Telstra Stadium capacity confirmed for RugbyWC- 85,000++

[Dan]

Great News!!

As discussed on these forums before,capacity for Telstra Stadium WILL be greater than 85,000 for the Rugby World Cup.From what Ive heard,MOST,but not all of these seats will be retained due to spectator comfort after the World Cup finishes.


Million-dollar windfall after seats added for World Cup
By Anthony Dennis
February 17 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/ ... 71471.html

Telstra Stadium, which staged its first cricket match yesterday and is the venue for seven World Cup rugby games, plans to add between 6000 and 8000 seats for this year's event - potentially a multimillion dollar windfall for organisers and providing more tickets to key matches for Australians.

The general manager of Rugby World Cup Ltd, Matt Carroll, said that any additional tickets, which could total more than 50,000 over the seven games, would have to be split with the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board, as part of the Australian Rugby Union's contract to stage the tournament.

The extra tickets allocated to the ARU would be placed in a second ballot for tickets later this year. Those who applied for tickets to prime matches in a first ballot last year will be notified of their success on Wednesday following its drawing last week.

Most of the extra seating would be achieved by building temporary stands over the spaces left when banks of retractable seating are moved forward to give spectators a closer view of the action.

The remainder of the extra seating would come from the addition of permanent and temporary seating at the northern and southern ends of the stadium. The extra seats would increase the capacity of the stadium for the World Cup to more than 85,000.



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Mr Carroll said that the only impediment was an impasse between stakeholders as to who would benefit financially from the addition of the seats.

Telstra Stadium also struck another blow in its fight with the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust to secure cricket when it established a NSW record for the largest domestic one-day crowd yesterday.

The rain-affected one-day fixture between NSW and South Australia was the first cricket match to be played at the stadium, with the record of just under 16,000 spectators eclipsed an hour after play began.

The final attendance figure of 25,000 made the game Australia's second best-attended domestic one-dayer.

The game was heavily subsidised by the stadium to demonstrate its suitability as a cricketing venue. About half of the tickets were complimentary.

There is uncertainty about whether one-day international matches will be transferred from the SCG in 2005-2006 to Telstra Stadium, with double the seating capacity, when the trust's contract with the Australian Cricket Board expires.

The trust recently failed in a takeover bid to persuade the Olympic stadium's chief lender, ANZ Bank, to accept a $100 million offer to assume the stadium's debt burden and its management.

The trust had planned to create a "super-trust" that would control events at its Moore Park, Aussie Stadium and the SCG venues as well as Telstra Stadium.

David Gilbert, chief executive of Cricket NSW, which staged yesterday's match, said that his organisation stood to earn more revenue from the staging of games at Telstra Stadium, which was closer to the centre of Sydney's population and was more cost effective than the SCG

[Scott]

The best part of this will be when they complete the roof at the north/south ends. I was there for the one dayer recently and it's a great ground for cricket. btw they are currently building permanent media/official facilities at the back of the north end seats, which will obviously be used for the RWC and so cricket can be played on a regular basis.