World-class Venues Play Key Role in Commonwealth Games 2022 Decision
The wealth of existing sports arenas and facilities in the West Midlands has been a key factor in awarding Birmingham host city status for Commonwealth Games 2022.
Four world-class indoor venues will be supplied by leading venue management company, NEC Group – whose senior team played a pivotal role in the bid process. There are also plans for the Group to host both a media centre and a dedicated broadcast facility.
Commenting on the results, Paul Thandi, chief executive of NEC Group, said:
“It’s a brilliant early Christmas present to get confirmation today that Birmingham has been selected as host city. Host cities are required to demonstrate world-class sporting facilities and NEC Group is proud to be supplying four of our top venues across Birmingham and Solihull. All our sites had to meet rigorous guidelines around athletes’ needs, technical specifications, seating capacity and Games-time logistics.
“This result is testament to our track record of delivering large-scale international sporting events and investing significantly into our venues to set us apart from our competitors. It also reflects the expertise and professionalism of our people.
“Securing the bid is great news for the city and surrounding area and great news for NEC Group. It’s a celebration of Birmingham’s sporting culture and equally exciting for the local economy – creating opportunities for people across the region and guaranteeing that Summer 2022 will be a busy period for us.
“This has been a great team effort by many people based in Birmingham and on the wider team. I would particularly like to congratulate Birmingham Council City Leader Cllr Ian Ward and Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street as well as our own MD of NEC Group Arenas, Phil Mead, international sports consultant Debbie Jevans and Birmingham City Council Corporate Director Waheed Nazir.”
95% of venues identified for Birmingham 2022 have already been built. NEC Group will be hosting a total of seven sports. Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis and Freestyle Wrestling will be in three of NEC’s largest halls (3, 4 and 5) plus Badminton at the Genting Arena and Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics at Arena Birmingham. Para-power wrestling will also be hosted in the Symphony Hall located with the ICC complex.
The NEC Group is all about bringing Live to Life©. The Group is one of the world’s top venue management companies, operating the NEC, ICC, Genting Arena, Arena Birmingham, formerly the Barclaycard Arena and the Vox Conference Centre. It also operates a national ticketing agency, The Ticket Factory; hospitality brand, Amplify; and award-winning caterer, Amadeus.
The internationally recognised NEC is situated on a site which also includes the Genting Arena with a combined total of 200,000 sq. m and is one of Europe’s largest indoor facilities. It is located beside Birmingham International Airport and offers excellent public transport links to central Birmingham as well as being located in the heart of the UK’s motorway network.
The NEC Group has expertise in regularly hosting major events, including: Crufts, the UK’s largest consumer event with 160,000 visitors annually; Spring Fair, the UK’s largest trade show; Skills Show, the nation’s largest skills, apprenticeships and careers event; and Horse of the Year Show.
It employs almost 2,000 employees providing event management expertise and robust back of house infrastructure and facilities.
With over forty years’ experience, the NEC Group operates 750 major events and attracts seven million visitors each year. In addition to the NEC, the Group also manages the Genting Arena, one of the world’s top entertainment arenas with flexible capacity of up to 15,700, and Arena Birmingham, a state-of-the-art city centre indoor sport and entertainment venue with a capacity of almost 16,000.
Riverton Unified School District Ups its Game With Ashly Gear in its New Gymnasium
Riverton is a small, unincorporated farming and bedroom community tucked into the southeast corner of Kansas, within commuting distance of Joplin, Missouri and other larger cities. Riverton Unified School District draws students from a large area, and many of those students compete on the Riverton Rams basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and gymnastics teams. In support of those teams, Riverton High School recently completed a new, state-of-the-art gymnasium with more extensive seating. The school district hired Joplin-based A/V integration firm Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) to design and install a high-impact sound reinforcement system for the new gymnasium. Nate Pugh, TEC audio/video project manager, turned to Ashly Audio for reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use amplifiers, DSP, and wall-mounted user interfaces.
The new gymnasium has permanent balcony seating, plus rollaway bleachers on either side of the court. In addition, overflow audio addresses folks who are in the foyer just outside the gymnasium. “The Riverton staff wanted a system that could flexibly accommodate all of the various uses they plan for the gymnasium, but they also wanted a system that would be intuitive and easy to operate for non-technical staff,” explained Nate. “Using Ashly Audio’s well-integrated DSP and customisable user-interface technology allowed us to give the staff various ‘scenes’ for different event types that turned on appropriate inputs and loudspeakers. For example, when they use the gymnasium floor for events with live mics, they can select a scene that mutes the down-firing speakers to avoid feedback issues.”
An Ashly ne24.24M Protea™ Digital Matrix Processor serves as the system’s central hub. Nate configured its modular I/O for twelve inputs and eight outputs. Inputs include various wired and wireless microphones, an Allen & Heath WZ4.16.2 console, and computer, auxiliary, and XLR jack inputs. The ne24.24M’s outputs feed three 2-channel Ashly KLR-3200 amplifiers rated at 1,600W per channel and two 2-channel 1,000W Ashly KLR-2000 amplifiers, which in turn power eight Community V2-1296w loudspeakers for main coverage, eight Community R.15 coaxial loudspeakers for downfills, four Community IS6-112 subwoofers, two Community stage monitors, and two JBL wide-coverage loudspeakers for the foyer.
Riverton staff control the system from three well-placed Ashly neWR-5 programmable network wall-mounted remote controls. TEC custom programmed the neWR-5s to allow for “scene” changes, as well as strategic input volumes and overall output volume. “Ashly was a great choice for several reasons,” Nate said. “Ashly user controls are exactly what Riverton needed: simple with limited access to get what they need and nothing else. Moreover, all of Ashly’s gear is reasonably priced and tremendously reliable. And since we use Ashly for plenty of our installations, we can offer great support.”
About Ashly Audio
Ashly Audio Inc. is recognised as a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high-quality & high-performance signal processing equipment and power amplification for use in the commercial sound contracting and professional audio markets. The 42-year-old company is headquartered in Webster, New York U.S.A.
For more information please visit www.ashly.com.
Analog Way AV Processors Manage LED Screens at the 17th FINA World Championships in Budapest
When the 17th FINA World Championships and World Masters Championships, the biennial aquatics and water sports competitions, were staged in Budapest, Hungary, an array of Analog Way AV processors made a splash managing multiple LED screens in different locations through a single system.
Giant Unilumin LED screens were mounted in five sports venues and were integral to every competition. AV Spring Ltd. supported the operations team with engineering plans for the AV systems and provided technical training for key personnel.
“The main challenge was putting together the newly bought AV devices so they would work seamlessly as one system,” explained Julianna Szoke, Operations Manager for AV Spring. “Analog Way equipment was the best fit for our client’s technical needs, such as low latency, high number of inputs and outputs, and great ease of use.”
At Lake Balaton the team managed four 15-20 square-meter LED screens positioned inside and outside the lake with Analog Way’s NeXtage 08-4K, a powerful, seamless AV processor based on the LiveCore platform.
The biggest venue was the new Danube Arena where two Analog Way Ascender 32-4K multiscreen processors with output expanders, also based on the LiveCore platform, managed the 600 square-meter LED walls. “This venue had three big screens at the end of the pool, four hanging from the middle, and 4-4 hanging in front of the spectators and on multiple perimeters around the pool, the audience and the gates where the swimmers entered,” she explained. “It was very helpful that the Ascenders could be controlled from a simple browser and had a huge range of inputs and outputs.”
Other Analog Way gear deployed for the championship included the Pulse 3G high-resolution seamless switcher, the Vertige premium remote controller, the RK-350 remote control keyboard, and control box.
“We had good experiences using the browser, shot box and iOS application,” said Julianna. “The user interface is really intuitive and the management of inputs and outputs was really easy with the thumbnails and easily identifiable plugs.”
She reported that, “the Analog Way products were reliable and stable even when running for days with almost all inputs and outputs in use. Analog Way support helped us resolve any issues we ran into from time to time.”
About Analog Way
Analog Way is one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of innovative equipment dedicated to the professional audio visual industry. Since 1989, Analog Way has developed and manufactured a wide range of high-end solutions and reliable equipment for professional AV applications including video wall processors, mixers and seamless switchers, event controllers and multi-format converters, as well as software and integration tools. Analog Way products provide premium solutions for Rental & Staging, Corporate, Broadcast, Institutional, Education, and House of Worship markets around the globe.
For more information please visit www.analogway.com.
Wall High School Gets Community Speech and Entertainment Quality Sound for Sports
Wall High School is located in Wall Township, a well-established suburban community in Monmouth County, NJ. Wall High is the senior school of Wall Township Public Schools, which also includes a primary school, four elementary schools and an intermediate school, which together educate around 3,650 students a year.
With an excellent record of team achievements, the school has a strong reputation in various field sports and had been planning to replace their old press box, stadium bleachers and sidewalks for several years. The sound system was also very old and functioned poorly, so required replacement as part of the overall refurbishment.
JD Sound & Video had provided the sound for a number of schools locally and this led Tom Ridoux, the school’s athletics director, to call them in for discussion. The brief was for a system that would provide high intelligibility coverage for the home bleachers, field, visitors and concessions areas. Additionally the system was required to provide entertainment quality music.
JD Sound & Video designed a system based around Community’s R SERIES loudspeakers and, following its presentation to the school, was awarded the project. “With considerable experience in R SERIES’ superb sound quality, coverage patterns and all-weather reliability, it was our first choice of loudspeaker system for Wall High School,” explained Joe DiSabatino, president and lead design engineer of JD Sound & Video. “With a range of models providing ideal coverage for each area, the system was complemented with two powerful subwoofers to provide the low frequency impact for entertainment quality music.”
For coverage of the bleachers, JD Sound & Video mounted two R.35-3896 and two R 5-96MAX loudspeakers on the press box roof. A high output three-way dual 12-inch R2-52Z is also located on the roof to cover the field and visitor stands. Two R.5-96MAX loudspeakers are mounted on poles for the outside ends of the bleachers. An R.5-66MAX loudspeaker is also used for the concessions area. The two IS6-215WR dual 15-inch all-weather subwoofers that provide extended bass and impact are located under the stands. All loudspeakers are powered by QSC PLD series amplifiers with QSC Q-SYS DSP handling signal processing and control. For ease of use, the system is operated from a 7-inch touch screen. Shure wireless mics complete the system and provide operational flexibility.
“The response to the system from the school has been extremely positive,” concluded Joe. “Everyone is impressed with the quality and sound levels from a system that looks so visually compact, especially when viewed from any distance.” For more information please visit www.communitypro.com or www.jdsoundandvideo.com.
Fort Scott High School Ups Its Game Plan with Ashly’s NX-Series Multichannel Amplifiers
Fort Scott High School is home to the Tigers volleyball and basketball teams, both of which figure large in the school's identity and after-school social life. In fact, the school recently completed construction on a second gymnasium so that multiple games and or practices can happen simultaneously. The new gym obviously needed a new sound reinforcement system, but the existing gym and a second-floor weight room did as well.
Audio/video integration firm Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) designed and installed a combined system that handles all three spaces. Because TEC's Joplin, Missouri headquarters is two-and-a-half hours round trip from Fort Scott, TEC Audio/Video project manager Nate Pugh called on the 24/7 reliability of Ashly Audio nX-Series multi-mode amplifiers to minimize the need for service calls.
"The existing gym had four ancient-looking loudspeakers in metal cages positioned in each corner of the room," explained Nate. "They all aimed at center court, and an equally-ancient powered mixer drove them all. It probably wasn't ideal when it went in, and all the time between then and now certainly didn't help. Volleyball and basketball are huge at Fort Scott, and they regularly bring 750 people in for games. There's a regional tournament coming up in a few weeks that's expected to draw 2,000 people!"
To keep runs short, Pugh located each of three Ashly amps in three separate closets, each close to the loudspeakers it drives. A two-channel Ashly nX4002 delivers 400 W per channel to 70V Community CS-Series distributed ceiling speakers in the weight room, whereas a beefier two-channel Ashly nX8002 delivers 800 W per channel to a pair of low-impedance Community IP8 loudspeakers in the new gym. Finally, a four-channel Ashly nX8004 delivers 800 W per channel to eight low-impedance Community V2-Series loudspeakers and eight 70V Community CS-Series loudspeakers for fill in the existing gym. Like all the multi-mode amplifiers in the Ashly nX-Series, each channel in the nX8004 can be set to drive 2 Ohm, 4 Ohm, 8 Ohm or 70V loudspeakers using simple rear panel DIP switches.
"We've been using Ashly gear for years now, and it never disappoints," Nate said. "Nothing was specified in this job, so I was free to design in Ashly, knowing that Fort Scott High School would have the system on pretty much all day, every day."
About Ashly Audio
Ashly Audio Inc. is recognized as a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high-quality & high-performance signal processing equipment and power amplification for use in the commercial sound contracting and professional audio markets. The 42 year-old company is headquartered in Webster, New York U.S.A.
For more information visit www.ashly.com.
AFC Wimbledon Given Permission to Build New Stadium
AFC Wimbledon are officially getting their new stadium after representatives from the club, along with Merton Council and GRA Acquisitions, signed the Section 106 agreement to clear the way for the new ground.
The official decision notice was handed to AFC Wimbledon’s Chief Executive, Erik Samuelson, which means that work can now start on the new stadium in Plough Lane.
The new development will deliver a 11,000-20,000-seat football stadium to the area, as well as 602 new homes, retail space and a squash and fitness club, bringing economic benefits to the area in south west London. AFC Wimbledon and GRA Acquisitions will also invest over £1.5million into local health provision and transport improvements for local bus, road and cycle network. This will result in construction jobs being created, along with long-term employment for the area once the facilities are all open.
Erik Samuelson said: “Everyone in football knows the story of how AFC Wimbledon came into being. A group of fans started with nothing; no ground, no team, no manager, no players and no kit. Now, fifteen years later, we’ve taken a giant step towards going home to Merton, in a new stadium and as a Football League club. This is a momentous day for us. Everybody who has helped the Club to reach this point must be very proud.
"On a personal note I want to say a particular thank you to Andrew Williams, our Project Manager, and partner Daniel Norris of law firm Hogan Lovells, who did all the hard work in the background. I and the club are massively indebted to them.”
Leader of Merton Council, Councillor Stephen Alambritis said: “After a long journey, this is a proud moment and a historic moment for Merton. Our experienced planning officers have spent a great deal of time and effort to ensure this exciting development will benefit both the greatly loved club AFC Wimbledon, as well as Merton and the many families and fans who live here.
"It has been a pleasure working with the club since we granted the planning permission in 2015. I look forward to seeing the stadium and housing become a reality over the coming months and can’t wait to see the first game. Welcome home, AFC Wimbledon.”
Dons Trust Board Chairman, Matthew Breach, said: “This is another major milestone towards the rightful return of Wimbledon’s football club to Wimbledon and represents the result of years of hard work to finalise a complex deal."
Adamson Covers Every Seat at Beijing’s Famed Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium
Taiwanese artist Huang Guolun recently brought his “No Impossible” show to China’s Beijing National Stadium, better known as the Bird’s Nest from the 2008 Summer Olympics’ opening ceremonies, and it was an expansive system comprised of Adamson’s E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers that ensured high-quality, even sound coverage for every seat.
Yongjun “Park” Li of Le’er Culture & Art Studio was the system designer and FOH engineer for the performance at China’s largest stadium – with a capacity of 80,000 – and explains that his choice to deploy Adamson for both the main house system and the delays covering the upper bowl was based on a few key factors.
“Adamson’s E-Series is very widely applicable, from studios and theatres to major indoor and outdoor stadiums, and I’ve found it excels in any application,” shared Yongiun. “The E-Series has an incredible throw, with smooth highs, powerful mids, and low end that seemingly has infinite power. The system is very dynamic; it feels like there’s always power to spare, even in productions of this scale.”
Sourced through Adamson’s Chinese distributor, Real Music, Li’s system included main hangs of 18 E15 three-way, true line source enclosures per side, plus eight flown and eight ground-stacked E219 subwoofers per side. An additional 15 E15s per side were deployed as side hangs, and small complements of four E12 three-way, true line source enclosures handled both front infill and outfill on each side of the stage.
Additionally, eight arrays of between 9-12 S10 two-way, full range enclosures were flown from the roof overhangs to cover the entirety of the upper bowl. “Both the pleasing look of the speakers and their very straightforward rigging design, as well as their low weight, made this project very easy and quick to install, which was very important considering the size of the venue and production,” added Yongiun.
“We’ve been very pleased with the way Adamson has been adopted for major events, tours, and venues throughout China, and now that includes a system in one of China’s largest stadiums – and one of the most famous in the world,” said Real Music’s Owner, Zhen “Richie” Wang. “We look forward to serving many more world-class clients with world-class solutions from Adamson going forward.”
Brentford Community Stadium Given Approval
The planning amendments for the Brentford Community Stadium have been approved by the London Borough of Hounslow’s (LBH), meaning that work can begin as early as February 2018.
The amendments, which comprise of changes to the stadium design and residential sites, were submitted in September 2017 by Lionel Road Developments and Kew Bridge Gate Developments on behalf of Brentford Football Club and its development partner Be Living.
Cliff Crown, Chairman of Brentford FC, said: “This decision by Hounslow Council is a great early Christmas present for fans.
“We now hope to be in a position to begin stadium construction in February 2018, following completion of a revised agreement with LBH on our obligations and will share more details with fans on the stadium build phase early in the New Year.”
Matthew Townend, Managing Director at Be Living Ltd, added: “Securing Hounslow Council’s support for the planning amendments takes us a step closer to delivering the Brentford Community Stadium development.
“We’re all very excited to be part of creating a vibrant new community that hopefully acts as a catalyst for positive regeneration in the local area.”
The design amendments of Brentford Community Stadium, which is set to hold 17,250, include upgrades to the media, broadcast and lighting facilities, with the aim to meet Premier League football and Premiership rugby standards.
The residential element of the scheme includes 487 new homes, which will be a mixture of apartments for rent and purchase, and designed to meet the housing needs of the local area.
Brentford FC's Community Sports Trust offices will now be located in purpose-built facilities alongside the stadium.
The project team for the new stadium includes Arup and M&E consultant with Arcadis, as well as Manchester-based architects, AFL.
Optocore & Broaman Make Moscow’s New-Look Luzhniki Stadium Ready to Host Fifa World Cup and Beyond
When Moscow’s original Luzhniki Stadium was demolished in 2013 to give way for the construction of a new stadium, it was with the 2018 FIFA World Cup in mind. At the end of 2015 a new tender document was drawn up on behalf of the principals, The Big Sport Arena Luzhniki, for the 81,000 seat stadium, with the technological requirements detailed by Moscow integration specialists S-Pro Systems, together with the German company Broadcast Solution.
Selected by the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup bid as the venue for the Final, the Stadium will also be used as a heritage venue after the Championship. At the heart of the new network broadcast transmission are some 57 Optocore and BroaMan fiber interfaces, designed in a fiber ‘star’ out of the ring topology, and supplied by Moscow-based distributor Audio Solutions. After the bid was accepted they became involved in the project as an S-Pro partner, with responsibility for equipment supply and warranty service management of the whole system.
They were able to demonstrate the advantages of producing a site-wide multi-node fiber transmission system and broadcast/multi-format links to the OB vans. According to Igor Kovalev, who manages Audio Solutions’ Pro Audio Department, “Optocore and BroaMan create a perfect synergy, providing an extremely robust optical network system for audio transport and auto routing functionality. Optocore I/O modules also have a wide working temperature range, which was one of the important criteria for choosing equipment for this project.”
The team responsible for the audio design comprised Andrey Matveev (S-Pro), Evgeniy Stepanenko (Broadcast Solution), Pavel Pyshkin (S-Pro) and Ivan Khizhnyak (S-Pro). S-Pro’s project managers were Sergey Manserov and Grigory Yurov. The Optocore system was designed around two main nodes: (1) Stadium patch panel room in OB Van area for multi-signal conversion to MADI. Various Optocore X6R-FX, X6R-TP V3R-FX and V3R-FX- TP converters were mainly fitted with MI (Mic-In) and LO (Line Out) cards, while an Optocore M8-BNC allows OB Van MADI connection with additional feature of Emulation Mode to control on-site Optocore mic preamps directly from the Van’s console. (2) Media control room, with a Yamaha 02R96 digital console equipped with an Optocore Y3R-TP Yamaha card — enabling it to work with Optocore’s proprietary SANE protocol.
Igor said the system had needed to meet a number of objectives: To uplink the environmental bowl sound (the stadium crowd noise), with the Optocore modules bundled in the technical racks positioned around the playing field perimeter; to integrate with the intercom systems of the technical personnel (achieved by using Optocore’s dedicated V3R-FX- INTERCOM); to integrate with the stadium’s sound reinforcement system; to integrate with the stadium’s patch panel room; to integrate with the stadium’s media room, which comprises all the multi-media signals, and finally to integrate with the commentator’s communication system.
With the Optocore systems widely distributed across the stadium, various tasks in terms of audio maintenance could be implemented with all events taking place (other than football matches). To expedite broadcast requirements Audio Solutions turned to Optocore’s associate company BroaMan, which in turn harnesses the power of Optocore. Two of the new Route66 AutoRouters are stacked, with each fiber node connected independently through the Route66. “The combination of redundancy and ability to close the Optocore loop automatically when active devices are added or disconnected, are the main advantages of the BroaMan Route66 AutoRouters,” stated Igor.
The installation also takes advantage of economies, for example the Optocore TP devices are separated and placed up to 50 meters above the main FX devices — resulting in the need for fewer FX devices and less fiber cabling. The system, which conforms to all worldwide broadcast standards, has certainly met the approval of The Big Sport Arena Luzhniki and Igor said that with the successful fulfillment of signal conversion and audio/data transport — with the delivery of pristine, low latency audio — all objectives have been met.
“The great advantage of an Optocore solution is that there is no interference from power cable runs, perfect EMR isolation and it has extremely flexible functionality, with the ability to handle any audio transport tasks with ease, over long distances,” he concluded.
www.optocore.com / www.broaman.com
Stadium Bill to Soar Above $2b Following Cabinet Approval
Two of Sydney's major sports stadiums will be demolished and rebuilt at a cost of $2 billion after state cabinet signed off on an expensive conclusion to the long-running saga on Thursday. However, the $2 billion price tag to rebuild both Allianz Stadium at Moore Park and ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park does not include the cost of rebuilding Parramatta Stadium.This blows the cost of the Berejiklian government's stadiums package to $2.3 billion – well above the original $1.6 billion price tag announced by former premier Mike Baird two years ago. Fairfax Media has confirmed cabinet has signed off on Allianz being demolished and rebuilt in 2018 and ANZ the following year.
Allianz will be rebuilt with a capacity of 45,000 people and ANZ with a capacity around 80,000. This will allow the NRL to continue holding matches, including the grand final, at ANZ while Allianz is unavailable. Fairfax Media has previously revealed the revival of the plan to build a new stadium at Moore Park to replace Allianz. The decision on Thursday is a reversal of one announced by Mr Baird and Sports Minister Stuart Ayres last year, and follows bruising clashes among Sydney's sporting and political elite.
In September 2015, Mr Baird said his government would spend $1.6 billion partly gained from the privatisation of electricity assets on upgraded stadiums in Sydney. That plan included a new stadium at Parramatta by 2019, construction of which is already under way. The plan was then to build a new stadium to replace the 30-year-old Allianz Stadium at Moore Park, and to upgrade the former Olympic stadium known as ANZ at Olympic Park.
But the proposal to prioritise another stadium at Moore Park faced strong resistance from sporting organisations. Sydney's NRL clubs preferred the spending at Olympic Park, closer to the geographic heart of Sydney.Also, the tenants at Allianz Stadium – Sydney FC, the Roosters, and the Waratahs – rebelled against the idea of a new stadium, in part because they would be displaced for years while it was built.
In response, Mr Baird took control of stadium planning in what was then a humiliating defeat for Stuart, who had championed the idea of a new stadium at Moore Park. Under the plans Mr Baird announced in April, 2016, the priority would be ANZ Stadium, and there would be only minimal funds available for an upgrade of Allianz Stadium.
The decision on Thursday represents a triumphant reversal of fortunes for Stuart and the powerful Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust, with whom he is close. Trustees include talkback radio's Alan Jones, business figure Tony Shepherd, and former premier Barry O'Farrell. By increasing the total spending on stadiums from $1.6 billion to around $2.3 billion, the government has in effect resolved the conflict between Allianz and ANZ Stadiums by finding money for them both.
But it has done so at some political risk. NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has said he would not spend money on Allianz Stadium in Sydney's east. On Thursday Luke criticised the decision and argued the total stadiums bill was $2.5 billion when $200 million the government spent on buying back ANZ stadium was taken into account.
Luke said Allianz "won't host grand finals, State of Origins, Bledisloe Cups or the biggest Socceroo qualifiers. Why are we doing this?"
"The government of the state is going to prioritise spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a white elephant stadium in the eastern suburbs of Sydney that won't host the biggest games," he said.
"It'll be full once, possibly twice, a year. And Labor says that is a massive waste of taxpayers' money. The priority for investment has to be our schools and hospitals."
The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said: "Twenty million people visit the Moore and Centennial Parklands every year, while Allianz is a sea of empty seats on game days."
"The public interest is being steamrolled by an all-powerful SCG Trust and an ambitious Sports Minister who wants to play with the big boys – and a Premier who's lost control of her Cabinet," Clover said.