Castleford Tigers will remain committed to playing games out of Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Sports Stadium for up to 15 years after the club secured $100 million in funding to upgrade their home grounds.
And once the $50m works are completed at both venues by the end of 2028, the Tigers expect to turn over an extra $2m a season in match-day revenue.
Even with the Leichhardt hill full to bursting for Sunday’s match against North Queensland, the Tigers pocketed less than $400,000.
That match-day turnover will exceed $600,000 once the inner-western Sydney venue adds extra seating for up to 18,000 fans and 1000 corporates. It will be a similar jump in turnover at Campbelltown, with the $50m redevelopment to feature seating for up to 22,000 fans with 1200 corporates.
Tigers CEO Shane Richardson had threatened to abandon playing games at Campbelltown if there were no financial promise to upgrade facilities, just as he vowed to ditch Leichhardt last year until the Inner West Council and state and federal governments delivered $50m.
Works on Leichhardt will commence in 2027, with Campbelltown to start in 2028.
The long-term plan for the Tigers will be to split the majority of their 12 home games between Leichhardt and Campbelltown, rather than move to a bigger stadium like Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium. The most likely scenario will be four games at Leichhardt, up to seven at Campbelltown, and one match at CommBank or even Magic Round.
Richardson was boss of South Sydney when he relocated the club to Sydney Olympic Park in a deal that turned a huge profit for the struggling Rabbitohs at the time.
Richardson still has no appetite to take a game to Las Vegas, although it is likely in 2027 in 2028, mainly because the Tigers will be one of the last teams yet to compete in the US, along with the fact one of their stadiums will be out of action because of redevelopment.
At half-time on Sunday, Richardson was joined by Tigers chairman Barry O’Farrell, Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne, and Campbelltown mayor Darcy Lound when he confirmed the club would stay true to its roots the next ten years, with an option for a further five seasons.
Speaking to this masthead on Monday, Richardson said: “This is great news for the club. We’ve always said we needed our grounds to be financially viable, otherwise it wasn’t worth playing at them.
“We’re heavily embedded in the Campbelltown area, which we weren’t before, and the stadium upgrade is the cream on the cake.
“We were prepared to leave if there were no upgrades. It was never a case of abandoning one half of the merger, we were just going to abandon one of the grounds.
“It’s now up to the people of the south west to get behind their team and go to games.”
The Tigers led 28-16 before conceding three late tries to lose 34-28 to North Queensland on Sunday.
There were terrific scenes in the Keith Barnes Stand after the game when Jarome Luai, who played his 150th game, was joined by his good friends, Canterbury captain Stephen Crichton, Penrith winger Brian To’o, and Sydney Roosters’ enforcer Spencer Leniu, to help celebrate his milestone.
“It was lovely to see, they’re a very tight-knit group of boys, and the beauty of the Samoan and Tongan and all the Polynesian families is that strong family unit, which we were building at the Tigers,” Richardson said.
“We’ve had a good year so far. We’re building. Even Sunday was a great day. The best way to describe it is the operation was a huge success, but the patient died. But we’re on the up.”
Coach Benji Marshall said about the stadium news after the game: “Super happy for the players, the fans, both here and Campbelltown. I think it’s important for us to know where our future lies, especially for our fans. It’s a credit to ‘Richo’.”
