Bold plan for sport stadium above Sydney’s Central Station

A 45,000-seat sporting stadium that would sit above Sydney’s Central Station has been pitched to the NSW Government as a bold vision for the city’s CBD.

Architecture firm Bates Smart has put a proposal to the government that would see a stadium built over the Central Railyards to create a more accessible sporting attraction than Sydney’s current offerings – Allianz Stadium and ANZ Stadium.

Under the proposal, Moore Park would eventually be returned to parkland after demolishing Allianz Stadium.

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The proposal flies in the face of the government’s decision in March to put $1.5 billion into major works at the two current major stadiums.

The government’s plan will see Allianz Stadium knocked down and rebuilt, at a cost of $730 million, while ANZ Stadium will be refurbished and reconfigured into a 70,000-seat rectangular layout, costing more than $800 million.

But Bates Smart director Philip Vivian says building a stadium in the heart of the city makes far more sense and is in line with what other cities are doing worldwide.

“What is it that makes stadiums in this day and age? It’s the idea of really embedding a stadium in a city, where it becomes an urban spectacle,” Vivian told ABC Radio.

“We came up with the idea of putting the stadium over Central Railyards, which is one of the most transport-connected nodes in the whole state.”

Vivian says the design would see none of Central Station’s historic buildings demolished.

It is understood that the idea has been met with a cold response from the NSW Government, which is the committed to upgrading the two current stadiums.