Another blow for new Perth Stadium: no Federal cash

The new 66,000-seat sports and entertainment Perth Stadium has had another blow, seven months before its scheduled opening in early March.

WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt has told Parliament that the Federal Government is not contributing any money towards the project, despite Premier Mark McGowan writing to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asking for Federal aid towards the stadium’s $1.45 billion capital bill just three months ago.

The annoyed Premier said, “It’s especially disappointing when Federal governments in the past have been happy to make significant contributions to other stadium developments across the country.” 

He cited the $100 million that the Federal Government committed to the new 25,000 palm tree-shaped Townsville Stadium, which will start construction in mid-2018 to be opened by 2020.

The Perth Stadium has faced delays of up to two years since building began, and the budget had blown out by $16 million.

An important steel footbridge across the Swan River connecting the stadium to the CBD, to encourage patrons to leave their cars at home and take public transport to the venue, was supposed to be ready by late last year.

The footbridge was to have been built by Malaysian company steel company Toyota Tsusho, which was enlisted by the former government.

But the contract was abandoned in June by the new administration, and WA company Civmec took over this month, predicting it would create 250 jobs.

The government has been told it could be finished by March. However, the original $70 million costing has blown out to $83 million.

Ed Sheeran is set to play the first concert at the new state-of-the-art venue.