Bates Smart has proposed a plan to build a new Sydney stadium over the railyards at Central Station.
Recently there have been talks of demolishing Allianz Stadium due to claims that the stadium has serious compliance issues that cannot be fixed through refurbishment. If this is to go ahead, the options are to demolish the stadium and rebuild a new stadium on the Moore Park site, or to build a new stadium in a different location altogether.
The NSW State Government has proposed to do the former. According to Bates Smart, there are three issues with this:
- The Moore Park Stadium is not well-serviced by public transport and its location is not accessible for people living in Western Sydney.
- The Moore Park Stadium does not have the surrounding entertainment and hospitality venues to extend the game experience and maximise visitor expenditure.
- The redevelopment will not create wider economic benefits from urban or infrastructure renewal.
The firm argues that it would be a better idea to build the replacement over Central Station’s railyards; creating the benefit of public transport accessibility, using the development of the railyards to connect Surry Hills to Chippendale, and having broader economic benefits for the state, city and surrounding neighbourhood.
According to Bates Smart, the added benefit of this plan is that the existing stadium at Moore Park could continue to operate during the construction of the new stadium, and the stadium and its surrounding carpark could be returned to public parklands.
