Parramatta's former board agreed to a long-term contract with ANZ Stadium in the week after the club was slapped with its salary cap breach notice, taking the Eels' two biggest games each season there until 2025 instead of being played at a new $300 million venue to be built on the site of Pirtek Stadium.
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The Western Sydney Stadium, due for completion by April 2019, is to be the first venue rolled out under the NSW Government's $1.6 billion stadiums strategy, with its primary tenants the Eels and A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.
However, the contract with ANZ Stadium, which is also to be redeveloped as a 75,000-seat rectangular arena, would see only nine Parramatta home games a season at the new WSS, with two Sydney derbies including an Easter Monday clash with Wests Tigers hosted down the M4 and the Eels taking another game to the Northern Territory.
On a day in which Kieran Foran's release was finally confirmed by Parramatta there were eyebrows raised about the new deal with ANZ, which was done soon after five Eels officials were suspended in connection to the club's salary cap rorts and before the former Olympic Stadium was sold back to the state government this month.
Max Donnelly, the government-appointed administrator now in charge at Parramatta, declined to comment on the contract on Friday but its emergence is unlikely to be met favourably by Eels supporters. Whether Parramatta will be able to modify the deal agreed upon by the ex-Eels board is unclear but the issue appears to rest in the hands of the state government, which will own both stadiums. "Commercial arrangements in place prior to the NSW Government resuming ownership of ANZ Stadium on 1 July 2016 are a matter for the operator," said a spokesperson for the Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres.
Proponents of shifting two games to ANZ in the long run argue the capacity at Homebush Bay compared to the WSS — which is to seat between 30,000 and 35,000 — makes it a no-brainer, particularly with the venues to ultimately be linked by light rail.
There are questions, however, about why such a deal would be done when so much is being spent on a new stadium at Parramatta.
There is a belief that big games, such as against Sydney derbies against Canterbury or the Tigers, would be more lucrative at the WSS than ANZ despite a smaller capacity due to corporate appeal and the proximity of the $130m leagues club redevelopment, which the Eels hope will become the best sport and entertainment precinct in Sydney.
According to Infrastructure NSW stakeholder documents the new stadium at Parramatta would, the NRL has suggested, serve as a home ground for multiple teams including the Eels, Bulldogs and Tigers. It's also been deemed suitable to host "tier-two" internationals.
Football Federation Australia identified the to-be-constructed ground not only as the Wanderers' home but a site for men's and women's internationals, Asian Cup and Asian Champions League fixtures and special club friendlies, for instance, against visiting European teams. The FFA also see it as a possible home base for the Matildas.
The Australian Rugby Union, meanwhile, sees the WSS as ideal for tier-two internationals such as against Pacific Islands nations and Argentina, Australia A matches and for rugby sevens tournaments and the National Rugby Championship.
Three companies — Brookfield Multiplex, John Holland and Lend Lease — were shortlisted by the state government to build the new stadium ahead of a tendering process and the winning contractor is expected to be named in December.
