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Amid some uncertainty over the NSW Government’s commitment to the construction of a new rectangular stadium in the Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, a new has been formed to advocate for the building of the new venue.

As part of a plan to upgrade suburban NRL venue in Sydney, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet last year committed to the construction to the rebuilding of the Penrith Panther’s BlueBet Stadium.

In July, the NSW Government and Infrastructure NSW announced they were in talks to acquire the current Penrith Paceway harness racing facility, for a more ambitious plan to build an entirely new stadium.

However, with uncertainty surrounding the project in the face of rising costs, the independent, apolitical Penrith Stadium Alliance has been founded by representatives from sport, business and the wider community.

The Weekender newspaper claims the Penrith Stadium Alliance will strongly advocate for construction of a new world class multipurpose sports and entertainment venue at the Penrith Paceway site with the current Penrith Stadium site to be converted into a new public open green space.

Spokesperson for the Alliance, Daniel McKinnon, a local businessman and Panthers fan, stated “a new Penrith Stadium represents an amazing once in a generation investment into the Penrith CBD and we must get it right. It’s critical that local Penrith business has a strong voice on such an important issue.

“With our city and particular our CBD so critical to our local economy it’s crucial that Penrith gets the venue it needs and deserves. That can only happen on the Penrith Paceway site. The Paceway site has size for a modern stadium that just isn’t available on the current stadium site.”

The Alliance has created a petition backing the new stadium and is calling on supporters to leverage their database and local contacts to generate as many signatures as possible.

The petition advises “it will demonstrate to Government that the new stadium is a welcome advancement to our great city and that the days of Penrith being used as a punching bag for Eastern Sydney centric decision makers and media have long since evaporated.”

McKinnon added “we accept that with any form of new infrastructure there is disruption and inconvenience (but) in this case we strongly believe it is in the interest of more Penrith businesses that the current stadium operations be maintained during construction of the new venue.”

The decision to focus on the Penrith Paceway site for the new stadium followed a six-week community consultation program, which gathered feedback from over 3,000 people.

Penrith Paceway is located next to the existing BlueBet Stadium.

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