it themselves created "reputational risk for the office of sport and the government", correspondence seen by the Herald reveals.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and husband Penrith MP Stuart Ayres at Penrith Panthers for the 2019 NSW Liberal Party election campaign launch. Credit:AAP

Federal funding for the project was first floated in 2013, with the backing of James Packer whose Crown Resorts is planning a hospitality training academy at Panthers and planning for "further possibilities" at the centre.

The state funding was announced four days before the 2015 state election by Mr Ayres who committed the state government to split a $24 million grant with the federal government for "indoor sporting facilities like we've never seen before".