Canberra Raiders chief executive Don Furner has re-emphasised plans for the Riverina to host NRL games.
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While announcing a new $19 million Centre Of Excellence on Monday, Furner confirmed the club still want to play games in the region.
Wagga is the preferred location for the game, which would be the city’s second NRL game.
Mayor Greg Conkey confirmed negotiations are continuing to attract an NRL game in the city in 2019 or 2020.
There is also talks of trial games to be played in the city if an official relationship can be locked in.
Raiders officials will visit Wagga next week to continue talks over the prospect of the city hosting its first NRL game since Weissel Oval was used in 1998.
Originally the Raiders were looking to bring a game here this season, but a deal was unable to be struck in time.
Conkey believes having a NRL game would be a huge boost to the city.
“Moreover an NRL premiership game in Wagga would showcase the city’s fantastic facilities and draw a large crowd from all over the Riverina,” Conkey said.
The city showed its appetite for rugby league of the highest quality when there was a sell out crowd for the City-Country match in 2015.
Equex Centre has continued to develop since then, with a new scoreboard fitted just last month.
There has also been an extension to the eastern hill.
Wagga Rugby League chairman Warren Barclay expects the capacity has now expanded to fit around 13,000 people.
Conkey said there will still need to be more done at the ground to host an NRL game, particularly around facilities for broadcasting.
However Barclay believes a game would justify the hard work of volunteers to actually build the ground.
“It would be great for the broader community and justification for all the hard work volunteers have put into the ground over the years,” Barclay said.
The Raiders were the away team for a clash with St George Illawarra at Mudgee earlier this season and Conkey is confident Wagga would be a good fit to hold a NRL game.
“They went to Mudgee not that long and had nearly 10,000 spectators at that match, which was good, Bathurst has regular NRL matches so we are certainly having a close look at the situation here,” he said.
In his research Conkey said the cost seems to vary between cities depending on the financial input from private enterprise.
“We need to have a lot at that and the Centre of Excellence and the business case that has been put to them to assist places such as Wagga,” he said.
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