NRL grand final guaranteed to stay in Sydney under one-year deal

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NRL grand final guaranteed to stay in Sydney under one-year deal

By Michael Koziol, Alexandra Smith and Dan Walsh
Updated

The NRL grand final will be held at Sydney’s Accor Stadium for another year after the NSW government and the Australian Rugby League Commission reached a one-year agreement.

The deal is set to be announced this week that will ensure this year’s decider will be held in Sydney, according to several government and non-government sources who were not authorised to speak about the matter publicly.

The 2022 NRL Grand Final at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, which Peter V’landys had threatened to take to Brisbane.

The 2022 NRL Grand Final at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, which Peter V’landys had threatened to take to Brisbane.Credit: Oscar Colman

ARLC chairman Peter V’Landys has played NSW off against Queensland and even Victoria for the hosting rights, seeking hundreds of millions for suburban stadium upgrades.

The sources have indicated the one-year deal is worth more than $10 million for the NRL. The grand final will be held on the first weekend of October.

Previous grand final agreements negotiated between the NRL and the state government have yielded long-term commitments beyond 20 years, though those deals have been contingent on significant stadium investment.

The NRL plans to continue pushing for upgrades at suburban venues including Leichhardt and Brookvale Oval, while work on the $300 million Penrith Stadium upgrade is due to begin late next year.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said immediately after the election he was not willing to sacrifice money from health and education to bolster sports facilities, given the state’s debt.

But the short-term deal ensures the NRL grand final remains in NSW for at least another year and that Minns avoids the embarrassment of losing the marquee event in his first year as premier.

V’landys has previously spoken of replicating the NFL’s Super Bowl model, which would see the grand final rotate venues and open up a bidding process to generate investment in the sport.

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“It opens the door for a Super Bowl-type concept or whoever can give us the best deal for the game,” V’landys said last year when a similar one-year commitment to keep the grand final in NSW was reached with former premier Dominic Perrottet.

“It could go anywhere. It’s a destination week, it’s a major event. You’ve got to remember we do have four teams in Queensland.”

The Herald also reported in April that a Queensland government proposal for three grand finals to be hosted in Queensland before the 2032 Brisbane Olympics was rejected by the NRL last year.

The decider has only been held outside Sydney once, when Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium hosted the Panthers and Rabbitohs in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grand final first appeared at Stadium Australia in Homebush in 1999 when Melbourne won its first premiership.

Minister for Jobs and Tourism John Graham, who worked on the deal with the NRL, was contacted for comment.

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