Southern hill looming large at McDonald’s Park
Published: 10 Sep 2019 10:11am
Wagga Wagga City Council will once again join forces with Wagga Wagga Rugby League to continue transforming McDonald’s Park.
Councillors have given the green light to two long-awaited projects at the city’s premier rugby league facility, the construction of the southern hill and the installation of more than 2000 new seats.
Wagga City Council has agreed to accept Wagga Wagga Rugby League’s offer to complete the two projects on its behalf.
“The addition of the southern hill will take our ground capacity to roughly 12,000 people,” Council’s Strategic Asset Planner Ben Creighton said.
“This is a major win for both Council and league fans as we move towards the 2020 NRL Premiership fixture featuring the Canberra Raiders.”
Wagga Wagga Rugby League will also install additional seating to both the eastern and western sides of the facility, taking the total number of fixed seats to 2372.
“We’ll be adding another 418 seats and 14 disabled seating spaces to the west, and 1200 seats to the eastern side of the ground,” Wagga Rugby League’s chairman Warren Barclay said.
“We salvaged these seats out of Allianz Stadium earlier this year with the vision to add them to McDonald’s Park.
“It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for years to make McDonald’s Park an even more accessible ground for all community members.”
As part of the approved contract, Wagga Wagga Rugby League will also construct new concrete paths connecting the eastern and western seating areas via the northern and southern hills and build a storage facility under the existing Country Rugby League office.
The construction of the southern hill will see the south-east canteen repositioned to better utilise the new space.
“This transformation has been decades in the making,” Mr Barclay said.
“It’s so rewarding to know we’ll soon get underway on the next stage, thanks to our strong, and ongoing partnership, with Wagga Wagga City Council.”
Highlighting the importance of this development to the wider rugby league community, the announcement comes just days before Southcity meets Tumut in the Group 9 Grand Final at McDonald’s Park.
“Council is committed to ensuring McDonald’s Park is recognised as one of the premier rugby league facilities in regional New South Wales,” Mr Creighton.