Clarification
In the article that appeared on page 1 of The Northern Daily Leader on Friday, December 22, under the headline “Fee for Footy” the $200,000 figure which was quoted by the General Manager of Tamworth Regional Council (TRC), Paul Bennett, came from negotiations with the NRL when the Evocities organisation approached the NRL earlier in the year about the prospect of bringing a game to the region.
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The council decided at that point, it was not something that they would pursue, due to the substantial cost to the community.
Wests Leagues Club while being unable to divulge the amount negotiated for the upcoming game, for contractual reasons, have said the end figure was significantly less than the sum quoted, and they expect the event will be a success given the volume of community support to date.
The council was not involved in the latest negotiations to bring an NRL side to the city.
The Leader would like to apologise for any reader confusion which arose as a result of the article.
Earlier
NEXT year’s historic National Rugby League (NRL) premiership match in Tamworth comes at a significant cost, but it’ll reap dividends for the community, organisers said.
Tamworth Regional Council general manager Paul Bennett told The Leader the April 21 fixture came with a $200,000 pricetag – a figure which was refuted by the NRL, Wests Tigers and Wests Leagues Club.
Council is currently looking at ways to grow the local events sector, including the divisive proposal for a levy on businesses which benefit from major events.
Mr Bennett said these sorts of events come at a cost.
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“To attract something like an NRL game, like we’re doing in April, that’s a $200,000 payment to the NRL,” he said.
“That will bring people to town, they will access all of those facilities, but there’s not revenue apart from gate-takings and they don’t go anywhere near covering the cost of bringing those games to the city.”
Wests chief executive officer Rod Laing wouldn’t divulge how much the club paid the Tigers to bring a home game to Tamworth, but he was confident there would be a return on investment.
Mr Laing said Wests’ adjoining Mecure hotel was already booked out for the NRL weekend.
The Leagues Club chief encouraged the rest of town to be “sensible” with their rates around the event and hoped a successful weekend could lead to a longer-term arrangement with the Sydney club.
Wests Tigers did not respond to a request for a comment.
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