'Nothing will stop Beyonce' if stadium cap lifted
Premier Chris Minns says missing out on big names like Beyonce is costing NSW up to $60m per year. (AP PHOTO)
Nothing will stop Beyonce and other big-name global artists from touring in Sydney once long-standing caps on live events in the inner-city entertainment precinct are lifted, the NSW premier says.
Sporting groups have flagged concerns that raising the annual cap on concerts at Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) will see them evicted and playing on poor grounds.
"We're a major international city - we can host a football game and a rock concert in the same week," Chris Minns told reporters on Friday as he fielded questions from reporters about the complaints.
"Nothing will stop Beyonce's tour if she wants to come to Sydney, I guarantee you that.
"There's more than one stadium."
Mr Minns noted tenant clubs had contractual arrangements in place for stadiums in Australia's most populous city.
But he said he had no reason to think it would be logistically difficult to increase the number of events, particularly at the $828 million SFS.
"The bottom line here is you can't put close to a billion dollars worth of infrastructure for the people of NSW and then deny the people of this state access to the same infrastructure," Mr Minns said.
"We need to be able to share these big sporting facilities and I'm confident that we can do it."
Venues NSW, which operates the SCG, SFS and most other major stadia in NSW, is seeking approval from the planning minister to lift the cap.
It could be lifted as soon as October.
When asked whether the approval and planning process would be done for Beyonce's next trip Down Under, Mr Minns said he was confident.
"I'm sure we can. But I'll report back on the timeline," he said.
Recent negotiations for SFS to host Beyonce's upcoming world tour fell over after the venue was unable to overcome issues from long-standing noise complaints.
Lifting the concert cap to 20 per year could bring in an additional $1.3 billion for NSW businesses across the lifetime of the stadium.
The restriction has meant that Venues NSW has been unable to host some international artists, such as Beyonce, the Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi and Billy Joel.
Each international artist is estimated to bring in between $5m and $7.5m per show of economic benefit to NSW, supporting thousands of jobs.
The cap was costing the NSW economy between $40 to $60 million a year, Mr Minns earlier said.
Australian Associated Press
