Storm over Energy Australia Stadium

A dispute has erupted at EnergyAustralia Stadium between the Newcastle Knights NRL franchise and Hunter Regional Sporting Venues Authority (Hunter Venues), the manager of the NSW Government-owned stadium.

Hunter Venues, formed last year by the NSW Government, is seeking close to $800,000 in unpaid licence fees that the authority claims it is owed. However, the Knights are refusing to pay and instead are claiming more than $1 million from Hunter Venues in compensation for lost revenues caused by the current redevelopment of the Newcastle stadium.

The dispute has taken a twist with Knights Chairman Rob Tew claiming that Hunter Venues was seeking to end the NRL club's management of the stadium. However, Hunter Venues while having "expressed interest" in directly managing the stadium, has denied that issuing the Knights with a default notice for the $792,000 in unpaid licence fees was an attempt to force the long-term tenants out.

The Knights have held the stadium licence since 1987 and signed a new 10-year lease in February last year. However, that arrangement is in jeopardy after Hunter Venues announced this week that it had served Knights management with a notice of demand seeking overdue rent.

Hunter Venues are understood to have been negotiating with the Knights for some months over the amount of compensation the Knights should receive this season when the stadium's Western Grandstand is being demolished, temporarily reducing the venueâs seating capacity. However, Hunter Venues views this matter to be separate to the Knightsâ licence-fee arrears.

EnergyAustralia Stadium is currently undergoing a $40 million redevelopment to improve stadium facilities and expand the stadium's capacity to eventually hold over 40,000.

Former NSW Premier Morris Iemma promised $30 million to upgrade the Stadiumâs facilities during the 2007 NSW Election campaign, to which the Federal Government has added $10 million.

Stage one works, which in included dressing, warm up and medical rooms, with showers, toilets, ice baths and 855 news seats in the spectator concourse in the stadium's south-west have already been completed while stage two works, replicate Stage one on the northern side of the Western Grandstand are currently underway.

Stage three of the development will demolish the current Western Grandstand and replace it with one similar to the eastern stand, and stage four will involve building the northern and southern ends of the ground, replacing the grass hills with seated areas.

Developers have stated that this staged approach to redevelopment will have minimal affects on attendances.

When complete, the stadium will have close to 33,000 seats, with the ability to use temporary seating to expand capacity to 40,000 for the 2015 Asian Cup and 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup should Australia be the host of those tournaments. 

8th October 2008 - HUNTER VENUES APPOINT FIRST CHIEF EXECUTIVE