Campbelltown’s Tigers plea likely to fall on deaf ears

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Campbelltown’s Tigers plea likely to fall on deaf ears

Wests Tigers are standing firm on a June 30 deadline for Campbelltown’s council to secure stadium upgrades, despite a plea to commit long-term in order to help attract funding.

The Tigers return to Campbelltown on Sunday against South Sydney for the first time since CEO Shane Richardson threatened to quit the venue last month if a $50 million upgrade was not secured.

The NRL club also called for $100 million in upgrades to be locked in over the next five years, with the A-League’s Macarthur Bulls also playing out of the venue.

Campbelltown City Council has already made clear they cannot fund that themselves, with mayor Darcy Lound instead petitioning state and federal government.

The council remain hopeful, but their chances appear to be dimming with no federal assistance pledged during the election and the NSW government also yet to come to the party.

Talks are also ongoing with the Tigers, but Lound is desperate for the club to increase their amount of games in Campbelltown even if funding is not secured.

That, he believes, would strengthen the case for funding in coming years, with the Tigers wanting an increased capacity of 24,000 and around 1200 corporate seats.

“The bottom line is we want the Tigers here full time. We would love to see seven or eight games here with Campbelltown as the main base,” Lound told AAP.

“It really does strengthen the case to go to government over the coming years if we have a commitment that the Tigers have it as predominantly their home ground.

“Without the Tigers, it really weakens our case.

“We need the commitment from them. And we are committing to them that we want them here. We will do whatever we can, we will fund whatever we can.”

Lound also believes remaining in Campbelltown holds other benefits for the Tigers, with the Macarthur region home to one of the state’s biggest junior nurseries.

A previously announced $40.3 million sporting centre of excellence, funded largely by council and state government, will also be complete at the northern end of the ground by 2027.

Adjustments allow that to double the stadium’s corporate spaces in the ground from 450 to 900, while also providing game-day facilities which will assist with hosting women’s matches.

But that is unlikely to sway the Tigers, who still believe the ground falls short of NRL standards.

Richardson is yet to decide if the club will pull the pin on playing at Campbelltown for good if no upgrades are forthcoming by June 30, but any long-term commitment to increase games appears unlikely.

“We won’t make a long-term commitment if there is no commitment from the council,” Richardson told AAP.

“We want to play out there, but we can’t play out of there if the situation doesn’t change.”

The Tigers make around $400,000 from sold-out home games at their suburban grounds, compared with $1.05 million in sell outs at CommBank Stadium.

They play four games at Campbelltown and CommBank this year and three at Leichhardt, with the latter locked in for $40 million upgrades of its own.

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