Top Rugby Games At Olympic Stadium
3 July 1998Australian rugby union's biggest matches will be played at the main Olympic Stadium at Homebush Bay beginning next year, raising the prospect of a world record attendance at the 110,000-seat venue.
The stadium will host an annual Bledisloe Cup match and at least one other test each year until 2006 under a deal announced today between the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and Stadium Australia.
ARU managing director John O'Neill said he hoped that next year's Centenary Test against England on June 26 and Bledisloe Cup match in early July would be sellouts.
He admitted yesterday there were contingency plans to play a World XV or an extra Test against New Zealand or South Africa if England could not guarantee sending its best team, after an under-strength side was thrashed 76-0 by the Wallabies in Brisbane last month.
A capacity crowd at the Homebush Bay stadium - which will be reconfigured with a smaller capacity after the 2000 Games - would set a rugby attendance world record, bettering the 104,000 who watched Scotland play Wales at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in 1975.
The stadium will be opened in March next year.
O'Neill said the success of last year's Bledisloe Cup blockbuster at the MCG, which drew a crowd of 92,000 and contributed an estimated $61 million into the Victorian economy, plus the news that Australia and New Zealand would co-host the 2003 World Cup, convinced the ARU of the benefits of moving its showcase matches to the biggest stadium in Australia.
"I'm sure there will be some disappointment down south (but) I've reassured Premier Jeff Kennett this morning that Melbourne will not be forgotten," said O'Neill.
"We're committed to taking rugby matches to Melbourne each year and we'll continue to do that."
The 42,000-capacity Sydney Football Stadium will continue to host New South Wales' Super 12 matches, but all Sydney internationals will be moved to Homebush Bay.
O'Neill admitted that the ARU had looked carefully at the potential problems of moving away from rugby's traditional supporter base in Sydney's eastern suburbs and upper and lower north shore, but he was convinced the new venue would win them over, as well as attract new fans.
"It's great news for the city of Sydney, it confirms first of all that the stadium has got a spectacular life beyond the Olympic Games in 2000," said NSW Premier Bob Carr.
"If there were any doubts about the value the stadium represents to the people of New South Wales after the Olympics, they're resolved with this announcement today."
The ARU will also offer 5,000 memberships to the new stadium, which guarantee a seat to all major matches, including the 2003 World Cup final, although their cost had yet to be decided.
Stadium Australia chief executive Chris Chapman said the 5,000 memberships could be made available because the company had informed the Stock Exchange today it was buying back 17,200 gold membership packages from the underwriters.
Sales of the packages - originally priced at $10,000 - were slow, partly because there were no other guaranteed major hirers for the Homebush Bay stadium outside the Olympics when they went on the market.
The AFL had signed an in-principle agreement to play a minimum of five games a year there from 2001 provided that Stadium Australia came up with the funds to reconfigure the arena for Australian Rules football.
The National Rugby League was also understood to be keen to play major matches there and it had also been mooted as a future venue for soccer internationals.
