Australian National Rugby League (NRL) club Canterbury Bulldogs will move home games to Bankwest Stadium during the redevelopment of its current home ANZ Stadium, while the club has also signed a three-year deal to play an annual match in Perth, the club’s CEO Andrew Hill recently announced.
With work on ANZ Stadium due to start after next year’s State of Origin match in Sydney, the Bulldogs will seek to stage as many home games as possible before builders move in and have struck an agreement to play at Bankwest Stadium from then on, according to NRL.com. The deal makes Canterbury the fourth NRL club to call the new Bankwest Stadium home after Parramatta, Wests Tigers and South Sydney.
As a result, the Bulldogs will play 10 home matches in Sydney next season. Any additional home matches in Sydney that take place after the start of the ANZ Stadium re-development to be played at Bankwest Stadium. In addition, have agreed to make Perth’s HBF Park their home ground for three games over the next three years.
“The Western Australian Government has been passionate about bringing top-level rugby league to Perth and has sought to form a partnership with the Bulldogs in order to provide a platform to showcase our great club,” Hill said in a letter to Bulldogs members.
“With the enormous success of the State of Origin match in Perth last month, this is a fantastic opportunity for the Bulldogs to showcase themselves in a market that has embraced the game of rugby league and we thank the Western Australian Government for choosing the Bulldogs to be part of this opportunity moving forward. It also means that Bulldogs fans can next season look forward to 10 home matches in Sydney, in addition to our staging of home matches at Magic Round and in Perth,” he added.
South Sydney, the other NRL club which calls ANZ Stadium home, last month announced they would also play home games at Bankwest Stadium along with three matches at regional centres while the venue was under redevelopment.
Work on ANZ Stadium will begin after the 2020 State of Origin series, in which the venue will host one game. Although a date has yet to be decided for the fixture, The Australian newspaper said work is expected to commence in June, meaning the NRL will need to find a new host for its grand finals in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
ANZ Stadium will retain hosting rights for the grand final until 2042 as revised plans were announced in March 2018 to redevelop the venue instead of demolishing and rebuilding it.
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