Sydney Football Stadium rebuild in chaos as builder exits

With the demolition of the Sydney Football Stadium nearing completion, the project has hit a major hurdle, with Lendlease pulling out of the project, sighting budget concerns.

Having demolished the venue, the construction giant has reportedly refused to rebuild the venue for the amount of money on offer from the NSW Government.

Sports Minister John Sidoti said Lendlease had not been able to meet the government's requirements to rebuild the stadium on the Moore Park site on budget by 2022.

The government announced in December 2018 that Lendlease was the construction contractor for the entire $729 million project, however they’ll now only complete stage 1 (the demolition).

Mr Sidoti said negotiations were already underway with other construction firms to finish the job, adding that there’s a lot of competitive tension in the industry at the moment.

The Sydney Football Stadium project became a major issue in the 2019 state election issue, with the Labor opposition refusing to rebuild the venue, labelling it a "giant vanity project".

Before the March state election a local community group, Local Democracy Matters, took unsuccessful legal action in the NSW land and environment court to stop the knockdown and rebuild.

The new Sydney Football Stadium had been scheduled to open in 2022 and it remains to be seen if another builder can be found to complete the project on time and on budget.