The Australian Football League and the Sydney Swans "are the big losers" in Sydney's A$2B ($1.5B) stadium rebuild, according to Neil Cordy of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. The first thing the code will be without is the venue "which has hosted the 11 largest crowds outside Victoria in the game’s history." The club is "in for a host of challenges" in the coming years, which include sharing its home ground with the Sydney Roosters, NSW Waratahs, State of Origin and possibly A-League side Sydney FC. The "wear and tear alone" will "restrict" the players' ability to train on their home ground. It is a "squeeze" the Swans have been feeling "for a long time as they fight for space in the most competitive sporting market in the world." The "biggest tightening" the Swans will feel is in the state government's "purse strings." The club finds itself "well down the queue" when it comes to the funding of any future developments at its home ground, including its "much-desired" training and administration center. Swans Chair Andrew Pridham's wish list is "sensibly modest" -- new grandstands at the Sydney Cricket Ground are not on it but a new A$50M ($38.3M) HQ is. Pridham: "Our training facility is one of the worst in the AFL" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 12/18).
