The 2022 NRL Grand Final is set to remain in Sydney following a last-ditch offer from the NSW Government.
According to the Courier Mail, the government tabled a $160 million master plan to keep Queensland at bay by offering the ARL Commission $8 million per for Accor Stadium to host the game for the next 20 years.
The NRL originally threatened to move the game away from the Harbour City after the state government reneged on a promise to upgrade Brookvale Oval, Leichhardt Oval and Shark Park with those funds being diverted to flood relief.
The new offer came in at the eleventh hour after the ARLC Commission met on Wednesday to decide the Grand Final’s fate, with NSW Premier Dom Perrotet confirming that the new offer was “much more” than what was handed over in the past.
“We put a very fair and reasonable offer to the NRL in relation to keeping the grand final,” Perrottet told The Courier Mail.
“That is commercially in confidence. It is probably not as much as Queensland have offered but it is more than we have paid in the past.
“I have made it very clear that the game should remain in our great state. It has been an institution for our people and that is where it should remain.
“The grand final has always been in NSW except for last year during covid. Ultimately I have to make decisions in the best interests of NSW. We have gone through a very difficult time in our state over the last four years with bush fires, droughts, floods and the pandemic.”
While the NRL is yet to officially announce the news, SEN’s Andrew Voss responded to the report stating the decider would remain in Sydney.
“Sydney is going to keep the Grand Final, play on,” Voss said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
The 2022 NRL Grand Final is set for Sunday, October 2.