Power is the only game being played at Moore Park

BY LUCAS BAIRD

A land grab at Moore Park for another stadium is not an idle threat, according to community group Saving Moore Park.

The group used its first newsletter on Monday to outline the power plays between Premier Mike Baird and Sports Minister Stuart Ayres.

The newsletter observes that the Minister suggested that a yet to come design brief “will determine where is the best location to build the stadium”.

“If not Moore Park, where else?” the community group said in the newsletter.

Speaking to City Hub, the group’s convenor Michael Waterhouse said he was worried because the Sports Minister had been “undermining” the Premier on the issue.

On Tuesday the 22nd of March, the Premier said on ABC local radio that a new stadium being built on Centennial and Moore Park Trust land was unlikely. He said that a new 55,000 seat stadium was slated to be built on existing SCG Trust land.

But Stuart Ayres has previously indicated that the design would be the determining factor in where the stadium would be constructed.

Mr Waterhouse said that this was the first of his many worries that still surround Moore Park.

“The Minister for Sport, Stuart Ayres, is taking a very different approach [to the Premier].”

“He seems to be undermining the Premier because he has come out and said that the design they are working on will determine the location of the stadium,” he said.

“If the location is to be determined by design, which is a weird way of approaching things to begin with. Then you have got to ask where is it going to be, because there is no where else other than Moore Park.”

Mr Waterhouse has been an outspoken advocate for Moore Park since helping to create the Saving Moore Park group. Sending letters to the Premier and Minister for the Environment, Mark Speakman.

Mr Speakman in his reply to Mr Waterhouse aligned with the Premier, saying that any redevelopment of Allianz stadium would be done on SCG Trust land.

The question of whether or not there will be a new stadium built or whether the existing Allianz stadium will be refurbished has been a point of contention, with the City of Sydney voting last week to support opponents of the push to acquire green space in Moore Park.