The former NSW sports minister Stuart Ayres was centrally involved in persuading the state government to pursue the controversial compulsory acquisition of the Penrith harness racing paceway site to allow for the construction of a new stadium next door for the Penrith Panthers, rather than the $309m rebuild originally planned.
The acquisition order was announced in July, despite the government putting the upgrades of other suburban stadiums on the backburner, citing acute budget pressures.
The surviving project is in Ayres’ own highly marginal seat of Penrith, prompting unhappy councils in other areas to claim the government is trying to shore up support there ahead of the 2023 state election, at the expense of sporting grounds elsewhere.
Ayres is now pushing for a new stadium, similar to the TQL stadium in Cincinatti, that would rival the new Allianz stadium – which holds 42,500 people and cost $800m – in Moore Park.
Documents obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information laws reveal a concerted campaign from within Ayres’ office from as early as March for the more ambitious plan of acquiring the paceway.
The current minister for sport, Alister Henskens, insisted before budget estimates last month no final decision had been made to acquire the paceway site..
But the documents show Ayres was pushing the paceway option over the plan to rebuild the Penrith Panthers’ home ground on the existing site until he lost the portfolio in August.
In March Ayres wrote to the premier, Dominic Perrottet, urging the government to look at “an alternative plan”.
The documents also show his office kept control over key elements of the project, despite Infrastructure NSW being the agency responsible for construction.
The 11-hectare paceway site is between the Panthers’ current stadium and club and the Penrith CBD. It is used for trotting, a club and the Penrith Show, and also houses a number of charities.
The paceway owners, the Penrith Agricultural society , had been discussing with Penrith council whether the site could be redeveloped into commercial and residential properties to help fund a move away from the Penrith CBD.
But it was blindsided by the notice to compulsorily acquire the site.
The government owns the site of the current stadium. The combined site would accommodate restaurants, bars, offices and possibly housing as well as a 30,000-seat stadium.
The documents reveal that in November 2021, business cases for the redevelopment of Penrith stadium (on its current site) and Manly’s Brookvale stadium were completed. The Brookvale assessment, released to the upper house under a call for papers, showed a poor benefit-to-cost ratio of just 0.24 (where 1.0 represents break even). The Penrith assessment has not been released.
A month later, Perrottet announced that the Penrith redevelopment on the current site would go ahead in 2023, with a budget of $309m, and would take two years.
But within weeks of that announcement, Ayres became sports minister again and by March there appears to have been a major rethink.
What prompted it is unclear from the documents, other than that the more ambitious project was supported by the Penrith Panthers, one of the biggest clubs in Australia.
On 18 March, Ayres wrote to the premier saying he had asked names redacted to undertake community consultation, including an online forum, and to prepare a project brief “for the new stadium”.
“If the outcomes from this engagement suggest that an alternative scheme is a better outcome … [redacted],” Ayres wrote.
“If the announced option is still considered the best way forward following further engagement, then I will ask for work to proceed toward developing the initial design and the associated planning application,” he said.
The news that there was a new option was soon out in Penrith. In early April, the council met Infrastructure NSW and raised “rumours via social media about purchase of the Paceway site”.
Notes of a consultation between INSW and Panthers Group record its strong preference to build on the paceway site, because it would allow a bigger stadium, with no disruption to the rugby league team’s home games during construction. Panthers stressed the importance of having more corporate facilities in the new stadium.
By May the paceway’s chief executive, Tash Greentree, was becoming increasingly concerned.
On 26 May, INSW’s chief executive, Tom Gellibrand, told the paceway owners “some feedback suggested the best use of the Paceway site would be to put the redeveloped stadium on it”. But he said the government had not made a decision.
In June, the infrastructure minister, Rob Stokes, was asked to sign a formal project authorisation order. The site description included both the paceway and the current stadium.
By July, INSW was ready to begin compulsory acquisition of the Paceway site but it was Ayres’ office who drove the timing of the official letters, who decided that only two local journalists be notified and who approved the media statement.
“We are ready to commence the commercial negotiations for the acquisition of the Penrith Paceway site,” Gellibrand wrote to Ayres’ senior adviser, Michael Haynes, on 4 July.
“Can you confirm from your end that the minister for sport supports us commencing that activity today?”
“The minister is happy for you to commence the activities as outlined,” Haynes replied.
Ayres said in a statement it was standard practice for government agencies to update ministers’ offices about progress and community engagement.
“The Office of Sport, Infrastructure NSW and Venues NSW did so regularly when I was the minister.”
He said he strongly opposed the paceway being rezoned from recreation to residential as proposed by its management.
“The Penrith Paceway site was identified as the optimal site for a future stadium in Penrith by the business case presented to government. The design report in the business case could not have been any clearer.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the Paceway site is the best site for the new stadium and is completely inappropriate for thousands of apartments,” he said.
A formal decision is still pending.
