New deal to make Campbelltown the Tigers’ main home
Scott Bailey |
Wests Tigers will play at least seven games a year out of an upgraded Campbelltown Sports Stadium in the club’s biggest leap into southwest Sydney since the start of the joint venture in 2000.
Tigers officials are currently in the process of confirming their new stadium strategy, which will include leaving CommBank Stadium and Leichhardt Oval hosting at least three games.
The new deal will likely begin in 2029, after an upgrade of Leichhardt is completed in 2027 and close to $50 million of works expected to be scheduled for Campbelltown in 2028.
The deal confirms the Tigers will play out of the two suburban grounds for 10 years, with the club able to trigger an option to remain for the five years after that.
The Tigers are still finalising the specifics of the strategy, but at least 11 games a year will be played out of Campbelltown and Leichhardt with wriggle room to add one more to either venue.
“We see this as having the opportunity to have two unique, boutique, suburban grounds with quality facilities to maximise the fan value,” Tigers CEO Shane Richardson told AAP.
“You’re going to get a really good ground out at Campbelltown, and a great boutique stadium at Leichhardt.
“It’s the best of both worlds, and hopefully we can organise it so it’s at capacity every week.”
Wests Tigers will continue to play games out of CommBank Stadium until the upgrades are complete.
The move to eventually play more than half of the club’s home games at Campbelltown comes with the stadium’s capacity expected to close in on 21,000.
The capacity of Leichhardt Oval after the upgrade’s is set to be approximately 17,000.
The Tigers also view the Macarthur region as crucial to their future, with the area boasting the biggest rugby league junior base in NSW.
“There is no doubt about where we are pushing things,” Richardson said.
“You have to look at our track record since I took over. We have an office now that will be based out of Western Sydney University.
“We will be in 60 schools by the end of the year out there with our programs. We’ve got 8000 juniors out there, and our players are involved heavily with the clubs.
“We’ve got a great relationship with Wests Macarthur, that wasn’t necessarily the case before.
“The cream on the cake is the stadium itself, which allows us to play out there.
“We’ll be playing a minimum of seven games there, we might even have eight. And I am committing to a minimum of three at Leichhardt.”
AAP understands the Campbelltown upgrade will include small grandstands at both the northern and southern ends of the ground, on top of centre-of-excellence buildings.
A $40.3 million sporting centre of excellence had previously been committed to the venue, funded largely by Campbelltown City Council and the state government in 2023.
It’s believed the plan is now for that to be built in two separate areas of the venue, creating the increased capacity and with room for up to 1200 corporates.
Campbelltown’s Council had in June committed a conditional $10 million in funding to assist an upgrades of the venue.
“It makes sense for Wests Tigers and the NRL, for Campbelltown Sports Stadium to be a main home ground, given we are the biggest junior base in NSW,” Campbelltown’s mayor Darcy Lound said.
AAP
