Sea Eagles CEO Stephen Humphreys has revealed some good news on the long-awaited Lottoland upgrade in an exclusive interview.
Jon Geddes, Manly Daily
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December 10, 2019 2:25pm
New Sea Eagles CEO Stephen Humphreys has revealed the long-awaited undercover 3500 seat grandstand and state of the art Centre of Excellence at Lottoland are set to be completed towards the end of 2021.
He delivered the good news to fans in an extensive interview with the Manly Daily after one month in the job. .
“We have received some very generous funding from the State Government and Federal Government to build a new grandstand on the northern (scoreboard) end and will also house the club’s centre of excellence,” Humphreys said
“I know that has been talked about for a long time but it is actually getting close to reality.
“We have got the funding, we have lodged the DA and we are working through that approval process for what we want to do.”
Humphreys was very hopeful of breaking the soil in the middle of next year and if that happens it would be a 12-18 month job.
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“That is really exciting, that is a significant investment, it will improve the convenience and comfort for people coming to the ground and also reinforce our home- both our (NRL) team and our administrative team will be based there,” he said.
“All going well the vision is that at some point towards the end of 2021 we would be in that complex including the new stand.”
The club would still maintain a satellite operation in their current headquarters at the Sydney Academy of Sport.
No home games would be moved from Lottoland during the construction but there may be restricted access to that area and the scoreboard would be relocated.
The new grandstand is seen as the first stage in the long overdue transformation of the run down facility.
“Beyond that we do want to create a very modern first class facility at Lottoland and we are very buoyed by the comments from (ARL Commission Chairman) Peter V’landys at his first press conference when he talked about his belief in suburban venues and the need to upgrade those and make sure they become a permanent feature of rugby league at the highest level,” Humphreys said.
“And it was even better to hear that the No. 1 on his priority list was Lottoland.
“I have already a follow up conversation with Peter and he is very committed to that and is lending his support so I look forward to working with him and Todd (Greenberg, NRL CEO) on that possibility through the course of next year.’